Follow Your Star, Jennifer Bohnet [best fiction novels to read txt] 📗

‘I’m not hungry,’ Nanette said.

‘Suit yourself. You can talk to me while I eat.’

Two places were laid on the mahogany dining-table – crystal glasses, silver cutlery and candles in gold candelabra gave a gentle glow to the cabin. Champagne nestled in a silver ice bucket, while a CD of guitar music was playing softly in the background.

‘Just like the old days when we were together,’ Zac said.

‘Hardly,’ Nanette snapped.

Zac poured a glass of champagne and offered it to her. When Nanette shook her head and turned away he raised the glass in a mock salute before taking a long drink and then topping up the glass.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Nanette asked. ‘Why aren’t you still in America?’

‘Only five drivers were going to trust their tyres enough to line up on the grid – as none of them is anywhere near me in the championship I decided I could boycott the race too without it affecting my title chances,’ he answered. ‘So, as I’ve got some urgent business to sort out here, I caught the first available flight back.’

He helped himself to a portion of smoked salmon.

‘Vanessa is due back soon, isn’t she? Thought anymore about working with me on Vacances au Soleil? We could be a good team again. I’ll even make you a director if you want. I’m hoping Mathieu is going to join the company too in the near future.’

Nanette, about to protest that Mathieu definitely wouldn’t be joining him and that she knew Vacances au Soleil was a front for a money laundering operation, stopped. Zac didn’t yet know the part Mathieu was about to play in his downfall.

‘The answer is still no, Zac. I won’t work for you again.’ She paused. ‘Besides, I’m not entirely convinced you’re not lying to me when you say it’s a legal business.’

Zac eyed her over the top of his champagne flute.

‘You lied to me – to everyone – three years ago, about the accident, didn’t you, Zac?’ she said, watching his face for a reaction to her words.

‘I wasn’t driving that night, was I, Zac? What I don’t understand is why you lied? Why you ruined my life?’

In the silence that followed her words, Zac impassively forked some food into his mouth.

Nanette felt her temper rising. He could he be so indifferent to what she was saying, to her feelings? He didn’t care. Had he ever really cared?

‘I remember driving to the restaurant,’ Nanette continued softly. ‘You offered to drive back so I could enjoy the wine with my meal. All evening, apart from a single glass of champagne to toast my birthday, you drank water.’

Nanette took a deep breath.

‘I remember you getting into the driver’s seat when we left the restaurant. So, why after the accident, did you deliberately make it look as though I’d been driving? You knew the wine and the champagne I’d drunk during the evening would have put me way over the limit, whereas you were sober.’ Nanette held her breath waiting for his reaction.

Zac sighed before finally looking her in the eye.

‘Couldn’t you just see the headlines in the Nice Matin – “Formula 1 Ace charged with dangerous driving”? So, when the pompiers arrived and assumed you were the driver as it was your car, I decided not to enlighten them.’

‘It was very convenient for you then, that I lost my memory for so long, wasn’t it? Couldn’t speak up and set the story straight.’

Zac didn’t reply.

‘Is that why you didn’t come near me again? Why you had me airlifted back to the UK? You were afraid that I would suddenly broadcast to the world that I wasn’t actually driving when the car aquaplaned. It was a famous racing driver who had taken the coward’s way out!’

‘I did pull you out of the wreckage before it burst into flames. I deserve some credit for that, don’t I?’ Zac asked quietly.

Nanette glared at him. ‘What you did afterward was despicable, Zac.’

‘The media would have crucified me, Nanette. I was at a critical point of my career – just changing teams – I didn’t need the wrong sort of publicity. You on the other hand’ – he shrugged before giving her a sardonic smile – ‘who was going to really care whether you lost your licence? You were just my girlfriend, no one special in the eyes of the world.’

As he stared her down, defying her to argue with him, Nanette knew that any lingering love she had once felt for Zac Ewart had just been bludgeoned to death by his callous words.

‘Tomorrow I am going to start clearing my name,’ she said defiantly.

‘Why bother after all this time? Besides, who are people going to believe: a world-famous racing driver or a one-time office girl?’ He hesitated before adding quietly, ‘I did try once, Nanette, to set the record straight, but by then the police had done their paperwork and it was too late.’

‘If you had any decency left you’d come with me and make them acknowledge the truth.’

Nanette gazed reflectively at Zac. Life on the race track was a serious business, not to be taken lightly, but away from the circuit Zac had always had this cavalier attitude to life. It had been one of the things she’d found difficult to accept about him. Jean-Claude, she knew, would never have deserted her in her hour of need. That Jean-Claude would always be there for her, she didn’t doubt for a single second.

‘Nanette, what are you thinking? You’re miles away. I remember you getting that dreamy look when we were together. Are you thinking about us?’

Nanette shook her head. ‘Oh no, Zac. I’m not taking a trip down memory lane with you. I’m thinking about my future and you are staying firmly in the past.’

‘Have you met someone else?’

‘Yes,’ Nanette said simply. ‘Someone very special. Someone who truly loves me.’

Nanette didn’t understand the pained look that crossed Zac’s face, but she did realize that he clearly hadn’t been