Road Tripping (7 page)

“I'd never
think that. I know how strong you are.” Then Ethan smiled a little and let go
of her face. “But you do wear the most ridiculous shoes.”

Now that they were
back in familiar territory, Ashley started to feel a little better. “They’re
cute. Not ridiculous. They just weren’t meant for walking.”

“I would have
bought you better shoes yesterday if you’d asked me,” Ethan told her as they
left the smelly bathroom at last.

“You kept
saying we’d be in South Dakota today, so it didn’t seem worth the trouble. Who
knew we’d be walking for miles?”

They sat down
in the designated chairs to wait for their car to be towed. “Let’s hope they
can fix it very cheaply and have it done in a couple of hours,” Ashley said at
one point.

A couple of
hours later, the mechanic informed them that the car couldn’t be fixed for at
least three days and it would cost at least three thousand dollars.

***

Ethan and Ashley stood staring
at a row of beautifully kept or restored Thunderbirds, from early antiques to
the sleek newer models.

“I love them,”
the gas station manager, whose name they had learned was Gus, told them.
“Doesn’t matter if they’re worth money or not. Just has to be a T-Bird, and
I’ll treat it like family.”

“And you want
our pitiful excuse for a Thunderbird?” Ethan asked slowly, eyeing the display
of cars parked in the long garage behind Gus’s house.

“Yep. It’s a T-Bird,
ain’t it?”

“It is indeed a
T-Bird,” Ethan said. “And you’ll trade us for that old truck?”

The truck
wasn’t in much better shape than the Thunderbird—it looked about as old—but it
did apparently run, which was the essential feature they needed in a vehicle.

“Yep. Can’t
wait to get started on the new baby. Don’t need that old truck anyway. Just
takes up space. But it’ll get you where you need to go.”

Ashley met Ethan’s
eyes for a moment.

Gus added,
“Your girlfriend thinks it’s a good idea, don’t she?”

He seemed to be
talking about her, so Ashley played along. Made goo-goo eyes at Ethan. “I do
think it’s a good idea, dearest. Can’t we make the trade?”

Ethan stifled a
grin. “Yes, honey. Whatever you want." Then he turned to Gus. “It’s a
deal.”

Everyone seemed
pleased with the transaction.

Finally Ethan
glanced at his watch. “We should get going. We have a long trip ahead of us
tonight.”

Ashley forced
herself not to moan. She was dead tired, kind of dizzy, and ravenous. It was
already dinner time, and they hadn’t eaten since breakfast. If she had to, however,
she’d drive all night without complaining.

Gus had been
watching her. “Surely you’ll at least get your little lady some dinner? She
looks like she’s ready to drop.”

Despite her
weakened condition, Ashley almost giggled at being called Ethan’s little lady.

Ethan turned to
look at her too. His face seemed momentarily torn.

Then Gus said,
“My wife sometimes rents out a room in our house. It’s fixed up real nice.
You’ll get a good bed to sleep in and a filling dinner and breakfast for fifty
dollars. Won’t get a price like that at any motel, and won’t get as good a meal
either.”

Ethan was still
hesitating, so Ashley put a hand on his arm. “It sounds like a good deal to me,
sweetie.”

Finally, Ethan
nodded. “We should probably get some sleep before we start out on the rest of
the trip anyway,” he conceded, shaking his head at Ashley in amusement.

Gus was
grinning. “My wife’ll be delighted. There’s only one bed in the room, but since
y’all are so lovey-dovey, that won’t be a problem, I’m sure.”

Ashley gulped
audibly.

***

Dinner was well-prepared and
hearty—meatloaf, mashed potatoes, collard greens, homemade biscuits, and sweet
iced tea.

Dinner
discussion was friendly too. Ethan and Gus talked about cars, and Ashley and Gus’s
wife, Elaine, talked about their men.

Ashley
concocted a fabulous story about her complicated but destined romance with Ethan,
since that was clearly what Elaine wanted to hear. She ended it with a detailed
description of how she and Ethan had flown to Tahiti to elope, but they had
changed their minds at the last minute—not being able to bear getting married
without their families as witnesses. So they’d flown back, but the airline had
lost their luggage. And they were short on cash because of the long trip. And
they were in a hurry to get back home because they wanted to get married as
soon as possible.

