Serious Fun

by Jessie Gussman

  “Wow.” She put a hand to her chest. “I can’t take the pressure.”

  “No pressure. You can’t screw up anything that I can’t fix.”

  “What will you drive to work?”

  “I park my rig in the driveway. I think I can manage to walk from my front door to my driveway a couple times a week.”

  Of course. She felt a little dumb. Not everyone drove to work. She didn’t even drive to work unless it was raining or really cold.

  Turbo made it to the door, which he opened for her. “You’ve driven a stick?”

  “No.”

  He showed her that first. She was able to pull away from the curb, driving slowly down Maple Street, and get out of Brickley Springs, only stalling it five or six times. Basically at every intersection.

  “I feel like I’m going to break something.”

  “You’re not.” Turbo looked relaxed and calm in the passenger seat. He had one arm stretched out over the back of the middle seat, one wrist sitting on his lap. He directed her farther out past the Brickley Springs limits. “Turn here.” He indicated an old logging road.

  “Are we going to get in trouble?”

  “For what?”

  “Trespassing? Or anything else?”

  He laughed. “No. Trust me.”

  She flexed her fingers on the steering wheel. “So who owns this?”

  “My brothers and I. We just had it logged a couple of years ago and use it for hunting, mostly. Although I think Torque takes his wife and kids camping a good bit too. There’s a real pretty creek and an overlook back in. We won’t go that far tonight.” He glanced over. “Unless you want to.”

  “I’m reading the look on your face to mean that we can’t drive there.”

  His grin exploded into a full-on smile. “You read right.”

  She wasn’t real keen on walking through the woods in the dark. “Let’s do these donut things first.”

  “The road takes a sharp left, then it widens out from the old log landing.”

  “Log landing?”

  “It’s where they bring the trees after they top them. They’ll stack the logs, then the log trucks only have to drive in this far to get loaded. If they have tractor trailers hauling them, they’ll have a loader sitting here too. A triaxle loads itself.”

  “I see,” she said, but of course, she didn’t. Not really. She’d never considered how wood got out of the forest. One got wood at the store. Just like milk, eggs, veggies, and meat.

  “It’s pretty dark now, but there’s lots of dead wood lying around. I’m coming out early tomorrow morning to get a load of firewood for the Smith’s, the elderly couple that live in the brick rancher on the outside of town. You’re welcome to come too.”

  The library didn’t open until twelve tomorrow. Spending this much time with Turbo could be dangerous to her heart. Too much more time together and she’d need to tell him her...secret—it wasn’t really a secret, just something she never told anyone and which she had never even remotely felt like she’d needed to do with a man before. But she really wanted to say yes to spending more time with Turbo.

  “We’ll see.” She gripped the steering wheel tighter.

  “That was a yes.” His chin was set with confidence. “It’s getting light now around 5:30, so I’ll pick you up at 5. It’s best to do it when it’s cool, before the snakes start to move around much.”

  “Snakes?” That could change her mind. Fast.

  Turbo’s relaxed posture didn’t change. “I don’t usually see any, although I did kill a big rattler earlier this summer. Eleven rattles and a bud.” He grinned. “Don’t tell anyone. It’s actually illegal to kill them, but I had earplugs in because of using the chainsaw, not that I would have heard him anyway, and didn’t see him until he reared up to bite me. I believe in obeying the law, but my reflex is survival. So, he got decapitated, I got a nice set of rattles as a souvenir, and I’m officially a lawbreaker.”

  She shivered. “Hmm. This isn’t encouraging me to want to go tomorrow.”

  “It’s October. I think they’re mostly hibernating now.” He grinned. “You’ll be fine. So, about these donuts...I think I’ll hop out and walk around. You slide over, and I’ll show you. I learn better by watching.”

  “Okay.” She slid across the seat after he got out. Snakes, donuts, even just being in the woods at five in the morning, these were all things that she just never thought about and certainly didn’t do. Turbo had brought a whole new dimension into her life. It was scary, but she felt alive like she’d never felt before.

