Road Tripping (4 page)

 “They’re
looking at us,” Ethan murmured, his eyes still soft with that
something
.
“I’m going to do something so we don’t look suspicious, so try not to get all
upset about it.”

She had no idea
what he was going to do. She was too distracted by the memories.

So she was
stunned when he raised a hand to the back of her head and then leaned down to
kiss her.

She’d never
kissed Ethan before, and she had no desire to kiss him now.

He was smug and
obnoxious and infuriating, and he’d brought nothing but trouble into her life.

She didn’t pull
away, though. At first, she was so surprised she couldn’t. Then, when his mouth
started to move against hers and he eased her closer against him, she didn’t
really want to pull away.

It felt good.
Amazing. He was a really good kisser. He was
Ethan
. And she wanted to
kiss him back.

When she
realized that she was genuinely responding, she sucked in a breath and tried to
pull away.

“Don’t,” Ethan
murmured against her mouth, holding her head in place with his hand. “They’re
walking toward us.”

So she couldn’t
pull away like she wanted—since kissing him was a better option than being
arrested. But her heart was pounding painfully, and she fisted her hands in his
old t-shirt to channel her surging nerves.

“Not in the
middle of the parking lot, kids,” one of the policemen said as he passed. “At
least make it back to your car.”

They broke
apart, and Ashley heard herself giggling as the anxiety eased into relief.

“Sorry, sir,”
Ethan said, much more compliantly than he would ever respond under normal
circumstances.

So they returned
to the car, which the police obviously hadn’t flagged as being stolen.

Ashley, feeling
an intense wash of guilt and confusion, rubbed at her mouth with the back of
her hand. She shouldn’t have liked kissing him so much. Having feelings like
that would throw her whole life into a mess.

“Sorry,” Ethan
said, obviously noticing the gesture. “I wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t
been an emergency.”

“I know. I
didn’t say anything, did I?”

He didn’t
reply, and Ashley was so embarrassed—thinking that he might have noticed she
was an enthusiastic participant in the fake kissing—that she pretended to take a
nap.

***

Sometime in the middle of her
fake nap, Ashley thought of something. She popped her head up. “Don’t you have
any real friends you can ask for help from?”

“What?” Ethan
was clearly taken off-guard by her question.

Ashley made an
impatient noise at his slowness. “I mean, can’t you call a friend and ask him
to wire you money or get the bad guys off your back or something? Where are all
your friends?”

He looked
momentarily awkward. “I’m not sure who I can trust.”

Ethan was being
serious, Ashley realized. He didn’t have a single person he could trust
completely to help him. He’d surrounded himself by losers and crooks, and this
was one of the consequences. A lot of people in the county liked him, but they
might like Buster Jones even more. He couldn’t trust anyone. She couldn’t even
imagine living that way.

She started to
regret bringing it up at all. She didn’t like Ethan, but she hadn’t intended to
lay out his isolation for all to see. Peeking over at him, she tried to read
his expression. But his eyes were shuttered, and his face was detached. She
felt a strange sensation grow in the pit of her stomach—couldn’t believe she
was feeling it for Ethan.

But she was.
Feeling it. Tenderness.

“I hope you
aren’t pitying me.” His voice was as smooth and cold as ice, and his eyes had
narrowed as he watched her.

Ashley was not
going to tell him the truth. It certainly wouldn’t do for her to admit to
having sweet and tender feelings for Ethan—who had gotten himself into his own
mess, after all.

“Pity you?” she
asked, pleased that her voice only reflected astonishment. “Why would I pity
you for that? It’s your own fault you don’t have anyone you can trust.”

Ethan’s jaw
fell open. “My fault? How is it my fault?”

“Well, you’re
the one who dropped all your old friends to hang out with moonshiners. What did
you expect?”

He glanced at
her quickly before he looked away. “Good point.”

She couldn’t
tell if he was upset or not. “Plus, if you wouldn’t be so smug and obnoxious,
people might be able to stand being around you.”

Ethan chuckled
at this. It transformed his face in a startling and compelling way.

