Page 33 of Vex

“Hey, Tessie. Me and you are going for a ride. You’re driving, I’m teaching,” Axel tells her as I quickly get out of my truck so he can climb in.

“Can I go too?” asks Bella as Tessie hurries to the driver’s side.

“No!” Pooh and I both shout at the same time.

Bella’s eyes go wide in surprise at our tone, but Pooh smooths it over with a lie.

“I need you to help me find Craig, honey.”

“Oh, okay. See you in a while, Tessie!”

As the truck’s engine roars to life, Axel lowers his window and gives me a cocky grin.

“Watch and learn,” he laughs.

His eyes go wide and the grin and laughter leave his face when Tessie drops the truck into gear. She leaves us in a cloud of tire smoke as they screech their way down the street. Nice to know I’m not the only man Tessie has made squeal like a girl today.

“Have fun, Assman!” Mac bellows.

“He’s going to kill you when, and if, he survives,” Gunner chuckles.

“He has to survive first though,” I answer calmly.

“He’ll never want to teach me to drive now,” Bella moans.

“I’ll teach you, sweetheart. But promise me now that you will never, ever get into a vehicle that Tessie’s driving,” Pooh commands.

“Not that stupid, Pooh. Holy crap! I think she just turned that corner on two wheels!” Bella says with a little awe in her voice.

Me: You ever ride with your sister?

Taja: Of course. Why?

Me: You didn’t think to warn me?

Taja: About what?

Me: Never mind. I’ll have her home in an hour. I’ll bring dinner.

Taja: You don’t have to do that but thank you.

Me: See you soon

There’s no way Taja hasn’t noticed how horrible Tessie’s driving is. She’s messing with me and I like that. Means she’s getting more comfortable with me. I chuckle to myself as Gunner, Mac and Bella walk away. I turn to Pooh and see he’s still laughing about Axel’s predicament.

“You’re a dead man walking when he gets back here,” Pooh sputters.

“Yeah, I know. Worth it though just to see his face when she hit the accelerator. You going to stick around for the beat down?”

“You couldn’t pay me enough to miss seeing Axel’s face when they get back here,” Pooh confirms what I already knew as we both listen to tires squealing in the distance.

A few minutes later and I see my truck barreling down the road toward us. Even from a distance I can hear Axel shouting. Pooh’s bent over again, laughing his ass off. I can see that Axel has one hand on the dash and one on the oh-shit handle. That’s all I notice before Pooh and I are both scrambling to get out of the way of the sliding truck. It comes to an abrupt stop, smoking tires and all, with one tire jumping the curb and landing on Petey’s lawn.

Tessie calmly shuts the engine off and steps out, smile still in place. Axel stays sitting in the truck for another moment before he slowly gets out. His face is pale but the glare he’s aiming my direction says there will be consequences. I make sure he sees the big ass grin on my face.

“Rat bastard!” Axel rasps out in a much smaller voice than he usually uses. He clears his throat, twice, stabs his finger at Tessie, before continuing.

“That was some kind of fucked up “Dukes of Hazzard” shit right there! What the fuck, girl?”

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