The first time she fell for him must have been at the race at the Heartland Motor Speedway. She had placed fifth, her worst race of the season. She was driving away from a recent interview to the trailer lot when a few other Next-Gen racers, those of which she didn’t know very well, gossiped loudly as she passed, with the intention of being overheard.

“Ramirez hasn’t been doing so well lately.”

“Yeah, there’s a reason why she’s the only girl in the Piston Cup right now.”

“Girls like her just can’t keep up with men.”

It took everything in her power not to burst into tears on the spot. And she probably would have, if Jackson hadn’t happened to overhear them as well.

“Ohh, so you’re all men, are you? Last time I checked, men insult other people to their faces. So go on then—”

Jackson revved up next to Cruz, just daring them to come forward with his eyes.

“—tell it to her face.”

The boys exchanged looks. They weren’t willing to go that far.

“Thanks,” she had told him after they scampered away.

“They’re not even in the top 10,” Jackson scoffed as he watched them leave.

It wasn’t much, but it did prove to her that he cared. That he cared for her, when it seemed he didn’t care for anyone but himself.

She wanted to know how he could be like that. So confident. He admitted he wasn’t as confident as he looked, but he was at least more self-assured than her. So he could impart some of that courage to her, even if it was in the form of crude demands to “Just be more confident, duh” or half-assed suggestions, because Jackson wasn’t too good at raising people up. But he’d get better at it. And the effort alone somehow helped.

Cruz was also relatively new to the racing scene, so she benefited from learning a few methods from Jackson, who was no longer a rookie himself. Methods that a veteran like Lightning wasn’t so aware of himself. And that was when she realized just how much of a talented racer Jackson really was. That he was a hard worker who very proud of his expertise. And though he was snarky and sarcastic, there was something charming about him. And that was when she fell for him a second time.

The third time was a little different.

—

The day was like any other day. They had just gotten done practicing at the local racetrack when Cruz decided, right then and there, she was going to tell him how she really felt. The trouble was, though, that she had no idea he felt the same way. As far as she knew, he perceived her in a solely platonic manner. And the very idea of Jackson Storm rejecting her feelings—brushing them off like they were nothing, laughing at her even—was enough to stall her engine. But she had to tell him. She was Cruz Ramirez after all—there wasn’t a challenge she refused to face.

It almost seemed like Jackson knew, because there was an tense mood in the air that neither of them could quite put their tire on. They idled awkwardly by the tunnel leading to the outside, like they were waiting for one of them to say goodbye first, but neither of them quite wanted to leave just yet.

“What?” Cruz asked suddenly, though Jackson hadn’t made a sound.

“What?”

“Did-did you—?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh…” Cruz shifted the dirt with her tire, refusing to meet Jackson’s gaze.

Jackson narrowed his eyes at her, sensing that something was up. “You’re acting weird, Ramirez…”

“Am—am I?” Cruz uttered a crazed kind of laugh. “HA! Ha ha…ha…”

Jackson watched her do this with cool composure. “Are you going to say something, then?”

Cruz tensed up. This was it. Would she go for it? “Uhhh…nope!”

Jackson continued to study her with an vaguely inquisitive look on his face, which made Cruz all the more nervous. He must have seen right through to her. His ability to read people was like none other.

“What is this, anyway?” he asked suddenly, giving her a quick up-and-down.

“What?”

“This?” He gestured to the track. “You and I hanging out and stuff. What are we—friends or something?”

Cruz was conflicted. Was this the moment? Would she finally tell him how she really viewed him? Did she really think of him as a friend?

“….no.”

Cruz observed the most crestfallen look flash across Jackson’s face. It was akin to what she saw at the Florida 500 when she had beaten him. But it was only for a split second. His face hardened just as quickly, and he gave a dry laugh.

“Ha. I knew it. You were just trying to siphon some racing secrets from me. Either that, or you think I’m some poor lost soul that needs guiding. Well I’m glad you told me, so I can stop wasting my time.”

Jackson swiveled around to exit through the tunnel, and she could have sworn she caught his features adopt a pained quality.

“Because… because it’s not even like I liked you anyway—”

“We’re more than just friends!”

Jackson halted in his tracks. He froze like this for a second, facing away from her, not moving an inch. He slowly turned back around, and there was that look again. He was trying to figure her out. “What?”

Cruz winced, and she drew back slightly, wishing she could have worded her feelings more eloquently. “At least—at least that’s how I see you.”

Jackson didn’t look surprised. It was like he knew all along. But he did appear… pensive. What? What was it that he was thinking? Was he considering the best way to turn her down without hurting her? But no, he was Jackson Storm after all. Maybe he was determining the perfect way to reject her as viciously as possible. Maybe—

He locked onto her with a steady gaze. “Why?”

Cruz thought only for a second, and then her words started spilling out faster than she could produce them. “Because… because you’re what I wish I could be! Confident. Sure of yourself. You never let anybody tell you you can’t do something, because you always believe that you can! You never stop working to get what you want. And you defended me at that one race, so maybe you do care. And you’re actually sort of nice sometimes, like how you’ve been helping me with my racing. And you’re really talented at that, and not to mention, you’re—you’re really attractive and—”

“Huh.”

Cruz glanced up and Jackson was taking this in with a calm but curious expression. ‘Huh’? What does that mean? Just tell me already! I don’t even care anymore if you don’t like me, I just need to know if you do or you don’t, the suspense is killing me!

“I wish I could be you.”

Cruz frowned. That wasn’t the response she was expecting. “Really?”

Jackson dipped his hood, training his eyes on the ground. “I would never say what I really felt about someone like you just did.”