Elaine listened
in awe and delight, asking dozens of questions, which led Ashley to higher and
higher flights of fancy. Occasionally, she saw Ethan looking at her across the
table with a horrified expression, but that just inspired her some more.

By the end of
dinner, Elaine was convinced that Ashley and Ethan were the most romantic
couple since Romeo and Juliet.

As they said
goodnight and headed up to their room (with only one bed), Elaine said with a
sigh. “Such a lovely couple. It’s like you were meant to be.

Ethan looked a
little disgusted, but Ashley just sighed and gazed at him lovingly—for Elaine’s
benefit. “I can’t imagine being with anyone else.”

Elaine sighed
too, in sentimental pleasure. “Now y’all have a good night. Let me know if you
need anything. I laid out a pretty nightgown for you to wear, dear. Since that
terrible airline lost all your clothes.”

Ethan was now
almost sputtering, so Ashley pulled him upstairs. They finally made it up to
their room—a good sized chamber with a private bathroom, decorated in what was
commonly referred to as “country-style.”

Ashley and Ethan
looked at each other. Then looked at the double bed.

Well, Ashley
decided she was going to be cool and nonchalant about the whole thing. Act like
she slept with men all the time.

Which she
absolutely, positively did
not
.

“I’ll get ready
for bed first, if you don’t mind,” she said lightly, picking up the ivory nylon
nightgown Elaine had left for her. It had thick straps edged with lace, and a
satin ribbon to pull it in under the breasts.

“Go ahead,” Ethan
told her distractedly. He was still staring at the bed.

Ashley felt
kind of silly and awkward as she came out of the bathroom wearing the frilly
nightgown. Ethan had taken off his shirt and was pacing the floor.

He went into
the bathroom as soon as she left it, and she tried not to listen to the sounds
of his getting ready for bed. It felt too intimate, too personal.

Instead, she
crawled under the sheet and quilt and stayed as far on her side as she could.

When Ethan came
out a few minutes later, he turned off the light and crawled in beside her.
“You all right with this?”

She assumed he
was talking about the sleeping situation. “Of course. As long as you don’t hog
the covers.” She was pleased that her voice reflected no hint of her anxiety.
She could feel Ethan next to her.
Feel
him. Like his body was generating
heat, vibrations, or some kind of invisible force field.

“Surely
tomorrow will be better.”

“That’s what
you said yesterday. And look what happened today.” She shifted some to get more
comfortable, but then stopped abruptly, not wanting to disturb Ethan. “Tomorrow
we’ll probably be attacked by giant snakes or hoards of killer bees.”

“Or both,” Ethan
added, getting into the spirit. After a long stretch of silence, he said, “Try
to get some sleep. We have a long trip tomorrow. Assuming our newly obtained
truck can handle the journey.”

“Goodnight,” Ashley
told him and turned on her side so her back was to him. She clung to the edge
of the bed, trying to keep enough space between herself and Ethan’s body. Ethan’s
warm body. Hard body. Very fine body.

She forced
herself to stop thinking absurdities. Instead, thought about the reality of the
situation.

She was in
Polksville, Kentucky, a town that barely made it on the map. She was staying at
the home of the manager of a gas station. Her feet were covered with Band-Aids.
She was wearing someone else’s nightgown, and she was sharing a bed with Ethan Moore.

This was
definitely not in her good-girl plan for her life.

She had a
sinking feeling that she moved around a lot in her sleep. She tended to roll
and scoot—always ended up on the other side of the bed. But surely she wouldn’t
tonight. She wouldn’t leave the safety of her edge of the bed.

This was no big
deal, really. What difference did it make? Last night they had shared the same
room. Tonight they shared the same bed.

She was mature,
sophisticated, a woman of the world. So what if she could hear Ethan breathing?
If she could reach out and touch his bare chest?

Tomorrow would
be better. Tomorrow their trip would be over. Tomorrow Ethan and all of his trouble
would be out of her life for good.

