Road Tripping (8 page)

Ethan got up.

“Where are you
going?” she asked in confusion as he turned his back to her. He had accepted
Gus’s offer of a change of shirt, so he was now wearing a worn gray T-shirt.
She noticed a damp spot on the back from where he had perspired during the day.

Ethan started
walking away. “I’m just taking a walk. I’ll be back in a while.”

Ashley started
to get up. “I’ll come too.”

“No,” Ethan
said firmly, not even turning to look at her. “I don’t need company. It’s not
like we haven’t seen enough of each other in the last few days.” Then he kept
walking away from her.

Ashley sighed.
It would be nice if they could get along a little bit better, but Ethan was so
often terse. He clearly wanted to get away from her.

She lay back
down on the grass in the shade of the tree and stretched out her arms and legs.
Closed her eyes. Tried not to think about Ethan and his need to escape from
her.

After just a
minute, she fell asleep and dreamed about Ethan instead.

She dreamed
that he came back and found her sleeping under the tree. Knelt down beside her.
Moved his body over hers. Woke her with a tender pressure of his lips. Then
kissed her deeply, lovingly. Trailed his lips along her jaw and throat. Cupped
her breast over her shirt with one of his hands. Rolled the nipple between his
finger and thumb. Moved his hands further down her body. Touching her. Stroking
her. Brushing against her skin. Tickling her. Crawling all over her.

Then his hands
were everywhere. All over her. Prickling little sensations everywhere. She
started twitching against it. Crying out for him to stop.

“Ashley,” he
said urgently. “Ashley, honey, wake up.” Then she was being lifted up. Dragged
somewhere. “Ashley, wake up.”

She tried to
open her eyes. Finally managed it. But she still seemed to be in her dream. Ethan
had put her back down on the ground. But he was hovering over her. Brushing her
skin briskly with his hands. And it felt like something was crawling all over
her. So she looked down at her body.

Something
was
crawling all over her.

She shrieked
frantically when she saw that she was covered with little black ants. Then she
couldn’t stop shrieking.

“I know,” he
said in a low voice, still trying to brush them off her arms. "You were
lying on an anthill.”

“Ethan, help
me.” She was choking and jerking her limbs in her terrified need to rid her
skin of the bugs. She’d never minded ants particularly before, but then they’d
never been crawling all over her. “Get them off me. Please help me get them off.”

“I’m trying.”
Despite his relatively calm tone, his hands were moving quickly, brushing as
many away as he could. But they clung resiliently. As soon as he seemed to have
cleared off part of her skin, dozens more moved to take their place.

Ashley was
making horrified sounds in her throat as she tried to slap the ants away. She
stared at them—little black specks all over her skin. She could feel them
crawling, on her feet, her legs, her arms, her stomach, on her clothes, under
her clothes.

She started to
panic. Jumped to her feet screaming now. “Ethan, please. I can’t stand it. Help
me get them off.”

Ethan stayed on
his knees, started to get rid of the ones on her legs. He wrapped his hands
around one thigh and dragged his fingers down her leg, pushing off the ants as
he went.

Ashley started
working on her arms, then noticed ants were all over her shirt. Wailed in
frustration and frantically pulled the shirt up and over her head, taking all
of those ants with it. She flung it away from her, then tried to massacre the
ants on her stomach. Noticed ants all over her skirt. Immediately pulled it
down over her hips.

“Ethan, please help
me.”

He quickly
tugged her skirt the rest of the way down her body and threw it away from her
when she’d stepped out of it.

He went back to
working on her legs. He had gotten most of them off, but the ants from her
upper body had persistently made their way down.

Ashley was
slapping her arms in her frenzy, trying to swipe them from her chest and belly.
It was like a nightmare. She could still feel them, even on the parts of her
skin where they were no longer there.

Ethan’s face was
still focused and purposeful. We’ve almost got them all,” he said, flicking a
few ants off of her shoulders.

“It feels like
there are more.” She ran her hands through her hair and dislodged several from
the strands. Ethan stroked his palms down her back. Then pinched a few ants off
the back of her thighs.

