Page 110 of Rebel Summer

It was killing Dax to not be in the driver’s seat. I knew that, but we also didn’t have time to switch. I threw the car into drive and circled the south end of the square, passing the Book Isle and pausing at the stop sign near the Cut and Curls Salon, where I pulled out far enough into the road to look both ways. My stomach dropped with a thud.

“There’s another cart!” I gasped, pointing at another set of headlights making their way from the southern tip of the island.

Dax swore. “We’re going to get boxed in.” He whipped around, looking up and down the tiny island for a place to hide a car.

“Flip around, and we’ll try hiding at the baseball field. We’ve got to get off the road.”

“Won’t they see us?” I asked, taking a hard right and following the road as best as I could without our headlights until we came to the empty field at the south end of the island.

“Hopefully with our lights off we’ll stay hidden,” Dax said.

“I just…drive on the grass?” My foot slipped off the gas as I hesitated, pointing in front of me.

Dax was busy looking out the window for any sign of the oncoming carts. “Yeah! It’s fine! Go!”

His frantic gesturing caused me to gun the gas pedal even as I squinted at a dark spot on the grass in front of me. “What is th?—”

“Watch out for the ditch?—”

The car lurched forward and stuttered as I suddenly remembered the small ditch-like dip full of grass that surrounded the field, creating a barrier between the field and parking. A low groan shuddered through Dax’s body as the packed dirt and weeds scraped hard underneath the car.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted, my panic and the forward jolt of the car making me step on the gas even harder. We flew from the dip, possibly catching air, while Dax buried his face behind his hands in horror until I rolled the car to a stop. Glancing out the window, I gathered that we were somewhere out in left field.

I felt that hard.

Without a word, Dax put a hand on my arm and pointed directly in front of us as one of the golf carts pulled up to the side of the bookstore. Whoever it was, if they were looking into the distance, they would have a perfect view of Dax’s car.

The moon wasn’t too full, and we were in the middle of a field, so I was sure we’d be fine.

But still, we leaned forward, watching out the window, awaiting any sign of movement from the cart.

“It’s probably Briggs,” Dax said, his voice low. “He lives above the bookstore.”

We waited for him to get out of the cart, straining to see movement. But the cart remained dark. Had he gotten out already? Though I still wasn’t as panicked as I probably should have been at this moment, even I was feeling ready to get back to the safety of Dax’s garage.

“Maybe he’s looking at his phone or something,” I said.

We were silent as we both stared out the window, daring something to move inside or outside of the golf cart.

“He’s probably inside,” Dax said after a long moment. “We don’t have a good view of the back door into the shop, so he could have slipped inside without us seeing. But let’s wait it out for a minute, just in case.”

I sat back in my seat, my tense shoulders relaxing slightly. I sucked in a full breath through my nose and willed my heart to calm. The quiet hum of the car seemed a direct contrast to our plight only moments ago. We weren’t out of the woods yet, but for a moment, we needed to be still. The cart that had been coming down from the resort ambled past the field without braking or slowing, causing us to breathe easier.

“Are you nervous?” I asked Dax.

“Not for me.”

“Why not?”

He met my gaze. “What are they going to do to me?”

“Probation? Fines? Jail? How bad on the island’s sin scale is driving a car?”

He shrugged. “It’s illegal, so they could do a lot of things.”

“But you’re not worried?”

He laughed. “The judge has been breathing down my neck to get his lawnmower back. He’s not sending me away. It’s you I’m worried about.”

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