She enjoyed the
sound of it and the unexpected warmth on his face, until she realized it was
doing strange things to her insides.

So she
pretended to go to sleep once more.

***

They had been driving for about
two hours when they reached the outskirts of Charleston, West Virginia.

“I’m getting hungry,”
Ashley said, looking at the road signs advertising various restaurants.

Ethan shook his
head. “It’s not even lunch time yet.”

“Well, we
didn’t have breakfast. I have to have some sustenance if I’m going to be stuck
all day and night in this car with you.”

“It will have
to be inexpensive. We can’t waste all our money on filling your infinite
belly.”

Ashley let out
a squeak of outrage and peered down at her stomach. It wasn’t perfectly flat,
but it looked pretty good. Her body certainly went in at the middle—a lot of
guys liked her shape.

Ethan was
shaking his head again and evidently reading her mind. “I wasn’t insulting your
body. Just your appetite.”

“Oh,” Ashley
said, feeling ridiculously relieved. “Anyway, I’m used to eating cheaply. It’s
not like we’re rolling in money, you know. Especially now.”

“What do you
mean, especially now?”

“Especially
after the thing with Mark. It was really hard on our family, including on our
bank account.” She felt a surge of resentment again towards Ethan, overwhelming
any soft feelings she’d had before. “We can’t afford million-dollar boats, you
know.”

“That boat
didn’t cost a million dollars.” His voice was natural, but his expression was
stiff. She hoped he felt terrible, remembering what he’d done to Mark, who had
always loved him.

“That’s not the
point. The point is you’ve obviously made plenty of money in a really horrible
way, while you’ve hurt a lot of people—including us. And then you act like we
don’t exist—even Mark, who was supposed to be your best friend.”

“You think it
would be a good idea for you and your brother to hang out with me for the last
year?” His tone sounded a little strange now, like it was edged with something
he couldn’t express.

“No. Of course
not. But that should be our decision. Not yours. You and Mark were friends
since you were four years old. Don’t you even miss him?”

She missed her
brother. A lot. And she missed Ethan too. At least, the Ethan she used to know.

Ethan was
looking at the road and not at her now. “Yeah. I do.”

Her heart
skipped a beat at the poignant note in his tone. “So why did you drop him that
way?”

He opened his
mouth but didn’t say anything immediately.

She waited for
his response, her heart again pounding wildly, her breath coming out in strange
little gasps. It felt like something was about to change the nature of her
world, but she didn’t know what it was.

Held her
breath. Waited.

And waited some
more.

“Ethan?” she
prompted sharply, irritation rising once more like a tide.

He was studying
his rearview mirror. “There’s an unmarked police car behind us,” he muttered.

Ashley made a
choked sound of frustration, “Of course there is. They’re coming to arrest us.
You stole a fucking car!”

As if in
response to her words, the blue lights started flashing behind them and the
siren blared.

“Damn it!” Ethan
exclaimed, slammed his foot on the gas, and swerved off onto the exit that they
had almost passed.

Ashley moaned
and laid her head back against the seat. “Another car chase. This is the second
one in two days.”

Ethan ignored
her and concentrated on driving, even though he couldn’t possibly know his way
around the city. He sped through the streets of Charleston, taking random turns
and darting out in front of traffic.

There was only
one police car on their tail at the moment, but Ashley had no doubt that soon
there would be more. Maybe they’d make the evening news.

Ashley cringed
a few times but managed to hold herself together pretty well until Ethan turned
the Ford the wrong way onto a one-way road.

“Ethan!” She
hid her eyes as two lanes of oncoming traffic advanced toward them. Ethan moved
into the right lane (the left lane for the traffic going the correct
direction), and three cars swerved frantically out of the way.

The Ford was
about to be trapped. Traffic had pretty much stopped in all lanes, so there was
no way to get through. And the police car was directly behind them.

Off to jail, Ashley
thought. She wouldn’t even have good hair for her mug shot.

But before she
knew what was happening, Ethan had veered into a narrow alley, screeching the
tires with the suddenness of the turn.