Ethan walked
around her, studying her nearly naked body closely. Ashley wasn’t embarrassed
or self-conscious about standing in her underwear—the frantic desperation was
too strong for that. She was making involuntary gurgling noises in her throat.

“I think
they’re gone,” Ethan said finally, brushing one more off her belly.

It didn’t feel
like they were gone. Ashley was shuddering at the feel of their tiny little
legs on her skin. “Are they still in my hair?”

Ethan buried
his fingers in her hair, pulling down from the roots to search for lurkers.
After a few minutes of this, he said, “They’re all off.”

She didn’t
respond. Just stood naked on the grass, shaking and twitching and occasionally
slapping at her skin. She felt on the verge of collapsing and was desperately
trying to hold it back.

“They’re gone,”
Ethan kept saying quietly. “Ashley, they’re all gone.”

She nodded,
although it still felt like they were all over her.

“Are you okay?”
he asked hoarsely.

She just nodded
again, shaking as she kept trying to control herself.

“It’s okay. It
was awful. You don’t have to act like you’re invulnerable. Not with me.”

The adrenaline had
now left her completely, and she was just standing in her underwear in the
grass in front of Ethan.

She started to
shake as she choked out, “Thank you. For helping me.”

For some
reason, this finally seemed to be the undoing of his composure. His voice broke
as he said, “Ashley, honey, it’s all over now.”

He took her in
his arms, and she felt a little better as she shook against him. She didn’t
like to cry, and she definitely didn’t like to cry in front of Ethan.

He tried to
comfort her as he held her. Said silly, reassuring things like, “It’s all
right,” and “You’re okay.” He stroked her back and hair.

After a few
minutes, she’d pulled herself together and finally looked up at Ethan. He was
watching her carefully. “Are you all right?” he asked softly.

She made
herself nod her head. She still kept having shivers run through her body as she
felt random tickles on her skin and thought they were the ants again.

“Is it all
right if I go take care of your clothes so you can get dressed again?” His face
was strangely stiff and tense.

She cringed at
the thought of her clothes covered with ants. “I don’t know if I can put them
back on.”

“Ashley, you
have to put on some clothes.” His voice wasn’t as sweet as it had been. In
fact, it sounded kind of impatient.

She shifted against
him and suddenly realized why he needed her to get dressed. She felt something
hard against her middle.

“Oh,” she
murmured, finally starting to feel a little self-conscious.

“I’m sorry,” Ethan
muttered, pulling away from her a little. “It’s an involuntary physical
reaction. Doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know.” Ashley
tried to sound light and casual as she stepped back. “I’m sorry I kind of fell
apart. But can you please make sure there aren’t any ants left on my clothes?”

“Of course.” Ethan
stood up and walked over to where they’d tossed her clothes.

Ashley stood
there, trying to think about what she could put on. Now that the ants were
gone, she didn’t really want to be in her underwear.

Then she
remembered Ethan’s camp shirt. He’d thrown it in the back that morning, since
he was wearing Gus’s old T-shirt. Ashley went to retrieve it. It was a bit dirty
and didn’t smell perfectly fresh, but it certainly wasn’t any worse than her
own clothes.

And this shirt
hadn’t been crawling with ants.

She pulled it
on and buttoned four of the buttons. It came down to mid-thigh, and so she felt
far less exposed.

And it smelled
a lot like Ethan.

He came back
then, carrying her clothes. He halted suddenly when he saw what she was wearing
and stared at her strangely.

“I hope it’s
all right,” she said. “I don’t know if I can put my shirt back on—at least not
today. Maybe it’s silly, but the thought of those ants...”

Ethan smiled a
little, although he still looked kind of stressed. “I don’t ever want to wear that
shirt again. You’re welcome to it.” He handed her back her clothes. “I promise
I got rid of all the ants.”

“Thank you,”
she said, a little shyly. “I’m sorry about the little breakdown.”

Ethan’s smile
broadened. “Don’t be. I’d probably act the same way if I were crawling with
ants.” He shuddered, his smile fading. “I almost had a heart attack when I came
back to find you lying there covered with those things.”

