She hadn’t ceased sulking after Gedeon had told her we couldn’t bring Shadow to the beach. The argument that cats and water didn’t do well together had been of no consequence to her.
She was truly adorable.
Turning his back to us and presenting us with the view of a large strawberry patch on the back of his t-shirt, Gedeon opened the driver’s door for Kali. “Hop in.”
She dug her heels into the fissured asphalt. “What?”
I yanked the backseat’s door open. “You wanted to learn how to drive.”
“But we have a very long way to go,” she protested.
Gedeon strode around the front of the vehicle. “Then we better get moving.” As he slid into the front passenger’s seat, I clambered into the backseat. And immediately began sweating from the sweltering heat making a home inside our car. “And trust me, you will undoubtedly do better than Zion did during his first lesson. He crashed into a streetlight.”
I mocked a gasp full of indignation. “It was dark.”
With a hand on the driver’s seat, Gedeon twisted around. “It was the middle of the day, Zion.”
“There were rain clouds.” I tugged my t-shirt away from my abdomen. The cotton had melded itself to my chest. “They affected my vision.”
Shaking his head, Gedeon helped Kali to adjust the mirrors until she confirmed she could see everything properly.
Clutching the wheel, she glowered at the control panel. “Why would a car need so many buttons?”
“You can ignore them for today. We won’t need them.” He waved at her feet. “But see those pedals? The left is called a clutch, the middle one is the brakes, and the right one is for speed.”
“Okay.” She tapped the ball protruding from the center console. “And this stick?”
I snorted at her description, earning a glare over the rear-view mirror.
So, so cute.
“It’s called a gearbox. Depending on whether you want to go faster or slower, you switch into a higher or lower setting,” Gedeon explained, pointing at the faded numbers.
Which caused another bout of questions.
I tuned out their discussion as I tried and failed to make myself comfortable in the backseat. The leather creaked, the material scuffed from years of use, and I cursed whoever had cranked up the temperature today.
Even with the windows rolled down, the heat blasted in full force. A rare and precious breeze rustled the leaves of a maple tree nearby, yet switched directions at the last minute, evading our car entirely.
I swiped away the sweat beads collecting along my hairline. I couldn’t wait to take a dip in the sea. And with just the three of us going there, swimming clothing wasn’t a necessity. This might have been my opinion only, but surely, Kali and Gedeon would understand once they checked their backpacks.
Their bags might have been missing an item or two.
Right as another drop of sweat formed on my forehead, the car lurched forward?—
The engine sputtered.
Holding on to the ceiling, Gedeon pinched the bridge of his nose. “You have to release the clutchslowly.”
“It’s not as easy as it sounds.” Her two stumps wiggled as Kali clutched the wheel with her eight remaining fingers. Many, many more than the corpse of Lenus had boasted after Gedeon had finished with him. I’d hardly recognized the man.
Reclining against the backseat door, I sprawled in a semi-recumbent position. “Try again.”
Little by little, one spin of tires at a time, she rolled into the center of the road, her squeal a celebration of success. We slunk along the cracks in the asphalt, as quick as snails?—
The engine died.
Before Gedeon could point out her mistake, she seethed, “Don’t you dare say anything.”