Unfortunately,
the police car was still behind them.

“We need to find
a big parking lot,” Ethan said curtly, steering them out of the alley and onto
a main road. Ashley heard squeals behind them, as drivers tried to slam on
their brakes.

Not even asking
what Ethan had in mind, she just kept her eyes out for the requested parking
lot. After Ethan made a few more turns and caused a few more near-collisions,
she spotted something.

“Mall. To the
left,” she said briefly.

Ethan moved
over into the left lane, without even checking to see if the lane was clear,
and ran a red light into the mall parking lot.

The police car
tried the same maneuver, but didn’t manage it so easily. So, as the cop tried
to extricate himself from a minor traffic tangle, they were able to get a very
small head start.

Ethan was going
about 60mph around the mall. As he circled, he barked out a series of orders to
Ashley.

Under normal
circumstances, she would have objected to his bossiness, but since this was a
crisis, she paid attention as carefully as she could.

“I don’t think
they got a good look at our faces.” He tore off his camp shirt and said, “Wipe
every surface you can find with this. My fingerprints are in the system.”

She did as he
said, wiping the dash, console, and door and then passing it over to him so he
could wipe the driver’s door and steering wheel as he kept driving.

He used the
shirt to hold the steering wheel and said, “Grab me that hat from the back.”

Ashley did as
he directed.

“I’m going to
pull into a space. As soon as we stop, you need to jump out. We’ll have about
thirty seconds before the cop catches up. As soon as we’re out and away from
the car, we’ll act like a normal couple going shopping. We’ll try to blend into
the crowd.” Ethan turned down one of the parking rows in front of a department
store.

The cop was
still a good distance behind them. Maybe Ethan’s somewhat tenuous plan could
actually work.

Ashley
unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed the door handle, preparing to jump out as
fast as she could.

Then she wished
she still had her seatbelt on when Ethan careened into an empty parking space
without really slowing down. He screeched to a halt.

As soon as he
slammed it into park, Ashley leapt out of the car, taking a few sprinting steps
between the parked cars into the next row. Ethan was right behind her, now
wearing the cowboy hat to hide his distinctively reddish hair.

The police car
came roaring up, and people making their way back to their cars with shopping
bags all gaped as the cop stopped in front of the stolen Ford. The now empty Ford.

The police
officer got out of his car and peered around at the crowded parking lot. Ashley
thought she might pass out with fright as his eyes came to rest on her.

Ethan put his
arm around her, pulling her against his side. “Let’s hope they don’t find a
fingerprint. Stop looking so scared. I don’t think he can recognize us. Act
like we’re one of those couples who go on romantic dates to the mall.” He
leaned over and gave her an impersonal peck on the lips. “Your hair looks quite
remarkable today, honey.”

She knew an
insult when she heard one.

As they kept
walking toward the department store, Ashley forced herself not to hit him and
instead tried to play her part of the act. She reached up, patted Ethan on the
cheek, and gazed at him in a very mushy way. Smiling tenderly, she said, “You
look absolutely ridiculous in that cowboy hat, my love.”

Except for a
few grumbled words from Ethan, they made it into the mall without incident.

***

Since they were now without a
car, Ethan finally broke down and followed Ashley’s advice. They were sitting in
the food court of the mall. Ethan was searching the newspaper for very cheap
cars for sale, since they didn’t want to get caught in a stolen car again. Ashley
was happily munching on his French fries. She had already finished her own.

“Hey,” Ethan said,
finally noticing what she was doing and swatting her hand away. “Those are
mine.”

Ashley snatched
one more fry. “Any cheap cars for sale?”

“There are a
couple of possibilities. I’ll make some calls. And we’ll hope whatever car we
end up with can actually make it to South Dakota.”

Ashley stood
up. “You make the calls. Do you think you can spare a little of your cash so I
can go into that drugstore and get a toothbrush and some other stuff? This is
turning out to be a longer trip than we’d anticipated, and we can’t go
indefinitely without some basic necessities.”