“I’m sorry, officer,” said Carrie, her stomach sore from laughing. “I honestly don’t know what came over me.”
The policewoman noted the reading and marked something down on her tablet. Then she took a deep breath and looked hard at Carrie.
“You’re not impaired due to alcohol consumption, that’s all I can be sure of at the moment. Ms. Logan, I’m not sure what to do with you. You’ve got no history, no priors. You don’t have so much as a parking ticket on your record. But any faster and you’ve have achieved lift-off. It was extremely irresponsible, what you were doing.”
Carrie hung her head and closed her eyes. Irresponsibility. The worst crime, in her grandfather’s eyes. “I know. I’m sorry.”
The officer sighed. “Clearly, this is out of character and I know I’d be hearing about it from Nate Jackson, if I ticketed you. Can you promise me that this will never happen again?”
“Absolutely,” said Ethan. “It’s my fault anyway. I should have stopped her.”
Carrie snapped to attention at that. “This is not his fault. This is entirely on me. To hell with what my grandfather or anyone else has to think about this, either!”
“Carrie,” said Ethan.
“Damn it, let me own this, will you?”
One kiss and he thought he was in charge of her. Suddenly, she was furious. Everyone was always trying to protect her, or tell her who she was, or remind her of what would happen if she didn’t behave in a manner befitting a Jackson. That was the whole reason she’d taken off on this joyride in the first place.
“Fine. Give her a ticket.” Ethan slapped his arms against his sides in frustration. “Take her back with you and throw her in the drunk tank.”
The officer stepped back and motioned for Carrie to get out. “I’m going to let you off with a warning, Carrie. Clearly, there are extenuating circumstances here that are contributing to what I must say has been the most interesting stop of my day. Mr. Nash,”
“Ethan,” he interrupted.
She looked up sharply, then continued. “Ethan, then. If you can assure me that you’ll drive her safely home, and maybe put her to bed, I’ll lose this report. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” said Ethan.
“No, damn it,” said Carrie.
But it seems she’d lost the ability to speak on her own behalf. She stalked back to the hot red car and slammed herself into the passenger seat.
Joyride. There was no joy anymore.
*
The last rays of sunlight shone through the trees as they drove back. Ethan watched the telephone posts zip by out of the corner of his eye, counting down the miles back to Cherry Lake, wondering which she was more upset about, her mother’s visit, or his kiss.
Or if she was just embarrassed to be caught speeding.
“Is it all right with you if I stop to feed the dogs?” he asked. “It’s on the way.”
“I don’t care.” Her voice was listless.
“I’ll be sure to tell them. They’ll be touched.”
“I wonder what the photography market is like in Bozeman,” she said. “Between the porn and the dangerous driving, I can probably kiss my school board contracts good-bye. My family portrait and wedding business will be next. I might as well call the real estate office now. Think I can get a good price for my place? It’s nice, don’t you think?”
She was putting on a good front, but she sounded exhausted.
“I think this would be a good night for that steak dinner, what do you say?”
“Ugh.”
“I can hear your stomach growling from here.”
“Fine. Go feed your dogs. I’ll wait in the car, if that’s okay with you.”
“I’ll be quick,” he promised.
The dogs were overjoyed at his return, as usual, but Ethan was anxious to get back to Carrie. He shouldn’t have kissed her and wasn’t exactly sure why he had. Tears were the single biggest turnoff he knew of, but turn-ons and turnoffs had nothing to do with it. The kiss hadn’t been motivated by lust.
He’d simply wanted to care for her, to give her the tenderness she so obviously needed. She certainly hadn’t gotten it from her mother. He hadn’t meant for the kiss to happen; it was supposed to be a gentle hug, a normal response to finding someone in distress. Nothing more.