Wrong Turn: Road Tripping Series

by Samantha Chase

  “Well, drat,” she murmured.

  “What? What’s the matter?”

  “You’re right.”

  “Well, yeah,” he said, grinning. “Wait, about what?”

  “About how Virginia Beach is the smartest place to stop.”

  He took a bite of his sandwich, his eyes never leaving hers. “Why would I lie about that?”

  “Why would you give me the wrong address or pretend that you were going to the right airport? I have no idea! Although I’m beginning to think it’s pathological.”

  The look on his face was priceless. His chewing slowed and his face flushed–clearly, he wasn’t used to someone calling him out on his bad behavior.

  Resting her arms on the table, she leaned in slightly. “And by the end of this trip, I’m sure that will be confirmed.”

  They ate the rest of their meal in silence, which was fine by her.

  Once they were done, Drew led them out onto the deck to enjoy the view. It was a beautiful day out and she had to admit, this was kind of cool. Chelsea couldn’t remember the last time she’d been out on a boat of any kind, so while she wasn’t particularly thrilled with the company, she was going to make the most of the experience.

  They were leaning against the railing, and Drew was staring straight ahead. “Jimmy and I grew up next to each other. He was born and raised in that house and my family moved in next door when I was three,” he began out of nowhere. “We played on Little League teams together, were Boy Scouts together, and he’s more like a brother to me than either of my own brothers.”

  Unsure of what to say, she simply nodded and waited for him to continue.

  “I fell out of a tree once. We were trying to see who could climb higher. Jimmy had jumped down and was standing there watching to see if I could go past the limb he had gotten to.” He paused. “Anyway, I reached up, lost my balance, and fell. If he hadn’t been there to catch me, I would have broken my neck.” Pausing again, he shook his head. “He saved my life. I don’t think I’ve ever thanked him for that.”

  They went quiet again when something hit her.

  “Wasn’t that a scene from Groundhog Day?”

  “What? No!”

  “Yes, it was!” she said with a laugh as she straightened. “Bill Murray catches the kid who fell out of the tree and the kid never thanked him! It’s exactly like Groundhog Day!”

  “Okay, it’s similar, but it did happen!” he argued.

  Cocking her head, she asked, “Did it?” And there was no mistaking her sarcasm.

  Facing the water again, he mumbled, “No.”

  “Drew, if you have to make up stuff to make Jimmy sound like a great guy, then there’s a problem. And honestly, I’m not sure if it’s that Jimmy isn’t a great guy or, again, that you are a pathological liar.” She paused. “Although, I think I’m seeing a pattern here, and God help me if both those things are correct.”

  He twisted to look at her again. “Fine. Jimmy and I did grow up together, that’s not a lie. And he is more like a brother to me than my own.”

  “But…?”

  “But…you wouldn’t appreciate the highlights of our friendship because you’re too uptight.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Excuse me?” he mimicked in a voice she had to assume was supposed to sound like her.

  “You were saying…”

  “Every milestone in my life, Jimmy was there for. He’s a great friend who always has my back. There isn’t a damn thing he wouldn’t do for me or for anyone. Hell, if you needed a favor, he’d even do one for you–even though you’ve done nothing but give him grief.”

  She could argue how that wasn’t true, but she figured she’d let him get his little speech out.

  “No one makes me laugh like he does, and no one else sets me straight when I’m screwing things up,” he clarified. “Is he everyone’s cup of tea? No! He’s loud and obnoxious and sometimes so damn immature it’s almost embarrassing. But you know what? He is who he is! That’s one of the greatest things about Jimmy; you never have to wonder if he’s being sincere because what you see is what you get.” He shook his head with disgust and faced the water again. “Most people you have to wonder if they’re who they say they are or they act one way when you see them in one setting and then act completely different in another. You never have to worry about that with Jimmy. He is who he is all the damn time–even if it makes him look bad.”

  “Wow.”

  He nodded. “And you know what? Your friend is damn lucky to have Jimmy. If you ask me, he’s too good for her. She’s the kind of person you have to wonder about. She’s the kind of person who is two-faced–sweet to your face but would stab you in the back in a heartbeat.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to try to defend Bianca, but…she couldn’t. Drew’s description was too spot-on.

  “Am I worried about the two of them getting married? Hell yeah! She’s going to make him jump through all kinds of hoops and she’s going to be the one calling the shots. And you know what? That pisses me off. He doesn’t deserve that. Unfortunately, he’s so damn head-over-heels in love with Bianca that he’s not seeing things for what they are.”

  “Rose-colored glasses,” she said softly.

  “Exactly.” He let out a long breath. “I never thought he’d fall for someone like her–someone superficial and spoiled–but it’s obvious he sees something in her that I don’t see.”

  “Have you talked to him about this? About how you feel?”

  Shaking his head, he said, “No. If he specifically asked me, I’d tell him. But it’s not my place to put down his fiancée. You know who would lose in that scenario? Me.” He looked at her. “Just like you have with Bianca.”

  Well damn.

  After that, there didn’t seem to be anything else to say. He made his point and she didn’t have it in her to argue and defend herself.

