Page 68 of Racing Towards Destiny
The party continued after the champagne-soaked podium presentations, and on into the night back at the hotel.
It wasn’t until well after midnight that Isaac, Vince, Catarina, and Anna sat at a table together, about to wind the night down and return to their rooms, when Angel strolled over to the table and flopped into an empty chair.
“That was the best race I’ve ever seen,” he said, slurring as he thumped his scotch onto the table. He turned to Isaac. “How did you know you could make that last move?”
Isaac stayed where he was, leaning back with his arm around Anna’s shoulders. “I woke up this morning and knew I could win.”
“Like it was destiny,” said Vince with a nod. “I’ve felt that, but not this morning. I think I knew the entire race, that if I screwed up even once, the race was yours.”
“Destiny. I like the sound of that.” Isaac shared a look with Anna, who smiled. She felt like a part of his destiny, too. He stood. “Time for us to say goodnight.” He smiled at Vince. “Thanks,” he said to his brother. “For everything.”
With that, he and Anna left together, arms wrapped around one another.
EPILOGUE
Anna leaned back in her corner office, massive windows on two sides letting in ample natural light and overlooking the seared Spanish countryside. It had been hot this June. She sent her most recent chapters to the printer, collected them, and stapled them together, ready for tomorrow. Setting them beside her computer, she clicked off the background music.
This space had been designed for her, and she loved it. Her grandmother’s flower paintings hung on the front wall, and the two interior walls were lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves that she spent her leisure time trying to fill.
Isaac had surprised her over the winter with a trip to Seattle to retrieve her book collection, which he’d asked her lawyer to box up and add to the storage locker with her keepsakes from her grandmother, including her antique glass collection. It was so like him that he’d remembered her off-hand comment about her special belongings. He’d also purchased and refinished a solid walnut cabinet with a glass front that he’d placed in the dining room of their new house, where she displayed her colored glass.
On special occasions, they used her beautiful dishes, and she was ecstatic to feel connected to her grandmother again. This was a life her grandmother would have been overjoyed for her to have.
Anna stretched, not quite ready to get up yet, listening to the faint sounds of Isaac and his teenage students on the propertybelow, their dirt bikes slowing as they returned to the shed for the night. She often timed her day of workshops and writing to end at the same time Isaac finished, so they could spend the evening together.
It had taken Anna six months to find an agent to work with for her completed first novel,A Spell of Dance and Silence,but she’d just submitted her revisions, and her agent hoped they would soon find a publisher. Anna was excited to think that soon she might be a published author—a dream come true. She’d spent the months querying while they planned their small wedding for the break in the racing season, coming up in three weeks.
After all, they needed Vince, the best man, to be available, as well as his not-so-secret girlfriend, Catarina, who was Anna’s maid of honor. Vince and Catarina had surprised everyone, except Anna, through the spring when they’d revealed they were a couple. She’d had her suspicions that the two of them had been more than friends for some time.
In March, when the new MotoGP season had started, Isaac had been restless, as everyone had expected, but only a little. He’d trained with Vince over the winter, pushing his brother to peak fitness again, but never regretted his decision to retire. After all, he insisted there was more to life than racing.
Spring races in Jerez, Barcelona, and Portimão had been easy to travel to, as had a race weekend in Germany where they’d watched Vince defend his title, making him an eighteen-time ‘King of the Ring.’ In the overall championship, he was in a dogfight with Luka for the title. Anna had a feeling that Luka might win this one. The kid had been on fire, almost unstoppable, and for once, Vince had his own distractions, though from what he said, he’d never been happier.
Anna had just finished the draft of a new story, one about a woman who had accidentally wished herself back in time fiveyears where she had a chance to make different choices. For herself, she no longer wished to be anywhere or any time else. Her life with Isaac was everything she once had dreamed of, and more. She no longer felt like a passenger on her journey through life, but a driver who no longer wished for any life but her own.
