The Highway Read Online Free PDF

realized why when she reached into her bag on the floor of the car and her phone wasn’t there.
    “Give it back,” Gracie said.
    “I will when you calm down,” Danielle said. She refused to meet her sister’s eyes, and for once concentrated on the road ahead of her. Gracie had rarely seen Danielle so determined … or so irrational.
    “I’ll clear it with Dad,” Danielle said. “If he’s okay with it, you should be okay with it. He’s the one making the call here. Mom will have Thanksgiving with Aunt Susan and it won’t matter where we are if Dad says it’s okay.”
    “But he won’t ,” Gracie pleaded. “He’ll tell us to turn around and now we won’t get there until the middle of the night.”
    Danielle said, “So you’ll agree that if he says it’s okay, you’ll calm the fuck down?”
    Gracie balled up her hands and pounded them once, hard, on her knees. “This is so stupid I can’t believe it.”
    “Hush,” Danielle said, “I’m calling.”
    As soon as Gracie heard Danielle say, in her most girlish and syrupy voice, “Hi, Daddy, it’s Danny,” she knew how the conversation would turn out. And she hated her father for it.
    Danielle activated the speaker on her cell phone and Gracie could hear both sides of the conversation.
    Their dad was a pushover, especially for Danielle’s pleading, and especially since he still felt guilty about the disaster of their back-country trip to Yellowstone Park two years before. He was still trying to make up for it and the only way he knew how was to give in to anything Danielle asked of him and to try to get himself back into her good graces.
    “Does your mom know?” Ted Sullivan asked. Gracie could hear the fear in his voice.
    “Not yet,” Danielle said. “But don’t worry. I’ll tell her.”
    Silence.
    Finally, Ted said, “But if I know what you’re doing and I don’t tell her…”
    “I’ll handle Mom,” Danielle said with confidence.
    Ted obviously wasn’t convinced, though. He said, “She asked me to call her when you girls arrived. I can’t call her and lie. I just can’t.”
    Danielle frowned for a moment, then grinned. “I’ve got it,” she said. “Just don’t call at all. Tell her tomorrow you forgot. That sounds like something you’d do. By then everything will be fine.”
    “Boy, I don’t know,” Ted said with doubt in his voice.
    “Daddy, we all know how scatterbrained you can be. This won’t be the first time you forgot something.”
    “That’s true,” he said.
    “Dad!” Gracie shouted. She couldn’t remain silent another second. “Did you forget you have two daughters?”
    “Hi, Gracie,” he said sheepishly.
    “Maybe I don’t want to go, did you think about that?” Gracie said. “Did you think maybe I don’t want to spend Thanksgiving with Danielle’s boyfriend?”
    Before Ted could respond, Danielle switched off her speaker and pulled the phone up to her ear. “Daddy, you really like Justin, don’t you? Remember when you told me that?”
    Gracie was so angry she could barely hear the rest of the conversation. It went on for another five minutes before Danielle said, “Goodbye. I love you, Daddy,” and dropped the phone into her lap.
    “He says he might fly to Helena for Thanksgiving to be with us,” Danielle said. “So will that make you happy?”
    “Not really,” Gracie said. “He’s such a wimp at times.”
    Danielle told Gracie Dad seemed to enjoy being in on the deception because it was something he could share with his girls.
    “He can be such a limp weenie.” Danielle laughed.
    Gracie didn’t like to think of their dad like that. She wanted him to be brave, tough, admirable, and stoic. But Danielle was right.
    *   *   *
    After an hour of angry silence, Gracie pointed at the red CHECK ENGINE light.
    “Hey, what’s with this little engine thing that’s lit up?”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Danielle said.
    “Shouldn’t we get it checked?”
    “By who? We’re in the