Dear Happy (Formula 1 - Daniel Ricciardo)

SEVEN

Morning sunshine.

I smiled to myself as I read the message. It might have been short and simple, but it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Morning, have a good drive.

I typed my reply, placing my phone on the side as I started to prepare my bag for a day at the track. It was Thursday, which for George and I meant a full day of media. The day before had been a late start with George running in the afternoon, and Friday (tomorrow) would be a full day of running.

If it had been anyone else messaging me, I probably would have waited a little while to reply; keep them in suspense a bit. But this wasn't a normal situation, I knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. Deciding not to reply was therefore a bit of a dick move. He didn't need to be thinking about why I hadn't replied yet. Not when he was about to get in a car and drive at 300kph.

*

By the time I was driving us back to the hotel that evening, George was definitely ready for another drive, the day of media more than enough for him.

"If I get asked when Mercedes want to give me a seat one more time, I swear I'm going to snap," he sighed, leaning back into his seat as I wound my way through the city.

I stayed quiet, we both knew I had nothing more to add to that topic, I understood his frustrations. He needed someone to either retire or be sacked, and neither of those looked likely at the moment. His time would come whether it was when Mercedes finally stood by their promises or if it was with another team. George would be back at the front; I knew he would be. His talent was far too good to waste.

"How was your day? Been keeping an eye on the car for me?" he asked. I could see him messing up his hair out of the corner of my eye.

"Not bad, just hung out in the garage for most of it. Nicky didn't put her in any walls, car looks better than last year." I shrugged. It had been a pretty chilled day for me, mostly spent in the garage watching the engineers and mechanics, getting a feel for the new faces within the team. Nicholas Latifi, George's new rookie teammate had been in the car all day, putting in a nice string of long runs.

"Well that's not hard," he snorted. To the media George was fully behind the team and his car, but between the two of us he was free to show his frustration.

A phone vibrated in the centre console of the car. "Do you want me to check that?" George asked, already picking up the phone and glancing at the home screen, even before I'd nodded casually in response.

"Oh what's this...." I didn't need to look to see him smirking in my direction.

"So Dan.... New boyfriend?" he started, pausing in order to see if I would elaborate, to which I did not. "Is asking what you're up to this evening."

"Not my boyfriend," I rolled my eyes at my younger brother, keeping them firmly trained on the road ahead.

"Are you sure about that?" he smirked, "Sounds pretty keen on you Sis."

"Stop scrolling through my messages. So does the fact I saw you drinking a coffee with your new engineer earlier mean you're now dating?" I hit back. George had of course been sat in the hospitality area with his whole senior engineering team, MC now a part of that as his assistant race engineer. This was an easy way to defect his interest in my relationship status, but I didn't quite expect the response I got.

Silence.

He completely let it go. Was I missing something?

Although, at least it shut him up.