Page 94 of Dream Chaser

“I think the rest of us can go sit,” Asher said. “Look, croqueta! I’ve always wanted to try one.”

Alejandro shoved him. Rys watched the exchange with a smile.

“Hands off the World Champion,” Asher said, laughing. “Nova, come here. You should be in the picture.”

As I stepped forward, my phone buzzed. A glance at the screen, and my heartbeat stuttered.

My mother.

I’d missed several calls from her. Had something happened?

“Sorry.” I forced a smile. “I need to take this.”

“No problem,” Kaia said. “We’ll take another photo when you’re back.”

I slipped out of the hall, then out of the hotel.

A minute later, I was on the beach.

The full moon cast the Mediterranean Sea in a silver, otherworldly glow. Water lapped at the shore, stopping inches from my feet. I inhaled the briny air, eyes closed.

My phone buzzed. The calm shattered.

I pressed the cell to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”

“Finally. I’ve been calling you all day.”

It was only eleven a.m. in Millford. The knot in my stomach tightened at her accusatory tone. “I’m on a work trip in Spain. We’ve been busy.”

And our racer just became the World Champion—not that it mattered to her. She’d never even asked me about my job.

“Too busy to answer your mother’s calls?”

“Did anything happen?” I asked, ignoring her attempt at making me feel guilty.

“It’s about Thanksgiving,” she said. “Just wanted to make sure you’ll be home.”

Home was my cozy apartment in Emerport. Not the house whose door she’d closed in my face when I’d been at my lowest. After how she’d treated me, I had no desire to spend the holiday with her. Not that I could, anyway. Flying home only to return for Asher’s award ceremony a little over a week later would be a logistical nightmare. Not to mention expensive.

“Like I said, I’m on a work trip. I won’t be back until December. I can’t just fly back and forth whenever I want. I have commitments.”

“Commitments? Doesn’t your boss know that for a woman, her family always comes first? What kind of company makes its employees work on Thanksgiving?”

“The international kind,” I said, my patience fraying. “They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Spain.”

Alejandro had given everyone in Emerport a few days off. He’d never raised objections if anyone asked to work from home, either. I would’ve gladly spent the holiday with my family, but did I even have a family now?

Not really.

Family was love and support. My relationship with my mother lacked both.

My mother sighed deeply, like she was already tired of this conversation. “I’m sure someone else can do your job there. I need you here. Besides, I’m cooking for all of us this year.”

“The two of us, you mean.”

“I invited Donna and Preston,” she said, not a trace of remorse in her casual tone. “He needs something good now that he unfairly lost the election.”

An invisible knife twisted in my chest. She invited him? After everything he’d done? I tightened my grip on the phone. My jagged laugh echoed on the quiet beach. “You’re kidding, right? Did you know he wants half of Grandma’s house because he started renovations I didn’t even want?”