Once Upon a Road Trip Read Online Free PDF Page B

address it.
    “Show me around the neighborhood,” she said as she released him. “I could use a walk.”
    “Oh…okay. Sure,” Alec answered in a soft mutter, falling into step with her down the short driveway. “Not much to see.” He turned his head aside, looking at her through the shaggy, chestnut-brown bangs that obscured his dark gaze. “Sorry we had trouble finding you. I should have been looking at the plates, not the car color,” he said, sheepish.
    “Hey, you found me. That’s all that matters.”
    They walked on past the stop sign for several blocks before the houses ended and they doubled back, turning right at the stop sign. It looked as though this would be the same sight down all four streets. That much, Angie didn’t mind. The awkward silence was another matter.  
    “So, did you get your driver’s license yet?” she asked.
    “Oh, uh, no.” He looked over at her, ducking his head in embarrassment. “I kinda failed the driving test…again. I was hoping to retake it the day after tomorrow.”
    “I failed my first driving exam,” she offered in commiseration. “I’m not great at following directions under pressure. Or at left hand turns, apparently. There goes my dream of driving for NASCAR.”
    “Oh,” Alec picked up on the joke after a delay and chuckled. “I guess so.”
    “I could help you practice.”
    Alec brightened at the suggestion. “That’d be great. I really need to pass so I can drive myself to college this fall.”
    She laughed. “Yeah. Trust me, college won’t be what it should be if your mother ends up dropping you off at all of your classes.”
    Angie smiled, trying to soften the strength of her assertion. Alec was nineteen, an only child, and had been home-schooled his entire life. She didn’t have anything against home schooling, it just seemed likely to her that, in combination with being stuck in the-middle-of-nowhere-USA , his horizons could stand to be broadened. She was beginning to think she may not be nearly as sheltered and inexperienced as she’d initially thought — at least by comparison.
    Alec fell quiet again through the final leg of their walk, watching the empty road in front of them until they crossed back into the gravel driveway to his front door.
    “I should let a few people know that I’m still alive,” Angie said. “Would anyone mind if I used your internet?”
    “Oh, sure.” Alec paused with his hand on the doorknob. “I think you’ll be sleeping in the office anyway, so you can help yourself. It’s just dial-up, so it’s pretty slow,” he said, apologetic. As he pushed open the door, a smoke colored tabby cat slipped past him and darted around Angie’s legs.
    When Alec didn’t show any indication of being distressed by the feline’s escape, Angie followed him inside. She found herself in a small, blandly decorated living room across from an open kitchen. A larger calico stretched itself out along the arm of a tan corduroy couch, mewling to be pet.
    “All my family had was dial-up until about a year ago. I’ll manage just fine.” She injected a light cheeriness into her tone as she greeted the cat and surveyed her surroundings.
    Short of polite conversation, Angie decided not to feign chattiness in what little was left of the evening. She would have a couple of days to coax Alec out of his shell. Now that the drive was over with, exhaustion was settling over her like a lead blanket.
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    “Stop! Left a little more,” Angie said, peering out the passenger side window of the little red sedan. Having laid out an obstacle course of orange cones through the parking lot of Alec’s church, she’d spent the last hour helping him navigate through it while his mother was occupied with choir practice.
    Alec eased the car forward, narrowly missing the cone she’d warned him about. He curved with the path to the right and put the car in reverse as soon as he’d completed the course.
    “Use your mirrors,” she reminded