Cruz didn’t know how to take this. Did she make a mistake by saying all that? But didn’t he just say he admired that about her?

A cryptic, faint smile spread across Jackson’s face. He still didn’t look her way. “Not to mention you know how to make everybody love you.”

“Oh… didn’t you tell me that at the—?”

“Including me.”

Cruz’s jaw dropped open, and her crankshaft started rotating at what seemed a million RPM. Was he saying what she thought he saying? She found it hard to breathe. Words no longer made sense to her. “Wha….WHAT?”

When she peered up at Jackson, she noticed that he still avoided her gaze. He pressed his lips together and moved them around aimlessly, something she noticed him doing whenever he had a lot on his mind. He shifted his weight back and forth, and Cruz realized that he must have been embarrassed. Embarrassed?! Jackson Storm: embarrassed??

The two of them bathed in that awkward silence for what seemed like hours. Cruz reckoned she would overheat from the very thought of him and her together. As more than friends. She wondered if Jackson was experiencing something similar. Then suddenly, both at once, they felt the need to speak the thoughts racing through their minds.

“Jackson—”

“Cruz—”

And then their eyes finally connected. And Cruz watched Jackson’s face take on such an innocent look of intrigue toward the future—their—future, that she felt herself grow warm with mirth. Then he relaxed into something mildly content. He gazed at her like he suddenly appreciated her for just being there. And it felt so out of place on someone like him, and yet… she believed it.

“Sooo…” Cruz’s eyes darted around. “What does that make us now?… Friends?”

“No.”

“Rivals?”

“No.”

“Then…?”

“Lovers.”

He wasn’t planning on telling her a thing. But the alcohol must have really done a number on him, because he found himself spilling out all his agonies on the table before he even knew what he was doing. “I’m not good enough either.” “Because I lost to you.” “I’m supposed to be the best because if I’m not what else is there?” “How is it so easy for you to make everybody love you but so easy for me to make everyone hate me?” And she heard it all, and she found something good in all that that he couldn’t even find in himself.

“But how?”

“I use to be a trainer. It was my job to find the best in people and use it to bring out their fullest potential.”

She told him she thought he was a hard worker, with strong drive and in fact, did have passion, but it had been switched off for so long that he swore the switch no longer existed. But she found that switch and turned it on for him again. And it was like light had come into his life for the very first time. She saw something in him that he didn’t even see in himself. And he was proud of what that was. So maybe, up until that point, he hadn’t loved himself as much as he thought he did. So step one was complete: Love yourself. Step two was the trickier part.

Jackson was aware for a while that Cruz had something of a crush on him. It wasn’t uncommon. He was a very famous, talented, attractive race car, after all. But Jackson had hordes of fan girls who perceived him the very same way. They were just in love with Jackson Storm: The Piston Cup racer and champion. Not Jackson: the young. Jackson: the lonely. Jackson: the lost. Just another resident of this here planet Earth trying to make it, but kept running the wrong way. Though that night at the bar led him to believe that maybe she did like him as Jackson, and not Jackson Storm. But even with that in mind, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down and allow her into his heart. No, Jackson Storm had very high standards. His significant other had to be perfect.

He hated to admit it, but she was kind of cute. Cute, but plain. Jackson Storm could have had dozens of other girls that looked just as good as her and better. So maybe it was the other qualities that imbued him with the unyielding belief that he hadn’t seen another girl more beautiful.

Her cackling laugh that he couldn’t stand at first which later became infectious. Her bubbly, positive, happy-go-lucky attitude that first gave him a headache, but then gave him a warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of his engine. He must have spent too much time with her, like her goodness was rubbing off on him or something. Because she was so kind and considerate that—by some act of God—he felt the urge to be the same.

Jackson couldn’t tell any difference in how he was acting outwardly, but he must have been at least a smidgen more friendly, because even Gale could tell that something was unusual about him.

“You seem happier today, Jackson!”

“Oh? I must be spending too much time with that Ramirez girl.”

But he didn’t say it like an insult. More like a fact of life.

Her love for life was alluring—something that he wanted more of. Maybe that’s why he found himself coming back to see her after every race. And then they started hanging out outside of racing. He taught her how to improve her racing line and how to be more confident, and she taught him how to feel something that was akin to love. Though he never fully came to terms with this emotion. Partly due to the fact that he was unfamiliar with it, and partly due to the fact that he was subconsciously suppressing it. But it all came to fruition once someone mentioned the possibility to him.

“There isn’t anything going on between you and Ramirez, right?” Ray had asked him.

Jackson snorted at the idea. “Me and Ramirez? Please.”

“Okay… I just wanted to make sure, since I don’t like there being any… distractions on the racetrack.” Ray watched him closely with these next words. “After all, the two of you have been spending a lot of time together, and you talk about her quite a bit…”

Jackson was still unfazed. “Right…” But then all those memories started rushing back to him. Of all the times he would spend with her—trying to act as cool and detached as possible, but somehow she would elicit a laugh from him every once in awhile in response to something silly she did or said. And when he would return to his empty mansion in the night he yearned for the next time he could see her again in the light. And when she smiled, she showed off her teeth, those of which were crooked near the edges, but there were someone endearing about that because Jackson’s own teeth were perfect in every way, and this little imperfection somehow made her feel more real, like he could reach out and touch her. Speaking of touch, sometimes he would accidentally brush his fender against hers and he would jolt away at the contact because how dare he get within even two inches of Cruz, and how dare he wish he could do it again, because there was something about that that made him feel whole, and he prayed to whatever gods were out there that Ray wasn’t catching any of this, but the epiphany was clear enough on his face.

“Shit… I’m in love with Cruz Ramirez…”