Page 36 of Out of Place

I nod, squeezing the steering wheel a little harder. There aren’t any cars behind me, so I go pretty slowly down the road. A lot slower than the speed limit sign tells me to go.

“You might want to go a little faster, sweetheart.”

“I’m trying,” I snap. If he’s bothered by my tone, he doesn’t show it.

My foot presses against the gas pedal, and we jerk in our seats. I immediately remove my foot. “Shit.”

Landon puts his hand on my thigh. “You’re doing great. There’s no one around. It’s ok to make mistakes.”

I take a deep breath before I put my foot back on the gas and slowly put pressure on it. Our speed goes up, but not at a jarring rate like last time. He squeezes my thigh, and I finally start to relax a little as we cruise down the road.

I stop at the stop sign and look all ways before continuing. Things are actually going well. I’m feeling good, like maybe I can do this.

We come to an intersection, but there’s no stop sign, so I keep going. But apparently that was wrong because Landon goes, “Shit, Olivia. That was a red light. You’ve got to stop at those.”

I wince. “I was only looking for stop signs.”

He chuckles. “Alright, you’ve gotta be looking for signs and lights, ok?”

I exhale. There’s so much to remember. “Ok.”

Suddenly, there’s a loud siren, and I see red and blue lights behind us in my rearview mirror. Landon sees them, too.

“Shit,” he mumbles. “I didn’t see him.”

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“We’re getting pulled over.”

“What?” My voice is louder and squeaky because what? Pulled over? This is the last thing I need right now.

“It’s alright, calm down. Just pull over slowly to the shoulder over here.” I go where he points me, and the police car stops behind us. The officer gets out and goes to Landon’s side of the truck.

“Hey, Dean,” Landon greets the officer like he’s known him for years. Which he probably has.

“I thought this was your truck, Landon. Was like, what’re you doin’ running through stop lights?” the officer asks. Thankfully, he’s smiling and doesn’t look as scary as I was expecting. . . except for that gun on his hip.

“Sorry, man. I’m teaching my girl how to drive. It’s a little overwhelming for her. She didn’t realize there was a light back there.”

His girl? He called me his girl to a complete stranger. He wouldn’t even come inside when he dropped me off last night and hasn’t even kissed me. This is so not how I’m used to relationships going. He also didn’t even ask me if I wanted to be his girl. It feels awfully presumptuous of him. I keep my mouth shut, though, because I have a tiny suspicion that being his girl might just help in this situation.

The officer looks through the window at me, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, probably because I’m a grown woman who doesn’t know how to drive. “She doesn’t have a license?”

“No. Not yet. I was trying to get her used to being behind the wheel. To get her license, she needs forty hours of drive time,” Landon answers while I sit here wondering how he even knows that.

The officer sighs. “Alright. I won’t give you a ticket, but I need you to switch places. She shouldn’t be on the main roads until she knows the basics, man.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thanks, Landon. Now, y’all be careful.”

Landon nods. “We will.”

The officer walks back to his truck, and I watch in the rearview mirror as he turns his lights off and drives away.

“Alright, let’s switch, and I’ll take you back to Dottie’s,” Landon says, unbuckling his seat belt. I do the same, and we get out and change sides.

“Sorry I got us pulled over,” I tell him when he’s started down the road again.