A good half hour later and Mason was on a prayer that sounded eerily familiar to something said in Buddhism as we jerked and started along the dirt road near Tommy's driveway, and I shifted the gears again irritably. Tom just sat there calmly—way too calmly. So I had angered the guy? Big deal. Breathe already.
"Your going to strip the gears, Harrison." He finally remarked as I threw him a scathing look.
"You should have thought about that thirty minutes ago." I remarked simply as he grinned. Okay, so we had gone from disbelief, to shock, to anger, to grinning. Why did that frighten me?
"And miss this enjoyably bumpy ride highlighted by bruised buttocks and aching backs? Now, why would I do a thing like that?" Tommy asked as I growled. Something told me he had put me in this seat to annoy me. I shouldn't let him get his wish, but hey, the man had a way with proposition. The driveway sloped and I shifted again as Mason started in on something along the lines of "And should I walk through the valley of death." Okay, give me a break.
"And just when I thought my day was going to be without entertainment…" Tommy continued as I pummeled the wheel with my fist. Ohhhhhhh! The guy was so dead blasted….so grievously….infuriatingly hellish. Yeah, that worked. That thought swamped me as I drove, and that's when I removed my foot from the clutch as the driveway hit its highest slope—a descent that headed straight for the garage. The truck sped up as it flew toward the structure and Mason gasped as Tommy swore.
"The clutch! Hit the clutch, Harrison!" Tommy yelled as I panicked. Mason just began an incessant chanting of 'Oh God, Oh God!" My nerves were on edge as I started pounding at the floorboard—searching for the clutch as the building drew nearer until Tommy's weight suddenly suffocated me as he unbuckled his seat belt and dove across my lap—hitting the clutch just as the vehicle rammed into the back of the garage—creating a hole about the size of Tom's sister, Maddie. Great job, Harrison! I pushed at Tom's body as he leaned heavily back against the seat.
"Well, that was fin. You guys wouldn't possibly want to do it again, would you?" I asked merrily as both guys glared in my direction. I threw my hands up into the air.
"Hey, we could look at it this way. I managed to enlarge the garage." I stated stoically as Tommy suddenly laughed. I couldn't help it, I laughed with him as Mason cursed and pushed open his door mumbling something along the lines of how insane people shouldn't be allowed to mingle with the general public. I just kept laughing—glancing over at Tom in the small space as I did. Something was changing between us. I could feel it in the way we had fought before—in the way we seemed to accept each other's anger now. Age might have been an excuse before but now it just seemed as if all the barriers were breaking—as if life was becoming clearer somehow. Tom leaned toward me, and I held my breath just as he brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. His lips neared mine…
"What in God's name happened here?" A voice asked loudly as we both turned to find half of Tom's family standing outside the vehicle. Tom just shrugged as I burst into laughter again.
"We're redecorating." I muttered as Tommy snickered while his family just looked on with a mix of disbelief and amusement. The two of us really did have a way with entertaining. Catalina watched us quietly as she motioned toward the house.
"Well, if you're done with that, the guests have already started arriving." She announced as I rolled my eyes. Oh, this ought to be interesting. I even swore I heard Tommy groan as his brother Matthew grinned.
"I even plan on performing a song." Matthew proclaimed as everyone sighed.