  He hopped in the driver’s side. Confident. He grabbed the gearshift and depressed the clutch without hesitation, gripping the steering wheel like he’d been born with one in his hand.

  “Start out in about third gear. I just know that from doing it before. Each vehicle is different, depending on their gear ratios and tire size. You want the tires to spin, so not too high of a gear, but you don’t want to blow it up, so not too low.” He grinned, his teeth flashing white. “Probably the worst thing that could happen, aside from losing control and hitting a tree or something, is dumping the clutch too fast and losing your rears or driveshaft.”

  “That sounds serious.” His words came out too fast, and she didn’t have a hope in heaven of figuring this out.

  “We’ll be walking home if that happens.”

  In the dark. “Oh, wow, I never thought of that.”

  “I’m kidding. There’s no phone service here, but we’ll only have about a mile to walk back to where we can call someone.”

  “So if we come here tomorrow and you get bitten by a snake, I won’t be able to call 911?” Her stomach twitched.

  Turbo looked relaxed and matter-of-fact. “Nope. But it’ll take the ambulance 30 minutes to get here anyway, and in that amount of time, I can drive myself to the hospital.”

  She blinked. “You’re not driving if you’ve been bitten by a snake.”

  “Okay,” he agreed easily. Too easily. “Then you can drive me to the hospital in 30 minutes. The ambulance would be a waste of time. Plus, I’m not good at sitting around waiting for someone else to save me.”

  “I excel at that.” No one but Turbo would consider calling an ambulance “sitting around and waiting for someone else” to save them.

  He laughed. “Let’s find you a new talent.”

  “I don’t think it’s going to be doing donuts in your truck...”

  His hand wiggled the gearshift. “You never know. This could be a latent talent you just didn’t know about.”

  “Somehow I doubt it.”

  He reviewed his comments about the gear and the accelerator then said, “Now, watch the steering wheel. It’s kind of intuitive, but you have to be aggressive.”

  Aggressive wasn’t exactly a characteristic that described anything about her, but she watched anyway, holding on as the motor revved and the truck spun left, shoving her against the door.

  She kept her eyes on Turbo, though, maybe a little grateful for the opportunity to blatantly stare at him. His biceps flexed in the lights from the dash. His face was a study in concentration with his jaw flexed and his eyes constantly moving, scanning the area around the truck. They still held the laughter that was as much a part of Turbo as his slightly shaggy hair and strong, muscular legs. He looked amazingly masculine and confident. If she weren’t pinned to the door by the centrifugal force, she’d be wanting to touch him.

  “Now, the other way.” Turbo let off, spun the steering wheel around, and gunned the motor again, slipping the clutch out and spinning the truck in a tight right-hand circle. Without the door to hold her, Harris felt herself slipping across the seat. She used both hands to grip the door handle.

  He let off, and the truck came to a stop. “Think you can do it?”

  She let out a breath and a couple of nervous chuckles. “Honestly? No way. I’ll hit something, no question.”

  He laughed. “If I told you how many dents I’ve fixed in this old thing...”


  “Old thing? It looks brand new.”

  “Means I must’ve done a good job with the coverups. She’s almost twenty years old.”

  She grabbed onto the excuse, using the feminine pronoun as he did. “Then she’s like an old friend. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to her while I was driving.”

  “You did promise. But I guess if you’re going back on your word...”

  She eyeballed him. “I’m not.”

  “Then slide over. I’ll walk around, but I’ll sit in the middle, just so I’m closer, if you need me. Will that help?”

  His presence directly beside her might be more distracting than helpful, but she couldn’t actually say that, so she didn’t.

  He hopped out, and she slid across the bench seat, using the lever below to slide it up again so her much shorter legs could reach the pedals.

  She could do this. It couldn’t be that hard. Maybe if she just went kind of slow, that would decrease her chances of hitting anything. Of course, the truck probably wouldn’t spin if she went too slow.