  What exactly had she lost where Bianca was concerned? They were still friends. That wasn’t going to change.

  Only…it had.

  If Chelsea really thought about it, she knew she shouldn’t have been surprised her friend went to such drastic measures to exclude her from her wedding.

  Although to be fair, everyone was excluded, not just her. That was something, right?

  And maybe they didn’t hang out as much as they used to, but that happens as you get older. They both had careers and other responsibilities. Plus, this wasn’t the first time Bianca had pulled back because she had a boyfriend. That’s happened since the seventh grade–it was the year she got boobs and enjoyed flaunting them.

  It had taken Chelsea several years before she had anything to flaunt.

  Self-consciously, she glanced down and realized it had been a long time since she even tried to flaunt “the girls.”

  Ugh…so not the time to be thinking about that…

  Forcing her mind away from her boobs, she realized at some point she was going to have to get real with Drew and share why she felt the way she did. She had a feeling he would give her hell about it, but she was confident he’d understand why she was doing this.

  It still seemed crazy that she was on this road trip with him. Of all the people in the world she ever imagined traveling with, Drew Russo wasn’t at the bottom of the list; he wasn’t even on the list.

  She glanced over at him and felt a little guilty. Other than using some ridiculous delay tactics, he was a fairly decent traveling companion.

  Well…when he wasn’t speaking.

  Getting to know him was frustrating, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. And who knows, maybe by the time they were back home, they would have a new appreciation for each other.

  If they didn’t strangle each other first.

  It was a little breezier out than she realized and she shivered. Drew turned to her as he straightened. “Come on, you’re cold. We’ll go back inside and grab something hot to drink. I know it’s not Starbucks, and I’m sure they don’t have your chai tea, but at leas
t it will take the chill off.”

  That was kind of sweet.

  “And I promise to stop at the first Starbucks we pass and treat you.” They walked to the door and stepped back inside. “Deal?”

  Chelsea couldn’t help but smile. “Deal.”

  “Wow, there are a lot of things going on in Virginia Beach right now,” Chelsea said a few hours later. They were back on the road and it was fairly uneventful.

  “Oh yeah? Like what?”

  “A music festival and a food and wine one. I’m having a hard time finding a room.” She glanced at him. “Or did you book them already?”

  He chuckled. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

  “The ferry? Yeah, it was reservation only. So you clearly had a plan in place for us to miss all the flights and take this trip on the road.”

  “Guilty.” But you know what? He was really okay with it. Everything worked out and they seemed to be on an even keel right now so…no harm, no foul, right? “And in answer to your question, yes, I have rooms booked for us already. But to be clear, I only got as far as today. Once we get to our destination, we’re on our own.”

  “How come? I would have thought you had it all planned out.”

  He shrugged. “I had no idea how it was all going to go. For all we know, you may want to leave right away.”

  She frowned at him. “Why would I do that after driving all this way?”

  “Really?”

  With a long sigh, she said, “Okay, I see what you mean. If things go south fast, I’m going to want to get out of Dodge fast.” She paused and then studied him. “But what about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “I realize you said we’re in this together, but…you should know that I don’t expect you to have to put up with me all the way home too. If things go poorly, then I’ll take care of getting myself back.”

  “Chelsea, that’s crazy.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to deal with all of the gloating and the ‘I told you so,’ so really, it’s all about self-preservation.”

  Drew couldn’t help but laugh. “I would totally show some self-control! Maybe just a few reminders that I told you so. Five or six tops. You can handle that, right?” He leaned over and nudged her with his shoulder as the car swerved.

  “Eyes on the road!” she cried, but she was laughing with him. “You already have a hard time with directions. We don’t need to add crashing to the mix. Although, that would certainly delay us more than anything.”

  “Hmm…tempting…”

  “Drew! Don’t even think of it!”

  “Well, as much as I am trying to delay the inevitable, I love my car too much to sacrifice it. Believe me, you’re safe.”

  “Good to know.”

  They slipped into companionable silence, and Drew began to really consider all the ways things could go down once they got to the resort and found Jimmy and Bianca. Because the truth was, he could only get them lost so much before she would either demand he get them there, or she’d ditch him and find her own way. The fact that the wedding was Monday wasn’t helping. If they had the ceremony today or tomorrow–like normal people–he would have had no problem getting lost and finding delays so they’d simply miss the wedding. But Monday was pushing it.

  He had a feeling Jimmy was going to be pissed at him no matter what he did. When he had asked him to essentially throw himself on the grenade, Drew was sure neither of them would have imagined things coming to this.

  “Um…Drew?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are we taking the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Turn around,” she said, and he could detect a slight tremor in her voice.

  “What? Why?”

  “I am terrified of bridges. I can’t drive over them. Please. You have to turn around and find another way.”

  Glancing her way, he noticed she looked a little pale. “You’re not driving, I am. And you didn’t have a problem with the bridges we went over to get out of New York.”

  “Those are…my eyes were closed and…and I’ve been over them before.”

  Now she was breathing weird and starting to fan herself.

