Nicky paced between the ranch's kitchen table and the front windows for the eighth time to the amusement of Cade, who raised an eyebrow at his rider, but wisely said nothing.

"Shut up," Nicky said anyway, knowing exactly what Cade was going to say.

Eager to see your trainer much, there, Whirlwind?

Nicky had to admit that after weeks apart, he was eager to see Dixie again – only to show her how much progress he'd made, of course.

Nothing more.

"I said nothing," Cade said archly, and Nicky resisted the urge to deck him, instead spinning on his heel at the sound of a car coming up the drive.

The two men practically raced to the front door, just in time to greet Dixie as she emerged from the back of the Town Car.

With a grin, she pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head. "Missed me bad, huh?"

**

"Hi," Nicky said shyly when Dixie joined him in the family gym and hour later after a quick shower and wardrobe change from the plane ride in from California. "I, uh, it's nice to have you back."

"It's nice to be back," Dixie said with a smile. "After all the wide open spaces, I found California a bit..."

"Claustrophobic?"

"Exactly."

Nicky nodded. "I feel that way about pretty much everywhere that's not here."

"So," Dixie said, pulling her hair up into a ponytail. "How have the workouts I left you been going? How do you feel?"

Nicky groaned inwardly. Yes, he wanted to talk about his progress, but he was hoping for a little more... a little more Dixie before it went into shop talk. Instead, he bucked up and answered her. "I feel good. I feel stronger."

"Okay, then," she said with an easy smile. "Prove it, slick."

**

Cade was the one pacing like a would-be father in the emergency room when Dixie joined him on the front porch a long while later. "Well?" He asked eagerly.

Dixie sighed, and then sat down on one of the hand hewn wooden rocking chairs. "Overall, he's fine. He's been working, I can tell that, but..."

"But?"

"The mobility in that ankle is still not a hundred percent, his leg is still weaker than the other, and if I had my way, his core and back would be stronger than they are now. He hasn't been slacking, he's just... he's still just knitting himself back together internally, as it were."

Cade nodded, sitting down beside her. "Okay, then. Thanks."

Dixie nodded, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry – I didn't want to work him any harder and risk re-injury."

"I understand," Cade said. "But now it's time for you and I to have 'the talk'."

"I already know where babies come from, Cade," Dixie said with a smile, her eyes still shut.

Cade stuck his tongue out at her, though she couldn't see it.

"I saw that," Dixie said without twitching a muscle.

Cade laughed outright at that. "Listen, seriously, come with us."

"Cade..."

"It's in your blood, Dix. You'd love it. See the world, get back into the race groove, all expenses paid and paid well on top of that. But more than that..."

"More than that?" Dixie asked, cracking open one eyelid.

"More than that, he trusts you," Cade said softly. "And that is not a man who trusts well, or easily."

"You think?"

"That he trusts you?" Cade echoed. "Um, yeah. Anyone else working with him that closely that he didn't like, respect or trust would have been thrown out on his or her ass a long time ago. You, he couldn't wait to see and work with again."

He couldn't wait to see her?

Dixie shook away the errant thought and focused again on the conversation at hand.

"For how long?" Dixie asked, skipping to the end of the page, as it were.

"Until he's better. Until you're sick of it. Or until the end of the season, if you would be wiling to work with all the Team 76 guys as the team trainer. They all need conditioning for what they do."

"If I agree to this crazy ass plan, and that's a big if," Dixie said, "where and when do we start?"

**

Dixie actually felt tears spring to her eyes when she heard the engine turn over for the first time, heard the rev on the Honda, and saw Nicky flick his facemask down and aim for the exit chute from pit road that led onto the track in Qatar.

It was six days later, and she was standing in the Middle East, in the blazing sun, watching testing on a new bike, on new tires, and in some parts of his body, anyway, a new rider.

Her blood sang with the scream of the engines around her, at the wind whipped up by bikes flying by, at the smiles and high fives of Nicky's team.

She missed this. She so missed this.

And she knew, without a second thought, that she had made the right decision to join the traveling circus for however long she was allowed to ride.

Christ, she was an official trainer for one of the most elite teams in motorcycle racing, and for one of the most elite, respected riders.

And to think that only a few short weeks ago, she'd been mired in California, working on the sciatic nerve of an aging Hollywood agent.

But that was before Nicky Gamble wrecked a bike and tumbled right into her path.

Dixie Colson was back at the track, and her heart screamed with the happy knowledge of it.