  The door opened, and Turbo hopped in, sliding over so that he was sitting next to her, so close their thighs touched. Definitely distracting.

  “Ready?”

  Morose thoughts flashed through her mind. “Like a hog standing at the slaughterhouse door.”

  “Humph. Morbid.” He shook his head. “Didn’t know you had a dark streak.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’m telling you my feelings, and you’re making fun of me.”

  Turbo slid his eyes over, taking a second look at her. He stared for just a minute.

  “You’re joking,” he finally said.

  She laughed a little. “Apparently I make bad jokes when I’m nervous.”

  He winked. “Laughter covers a multitude of sins.”

  “I think that’s supposed to be ‘love covers a multitude of sins.’”

  His shoulder lifted. “Laughter works too.”

  “I suppose it does.”

  “You’re stalling.”

  She couldn’t argue. “I am. You’re right.”

  “I love it when you say I’m right.” Turbo grinned. “I’m also right when I say you can do this. Push the clutch in.”

  She complied.

  “Shifter in third.”

  She struggled a little with that, since she wasn’t sure exactly where third gear was.

  “Nope, that’s first.” Turbo’s hand came down and covered hers. “You can feel it when the gears grab. First grabs harder. It takes a little time to get familiar with the pattern, but eventually you’ll be able to tell. Third is more to the right. Another way to find it is to go the whole way to the left.” He pushed the shifter over, her hand still under his. Warm. “First is straight up from here.”

  Her whole arm tingled.

  “Move to the right, just a little.” He moved their joined hands over. “Press up, not hard, but enough to catch the gear as you go by.”

  Her stomach tightened.

  She felt the gap and pressed up, just as the pressure came from his hand.

  “Yeah, that’s right. Just like that.”

  It slid into gear with a little thump. His hand rested on hers slightly longer than strictly necessary. Then he squeezed before taking his hand away. Her heart beat fast.

  “Now. Turn the wheel the whole way to the left, press the accelerator, and gradually let the clutch out.”

  She turned the wheel.

  “Press harder on the accelerator.”

  Swallowing, she complied.

  “Let the clutch out.”

  Her hands sweated, and she gripped the wheel tighter. Turbo was beside her, and nothing was going to happen.

  She let the clutch out, the truck started moving, and the steering wheel jerked in her hand.

  “Keep pulling left,” Turbo said in her ear, his voice a sane rumble over the screech of the truck.

  She kept tension on the steering wheel. The truck moved in a circle. At the side of the headlights, she could see dirt flying up. The world spun around through the windshield. She made three or four revolutions, triumph bursting through her chest, before she picked her foot off the accelerator.

  The truck stalled.

  “Forgot the clutch,” she gasped, shoving her hair back out of her face.

  “Who cares? You did great!” Turbo said, putting his hand on her leg and squeezing. “Pull ahead some, and we’ll get out and look.”

  She started the truck back up and pulled ahead a few yards before shutting it back off.

  Turbo slid over the seat and out. She opened her door, getting out more slowly. They were in the middle of the woods, and it was pitch dark. Crickets chirped, and some other insect made a longish shaking sound. She looked at the ground carefully by her feet. Where did snakes go in the dark? Were they nocturnal? The dome light didn’t illuminate much.

  Turbo appeared in front of her by the open door. “Drop something?”

  “I’m looking for snakes.”

  “Ah. I get it. I’ve got boots on, and it’s going to have to be a pretty big snake that can reach up past my upper.” He turned his phone’s flashlight app on. “You walk where I walk, and you’ll be fine. But I don’t think we have to worry about snakes; it’s too cold.” He grunted. “I never should have mentioned them. Messes with your head.”

  “You did it on purpose?”

  He laughed. “Nah. I’d mess with my brothers that way, but it’s not fun to scare females.” He walked slow, and she followed, determining if she ever did go back in the woods, she’d be wearing those thigh-high boots that women on the internet wore with fishnet stockings and leather body suits. She’d order a pair tonight when she got home.