He wasn’t as
bad as she’d thought a couple of days ago, but that didn’t mean she actually
wanted to be around him.

And it was the
end of the third day.

Polksville,
Kentucky

As soon as Ashley woke up,
before she even opened her eyes, she knew that something was wrong.

Not that it
felt like anything was wrong. It felt like everything was very, very right. She
felt toasty and drowsy and content.

But her face
wasn’t resting against a soft pillow. It was pressed up against something warm
and firm. And there was something draped around her that was heavier than the
bed covers.

She had rolled
over in her sleep after all.

She edged her
eyelids open a smidgen and peeked through her lashes. The first thing she saw
was Ethan’s chest. Her face was burrowed against his bare skin. She opened her
eyes a little wider. Saw his chest rise and fall with his even breathing.

Ashley knew she
should roll back over to her side of the bed, but she was still so sleepy and
content. And Ethan’s arm was draped around her, holding her close to his body,
so it seemed like she wasn't the only guilty party in the accidental cuddling.

She shifted
very slightly so she could raise her head from Ethan’s chest. Their hot, damp
skin clung together where it had been connected, so that side of her face felt
sensitive and flushed at the removal. Ashley tilted her head up to look at Ethan’s
face.

His eyes were
open, and he was watching her silently. She couldn’t begin to figure out his
expression.

“I rolled,” she
croaked. Cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

“You rolled,” Ethan
said, quirking his lips.

She glared at
him, not appreciating his amused tone. “You should have rolled me back to my
side.”

He was clearly
hiding a grin. “I tried. But you seem to be a very insistent snuggler.”

Ashley let out
a squeak of outrage, embarrassed and feeling like she’d just been insulted. She
didn’t try to pull away from Ethan’s side, though. She wanted to, of course, but
she was simply too sleepy to move yet. “That’s not true. I’m not snuggly at
all. I like my space when I sleep. I must have been cold or something.”

“The room felt
pretty warm to me,” Ethan countered, twisting his lips in a very obnoxious way.
“I promise you seemed quite determined to invade my side of the bed. I think
you are a covert snuggler.”

“I don’t think
so,” Ashley told him, but without much confidence that it was true. She still
felt too lazy to move.

Evidently Ethan
was too. Neither one of them tried to get up or pull away.

After a few
quiet minutes, Ashley said, “I wish we had a change of clothes.”

“Maybe you
could borrow something from Elaine,” Ethan suggested.

She huffed at
him furiously. “Ethan, she’s at least six sizes bigger than me. You think her
clothes would fit me?”

“Oh. I hadn’t
noticed.”

She glared at
him some more through narrowed eyes. Just more proof that Ethan never even
noticed what she looked like. Her body was clearly of no interest to him at
all.

“We should get
up soon. Try to get an early start,” Ethan said, but made no move to follow
through with his suggestion.

Ashley
stretched her back out a little, trying to work up the will to get started with
the day. The move caused one of her nipples to chaff against Ethan’s side.

She suddenly
was feeling a lot more than drowsy.

She stretched a
little more, to test the sensation. There it was again, when her breast rubbed
against Ethan’s body. Definitely felt quite tingly.

Which really
wasn’t something she should continue. Seeing as how Ethan thought of her as
some pesky, little kid.

But now she
couldn’t think of anything but being in bed with a gorgeous, half-dressed Ethan.
Couldn’t feel anything but his firm, hot body against hers.

She had to get
away from him. Rolled to her side with a jerk. Started to get up. But Ethan was
out of the bed and on his feet before she was even in a sitting position.

“I get the
shower first,” he said gruffly, then slammed the bathroom door behind him.

“Selfish jerk,”
she called out after him, more for show than anything else.

In truth, she
felt ridiculously let down. Her mind knew nothing could ever happen with Ethan—that
she didn’t even want anything to happen. But her body had other ideas. It was
now in this state of delicious expectation. An expectation that clearly would
never be fulfilled.

