Page 25 of Road Trip

It was a fuckingskunk.

We both froze, staring. “What do we do?” Jacob whispered.

The skunk shuffled toward us, squeaking and clicking, and panic set in. “We fuckingrun!”

I grabbed the car keys from where they were sitting on top of Jacob’s backpack, scrambled out of the tent, and took off for the RAV4 at a sprint that would have made Usain Bolt proud. My heart pounded against my rib cage as I pressed frantically at the unlock button on the key fob, then yanked the back door open and threw myself inside. I lay there panting, and a second later Jacob piled in next to me, grabbing the door and yanking it shut as he sprawled half on top of me. We stared at each other for a second, our chests heaving, before he said, “What do we do now?”

I considered it. There was no way I was going back to the tentand risking getting sprayed. And I didn’t want to get out of the car in case the skunk was pissed and lurking outside, looking for revenge. Really, there was only one thing to do. I shoved the keys at Jacob. “Obviously, we get the fuck out of Dodge.”

Jacob stared at me for a heartbeat, then the corners of his mouth twitched up and he said, “This isn’t Dodge, dumbass. It’s Amarillo.”

It was probably the adrenaline, but that dumb joke was suddenly the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I lost my shit laughing, shoving him in the chest, and he laughed right along with me. I mean, the whole thing was pretty fucking funny when you thought about it. We were trapped by a skunk, wearing our sleep shorts in a RAV4 in the middle of the night. Still, at least we had the keys.

“We should move, though,” I said once I’d stopped laughing. “Like, drive away so he thinks we’re gone. Then he might leave too.”

Jacob eyed the passenger door dubiously. “What if he’s right there in front of the tire or something? I don’t want to run over him.”

“He’s not right there,” I said, just before there was a flurry of squeaking and chittering from directly under the window.

Jacob bit his lip. “If we drive away, someone might steal all our stuff. You think we could distract the skunk then grab the tent?”

It was my turn to throw him a doubtful look. But I wasn’t willing to risk opening the doors. “You remember what happened to Michael, right?”

This kid we went to school with had gotten sprayed one time and he’d smelled rank for weeks. Six years later, his nickname was still Skunk. Anyway, point was, I wasn’t going to spend my last days with Jacob smelling like ass. And he had a good point about someone stealing our shit. I couldn’t afford to replace everything, and neither could he. “Okay,” I said finally. “We sleep here.” I eyed the back seat doubtfully. Then I leaned forward and started to shimmy through the gap between theseats, twisting and squirming as I made my way to the front passenger seat.

“What are you doing?” Jacob asked in a strangled tone, just as I found myself wedged halfway over the center console.

I glanced back to find that my ass was about an inch from his face. The waistband of my sleep shorts had rucked down far enough that the top of my ass was visible, and Jacob was staring wide-eyed like he couldn’t believe I was pulling this shit.

Awesome.

I heaved myself forward and half climbed, half fell into the front seat, cheeks burning. “I figured I’d sleep in the front so we had more space, is all.”

“Oh,” Jacob said quietly. “Right.”

I hitched my shorts up, settled in, and reclined the passenger seat…and found myself staring into the light of the full moon. It didnothit my eye like a big pizza pie. It hit my eye like the interrogation lamps they shone in the prisoner’s face in one of those old spy movies. My pale skin glowed, making me look like some sort of alien.

Fuck. There was no way I could sleep like this. I let out a groan.

“What?”

“Moon’s too bright. And my shades are in the tent.”

Jacob let out a sigh. “Get back here then. We can both fit.”

I contemplated staying where I was for the sake of my sanity, but in the end I caved. If I had to choose between the sweet torture of Jacob’s skin against mine and the literal torture of sleep deprivation, I was going to go with the one that at least felt good.

“Fine.” I clambered into the back seat. “But I get to be the little spoon.” That way there was no chance of me waking up humping Jacob’s leg.

“Sure,” he said. He shoved at some of the crap that was on the back seat, sending it tumbling into the footwell. “See? Plenty of room. And at least there are no skunks.”

Plentyturned out to be a stretch. When we lay down, we weresmooshed up against each other with Jacob’s head resting on my shoulder and my ass squarely against his dick. We both pretended not to notice. I closed my eyes and took slow, deep breaths, relaxing into Jacob’s hold where he’d slung a casual arm around my waist.

This could work. As long as nobody rolled over or popped a boner, we’d be fine.

CHAPTER

NINE

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