  Neither of those were good signs, were they?

  Reaching over, he gently placed his hand on her knee. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Just…put the seat back, close your eyes, and we’ll be over it in no time.”

  “It’s seventeen miles long, Drew!” she cried, swatting his hand away. “And there is nothing on either side of the bridge for miles. Miles! If anything happens, there’s just water, and…and…”

  She was spiraling and he quickly got off at the next exit and pulled into the first shopping center he came to so he could calm her down.

  Although considering how worked up she was, he had no idea how to do that.

  Shutting off the car, he twisted in his seat to face her. “Okay, first, you need to calm down.”

  “If we had just flown…if you had been true to your word…” She turned and glared at him. “I trusted you! I actually trusted you, you big jerk! And now I’m going to hyperventilate and die on the longest bridge in the world!” The laugh she let out was slightly maniacal. “So I guess you got your way! I won’t be able to do anything to stop this wedding because I’ll be dead!” She groaned. “You’ll probably be able to just throw my body over the side of the bridge. No one will think to even look for me there.”

  “Chelsea…”

  “I watch a lot of true crime documentaries! I know how the criminal mind works!”

  “Wait…when did I become a criminal?” he demanded. “I’m just a guy trying to help a buddy out by making sure some crazy chick doesn’t ruin his wedding!”

  “Oh, so now I’m crazy!” she cried out.

  “You’ve always been crazy!” he shouted. “This isn’t new information!”

  The good news was she stopped hyperventilating.

  The bad news was she started to cry.

  Dammit.

  And not the soft, quiet sobbing kind. Nope. Chelsea was a wailer.

  Awesome.

  Doing his best to keep his voice soft and soothing, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I think we need to focus on one thing at a time here,” he began carefully. “If we turn around, it’s going to take us three hours to get to a point where we can actually cross over to get back on I-95. And then another three hours to get back on track. Are you seriously suggesting we take a six-hour detour?”

  Wait, why was he fighting this? Wasn’t he just trying to come up with more ways to delay them?

  Clearing his throat, he said, “But if that’s what we need to do, then I’ll cancel the rooms in Virginia Beach, and we’ll just play it by ear and see how it goes. When we get too tired to be in the car anymore or are ready to stop for dinner, we’ll just find a hotel then. What do you say?”

  Her face was all red and splotchy when she looked up at him. Her mascara gave her a bit of a raccoon look, and she sniffled in a very unladylike way.

  It was all he could do not to cringe.

  “Six hours?” she asked weakly. “Seriously? How is that even possible?”

  “You can pull up Google Maps and double-check, but I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re looking at.”

  Sure enough, she grabbed her phone and looked it up for herself, and he knew the instant she realized his math was right.

  “And you know I’m bad with directions, so who knows how long it will take us,” he teased, and thankfully, she smiled. “For all you know, we’ll end up in West Virginia or Tennessee! I’m afraid to go west and get lost!”

  Chelsea wiped at her eyes and face as she softly laughed. “You’re insane. You know that, right?”

  Drew motioned toward the glove compartment. “There are tissues in there if you want them.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m serious, Chels,” he said. “I had no idea you were afraid of bridges, and if it gets you this upset,
then we’ll turn around and deal with the delay. It’s not the end of the world, right?”

  She nodded and he practically sagged with relief. As much as he didn’t love the idea of adding six hours of driving to this already tedious day, it was all for the greater good. Wherever they ended up stopping for the night would be fine and he knew he’d sleep like the dead. Yawning, he almost wished they could stop for the day now.

  The idea had merit.

  “What if we stopped here for the night?”

  “But…it’s only like four in the afternoon. If you want, I can take over driving. We can change the route in the GPS and I can totally get us through this next leg. It would probably be a great distraction.”

  “You know there’s going to be a bridge once we have to cross back over to get on I-95. I don’t want you to freak out again.”

  She made a face at him. “Okay, so maybe I just drive for the next two hours and then pull over and you take the wheel again. What do you think?”

  “I think with all the stopping and starting, we’ll get to South Carolina by next Thursday,” he said flatly.

  “Ha, ha.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Can we take a bathroom break before we get back on the road?”

  They were parked in front of a supermarket, so he figured now was as good a time as any. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Great. I’m going to grab some snacks, too. I could use some caffeine since we never did find that Starbucks you promised.”

  Damn. He had hoped she would have forgotten about that.

  “Why don’t you search for the nearest one and we’ll stop there before we get back on the highway?”

  Five minutes later, they were walking into the grocery store and toward the restrooms. Drew thought adding a Starbucks stop was a great stalling tactic.

  Another stalling tactic.

  The problem with all this stalling was…it was exhausting. Seriously exhausting. Any road trips Drew had ever gone on were either with his family when he was growing up or trips he took with his buddies. Both were filled with a lot of fun and games and laughter. So far this trip with Chelsea included none of those things.

  Maybe it was time to change that…

  They had six hours to fill thanks to this detour–although, really, the damn Chesapeake bridge was only seventeen miles long. How could she not be able to hold it together for twenty minutes? Thirty tops, if there was traffic.