  Turbo stepped to the side and held his light up. “This is yours. Almost a perfect circle. Nice.”

  “Where are yours?”

  He held the light up farther to the right, and she saw that his were actually perfect. They made hers look like the chef was drunk when he threw her donuts in the grease. “Isn’t this disrespecting nature or something?”

  Turbo shut his light off. Harris’s heart jumped then took off running. Her stomach squeezed. She couldn’t see anything.

  “You ever see a buck rub?” Turbo’s voice came out of the darkness.

  “No?”

  “When white-tailed deer lose the velvet on their horns, it must be itchy, because the buck will rub his horns against a small tree to get that velvet off. It can kill the tree. At the least, it takes a lot of the bark off. It’s a natural thing.”

  Turbo shifted in the dark beside her. “Chickens will scratch an area until everything stops growing, and they’ll make a dust bathing area for themselves.” She sensed movement again in the dark. Maybe he shrugged. “I could go on. But, anyway, I guess some people think we need to worship nature. I think they have it wrong. You can respect it and still have fun with it.”

  “I see.”

  “If this were on a hill where we’d loosened the topsoil and a hard rain would wash it away, yeah, that might be a problem. But this is a flat area. We’re good.”

  He was quiet, and she didn’t say anything, either. She tilted her head. The trees all around the clearing circled the sky, but the open area directly above her shone bright with seemingly thousands of stars.

  “I can’t believe how bright the stars are,” she said in awe.

  He shifted again, and she said immediately, “Don’t leave me.”

  There were a few beats of quiet hesitation, then his arm came around her shoulder. His warmth and strength flowed over and around her. She caught a whiff of fresh soap and aftershave mixed with the more manly scent that was Turbo’s own. She breathed deeply, Turbo’s scent subtle next to the spicier scent of the woods, earth, and leaves, full-bodied, and somehow calming. She moved closer to his body, tucking her shoulder under his arm and sliding her arm around his waist.

  “I’m sorry. I must have a really bad rep if you think for one second that I’d bring you o
ut here and leave you.”

  “I didn’t really think that. Although, I guess it wouldn’t have completely surprised me,” she admitted.

  He tensed beside her. She hastened on. “Not because I think of you as mean, but because you’re known for pranks.”

  “Yeah.” His chest moved beside her like he was taking a deep breath, and his arm tightened around her. She leaned her head on him and snuggled closer, not wanting to think about how right it felt to be cozied up with Turbo. It’s not something she would have ever pictured on her own. Certainly the feeling of safety and of comfort, of the rightness of being beside him, wasn’t something she’d thought about feeling at all, let alone with him.

  She had been standing in the dark, just breathing in the clean woods air and listening to the night’s sounds, admiring the stars and reveling in the comfortable solidness of the man beside her, when he finally spoke, low and quiet. “I’m not usually quiet and still this long, but I don’t want to spoil the magic.”

  “Magic? What magic?”

  “The magic of having this amazing and beautiful woman beside me. I...I never thought I was missing anything before. I’m never going to be able to come here again without wishing you were with me. And I’m not going to be able to drop you off tonight without wishing you didn’t have to leave me.”

  Harris’s chest felt like it cracked just a little. It hurt to think of Turbo alone, lonely. Wishing for companionship. And it felt amazing to think that she was the one he wanted. But Turbo would want what she couldn’t give; she’d never gotten close to anyone, never led them on thinking that she was available for more than a casual dinner. Turbo had somehow gotten past all her normal barriers without her even noticing until it was almost too late. She needed to put some distance between herself and him.

  He took hold of her shoulders and turned her to him. She couldn’t see the features of his face in the dark, but his head moved slightly, like he was searching her eyes in the starlight that shone down. “I have to tell you something,” he said, his voice low and rough.

  She’d forgotten about his secret. But she didn’t want to get into secret sharing, because if he told his, she should spill hers. And she didn’t want to. Not tonight.