She got up and
looked at herself in the mirror over the dresser. One cheek, as she had
predicted, was bright pink from being pressed up against Ethan. The straps of
Elaine’s frilly nightgown had slipped off of her shoulders. Her hair was
sticking out in all directions. Not just from sleep. She hadn’t been able to
blow dry or style it for three days.

No wonder Ethan
wasn’t interested in her. She looked like a sloppy little girl playing dress-up
in her mother’s gown.

Ethan hadn’t
even had an erection. Ashley did not have much experience with men, but she’d heard
that men woke up hard all the time, that it was a common morning phenomenon.
But not Ethan. Not this morning. And she had been curled up beside him,
pressing her body against him, wearing a flimsy, feminine nightgown. And
nothing from Ethan.

Not that she’d
actually checked his pants, of course. That might have looked a little
suspicious. But he hadn’t looked awkward, or embarrassed, or stressed, or
lascivious. He had simply teased and insulted her in his normal, arrogant
manner. No, she was quite sure he hadn’t been hiding some throbbing, aching
desire.

No wonder she
resented him. After spending all night in bed with her, he wouldn’t even extend
to her the common courtesy of getting an erection.

***

Two hours later, Ashley was
killing time by flipping through a magazine at a gas station convenience store
while Ethan was in the bathroom.

They’d stopped
a half-hour after they’d started off to fill up the tank of the old truck—which
wasn’t much to look at, but seemed to run better than the Thunderbird. At least
they could generally make the speed limit.

And then they’d
stocked up with provisions from the quick shop—mostly junk food, water, and
soft drinks. After they’d loaded their stuff into the truck, Ethan went to use
the restroom, since Ashley had already gone.

The voices at
the cash register distracted her from the magazine. She strained her ears to
hear better.

“The man is
around six feet, early twenties. A ginger. The woman is young, attractive,
brown hair.”

Her heart
started drumming wildly, and she tried to hide behind the magazine rack.

“Yeah,” the
teenager behind the register said. “They were in here just a little while ago.
Bought all kinds of stuff.”

“You saw them?”
It was a second man speaking. “This man right here?”

There was a
pause and Ashley concluded he must have shown the clerk a picture.

“Yep, pretty
sure that was him. Wasn’t paying much attention to him, though. The girl...she
was something. Real luscious figure, and the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen.”

Ashley felt a
little flush of pleasure at this description of herself, despite her rising
anxiety. The clerk must think they had already left. Otherwise, surely he would
have directed the two men in their direction. She peeked around the magazine
rack so she could get a good look at the men.

They looked to
be in their thirties. Well-built. Nondescript. Both wearing dark clothes.

These were
definitely the hired guns.

“We’d
appreciate any information you can give us. Do you know where they were
heading?”

“Back on I-64,
I assume,” the clerk told them.

There was more
than one route they could take to get to Sioux Falls, so she wondered if there
were men assigned to all the obvious routes or if they’d somehow figured out
which way they were going by tracking after them.

Then she
remembered Ethan. He would be coming out of the bathroom any moment. She
couldn’t let these two men see him. They might overlook her if they
accidentally caught a glimpse of her, but they would certainly recognize Ethan.

She ran over to
the back hall where the bathrooms were and saw the doorknob to the men’s
restroom start to turn. She used both hands to push against the door, keeping
it from opening out. Keeping Ethan inside.

Unfortunately,
he pushed back, and he was a little bit stronger than she was. She quickly
turned around and pressed her back to the door, planting her feet to add to her
resistance.

“Hey!” Ethan’s
voice sounded from inside the bathroom, as he struggled to open the door.

“Shut up,” Ashley
hissed, as loudly as she dared. “Stay in there.”

“Ashley?” Ethan’s
voice was slightly mollified. “What the hell is going on?”

“Stay put. Don’t
come out until I tell you.”

“There better
be a good reason for trapping me in this foul hellhole.”

Fighting a
smile at Ethan’s dry tone, Ashley scurried back to her post behind the magazine
rack to see if she could pick up any more information.

Unfortunately—or
maybe fortunately—the bad guys had already left. She saw a dark sedan driving
out of the parking lot.