“Thanks for
helping me.” Their eyes met, and it was another one of those warm, intimate
gazes that so terrified her. She forced her eyes away from him.

Ethan cleared
his throat. “I’ll give you some privacy to get dressed. I’ll be back in a few
minutes.”

“You don’t have
to—” Ashley began, but he was already out of sight, past the trees.

She was
perfectly decent wearing Ethan’s old shirt. She didn’t need privacy. He didn’t
have to leave her.

She waited for
another minute, but he didn’t reappear. What was he doing anyway?

Then she
thought of something. Remembered how something had felt against her hip. Had a
strong suspicion as to what he might be doing by himself.

It didn’t mean
anything—he had said so himself. He probably would have had the same reaction
if he’d been hugging any woman in her underwear. But it still gave her a little
bit of a thrill that it had been her body that had gotten him into that state.

Even if she had
been covered in ants.

***

When they finally got going again,
it was approaching dinner time. They drove another hour or two, but then the
sun started to set, and a lot of these country roads weren’t marked, so they
missed several of their turns and kept having to back track.

Finally, at
about 9:00, they approached the outskirts of a town. In the distance, Ashley
saw a water tower that read, “Williamstown, Kentucky, Gateway to the
Bluegrass.” They passed a run-down, out-of-the-way motel, and Ethan pulled into
the parking lot without saying anything.

“Are we going
to stay here for the night?” Ashley asked tiredly.

He shrugged.
“Might as well. We’re just wasting our time out there in the dark. We’ll start
off fresh in the morning.”

That sounded
good to Ashley. She was drained and exhausted from her trauma.

They went to
check in and got a single, since those rooms were cheapest. One bed again
tonight.

She hadn’t
expected their luck to improve.

As she lay in
bed while Ethan finished up in the bathroom, Ashley tried to sort out all of
her conflicting feelings. Not surprisingly, most of them revolved around Ethan.

She had worn
his shirt to bed.

He came back
into the bedroom, turned out the light, and crawled in beside her. Ashley felt
the mattress shift under his weight.

“At least the
bad guys haven’t found us yet,” she said, trying to be optimistic.

“They’d be
crazy to want to find us, what with the malfunctioning cars, police chases, and
attack ants. For their own safety, they should just leave us alone.” Ethan’s
voice was clear and wry in the dark room.

Ashley chuckled
and turned over so she was looking at him. She could only see his face very
faintly. “Maybe tomorrow will be better.”

“Don’t even say
it. Tomorrow I’ll probably be shot.”

Ashley stopped
chuckling at the thought of that. “I’m sure we’ll be in Sioux Falls by tomorrow
night.”

“I hope so. The
sooner this wretched trip is over the better.”

And, there,
he’d done it. He’d hurt her again, even though there was no reason why Ashley
should take it personally. Of course, he wanted this trip over with. They’d
been miserable the whole time.

But the end of
the trip meant the end of their connection. They’d go back to how they had
been. Never talking. Barely even acknowledging the other existed.

She’d go off to
college. And Ethan would go back to...something. And she’d never see him again.

“You all
right?” Ethan asked into the silence.

Ashley had no
idea how he’d recognized her shift in mood. Only hoped he hadn’t read her mind.
“Yeah. Better than when the ants were all over me.”

“Me too.”

Ashley sighed again
and rolled over to cling to her edge of the bed. Tried not to think about how
it had felt to wake up that morning cuddled up against Ethan.

She was in
Williamstown, Kentucky—they’d probably gotten no more than six interstate hours
of their twenty-hour road trip—and once again she was sleeping with Ethan Moore.
And that afternoon he had seen her mostly naked. He’d actually put his hands
all over her bare flesh. If the ants hadn’t been there, maybe she’d have felt
differently about the incident. But the ants were something hard to forget.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t dream about them.

She was about
to drift off when something suddenly crossed her mind. She gasped and sat up
straight in the bed.

“What’s wrong?”
Ethan asked urgently, moving into a sitting position as well.

“I just
realized something. I think it’s a very good sign. Our truck made it through
the whole day.”