Road Tripping by Noelle Adams

think the
speed limit is 70,” she said, trying to speak over the mournful howl of the
engine.
    Ethan was
manfully chugging along at about 48mph. “I know,” he said through his teeth,
shooting her a lethal gaze, although her voice had been perfectly benign and
helpful. “This is as fast as this appalling excuse for a car will go.”
    “I thought
Thunderbirds were supposed to last forever.” She winced at a strange clattering
sound coming from somewhere beneath the car.
    Ethan let out a
pitiful sigh as a black Porsche went flying by them at twice their speed. “This
one clearly won’t. All I’m hoping is that it will last for about eighteen more
hours.”
    “At this speed,
we better estimate twenty-four.”
    A wide-load
truck carrying farm equipment and an ancient school bus both sped past them,
quickly leaving them in the dust. The truck driver honked at them cheerfully as
he went by.
    Ethan didn’t
seem to appreciate her comment, so Ashley thought it might be strategic to
change the subject. “Am I going to get to drive?” she asked, hiding a grin at
his strained expression.
    “Of course. If
we manage to make it more than two hours today—which is not, I assure you, an
assumption I’m willing to make—then you can take a turn. I have no desire to
drive this heap halfway across the country without a break.”
    There was
another strange sound coming from the back of the car now. It went
clippety-clop-bop-bop. Clippety-clop-bop-bop. “Surely we’ll make it more than
two hours,” she said optimistically. “But hopefully we won’t get into any more
car chases today. We wouldn’t have a prayer in this piece of junk.”
    Ethan’s mumbled
reply was not particularly reassuring.
    ***
    “So why did you decide to get
out of the moonshine business?” she asked randomly, later in the morning. She’d
been thinking about him—a lot—and the reflections finally pushed her into the
question.
    “What?”
    She’d been
quiet for a long time, so she’d obviously startled him. “Why did you decide you
wanted out? You got your fancy truck and your fancy boat and no doubt a
huge-ass TV with all your ill-gotten gains. Why did you decide you wanted out?”
    “Believe it or
not, a moonshiner was not what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
    She couldn’t
read his expression very well. He had that same tense look she’d seen before,
as if he was holding something back. She really wanted to know what it was.
    “You always
wanted to build bridges.”
    “Yeah. That’s
never going to happen.”
    “Well, you’re
the one who dropped out of college and got arrested.” He’d been majoring in
civil engineering at Virginia Tech. Doing really well, if what she’d heard was
true.
    “I know that.”
    She felt kind
of bad for bringing it up, although it was absolutely nothing but the truth. “I
guess you could go back to college and grad school if you wanted. You’ve only
lost less than two years.”
    “With a record?
What kind of career do you think I could have?”
    She studied his
face. It was handsome and controlled and lost somehow. “It could happen. It’s
just a misdemeanor. Employers could understand. It will make it harder, but I
don’t think it would be impossible. At least, that’s what I’m hoping with Mark.
So what do you want to do now?”
    “I don’t have a
clue. I just want out.”
    She could tell
he was telling the truth. He was almost desperate to be out of whatever mess
he’d gotten himself in. And, instead of feeling vindicated, she felt
sympathetic. Deeply moved by his earnestness. He felt more like the boy she
used to know than ever. “What were you doing to try to get out of it that
caused all this trouble in the first place?”
    He sighed,
apparently giving up on what he’d refused to tell her before. “I was trying to
work on a plan. With the guy on the other end of the distribution route—in
South Dakota. We’d talked some—just to take care of business—and eventually we
were