So she scurried
back to free Ethan from the bathroom. When she opened the door, he was standing
stiffly with an irritated expression on his face.

“Let’s try to
get out of here without letting the clerk see us,” she whispered, taking his
hand to covertly lead him out of the quick shop and feeling sort of like a sexy
spy from a movie. If only she had some sort of skimpy leather outfit.

Looking totally
baffled, Ethan shook his head but followed her silently through the back aisle
of the store and around to the door. They were just darting out when the clerk
spotted them.

“Hey!” he called
out.

They both
turned to look at the clerk. He was staring at them with his mouth ajar,
pointing limply in their direction.

Sexy spy,
sexy spy
, Ashley told herself. And she remembered he had thought she was
pretty.

She smiled at
him seductively—or as seductive as she could manage. Gave him an obvious
beseeching look. Winked, and then held one finger to her pouting lips in the
universal sign for quiet.

The clerk
grinned at her, winked back, and did the dorky locking of his lips and throwing
away the key routine.

Ashley blew him
a kiss and pulled a sputtering Ethan out the door.

He was huffing
when they got back in the truck. “That was the most disgusting display I’ve
ever had the misfortune to witness.”

Ashley turned
to him in bewilderment. “What are you talking about? You were in the bathroom
the whole time. You didn’t even see the men, and they were suspicious but not
really disgusting. One of them was kind of cute.”

Ethan scowled.
“I meant the repellent exhibit you made of yourself with that clerk. That was
far beyond flirting. Why didn’t you just jump him and get it over with?”

She made a few
inarticulate sounds of fury before she could form actual words. She wasn’t
quite controlled enough yet to form complete sentences. “Why you...That’s the
most ridiculous...You don’t even know why...I was trying to...Just because you
find me disgusting and repellent doesn’t mean that every man does.”

The one
sentence that she managed to construct was not what she’d been intending to
say. And it sounded kind of silly. And it was very much off subject. And she
wished she hadn’t said it.

Ethan was
staring at her like she’d gone crazy, his jaw dropping open in dumbfounded
shock.

But Ashley was
still too angry to figure out why. “I might have saved your obnoxious life in there.”

Ethan’s face
changed. “What happened?”

Ashley told
him, explaining what she’d heard in precise detail and making sure to emphasize
that the clerk had said she had a luscious figure and the prettiest smile he’d
ever seen. And also that the man had called Ethan a “ginger.”

When they
finished their discussion, they decided to take back roads and avoid the
interstate from now on.

***

They drove on country roads for
several hours, got lost a few times, and by mid-afternoon, they had made a wide
loop around Lexington, Kentucky and hadn’t gotten much further. By interstate,
they probably could have gotten that far in an hour and a half.

They hadn’t
stopped for lunch—there were very few gas stations on these roads and virtually
no restaurants, so finally Ashley asked if they could pull onto a gravel
driveway that seemed to lead nowhere. There was a convenient grove of trees set
back a good distance from the road, where it was cooler and they could have
some privacy from anyone who happened to drive by. They could take a mid-afternoon
break and get something to eat from the stockpile they’d purchased at the quick
shop.

They could also
study the map that Gus had thoughtfully provided and try to find a more
efficient route through this endless wilderness, since the GPS on Ethan’s phone
was off-limits.

There was some
soft grass under the trees, so Ashley lowered herself and stretched out on the
ground, munching on her chips and cookies.

Ethan sat down
next to her and spread out the map between them. They both peered at it,
plotting possible routes.

After a few
good-natured arguments, they were starting to have some success. Ashley was
lying now on her stomach, propped up on her upper arms. Her legs were bent at
the knee and she was casually swinging her feet up in the air.

“Ashley,” Ethan
said, interrupting their strategy session. He suddenly looked crabby and a
little stressed. “Do you always go around flashing the entire world? Would you
pull down your skirt?”

She glanced
over her shoulder. Her skirt was indeed hiked up around her hips. Her panties
were even showing. Grumbling under her breath, she pulled the flouncy skirt
back down to the middle of her thighs. “Sorry. Wasn’t paying attention.”