“Okay.” Brian took a breath, then put the car in gear and lifted his foot. They crept forward. The gravel of the shoulder crunched under their wheels. “Should it sound like that?”
“When you get on the fucking road, it won’t.”
“What if something comes along?”
“They’ll pass you. Not like there’s much traffic. Pick it up, Buttercup.”
“You hang around Charlie too much.” Brian slowly stepped on the gas and eased off the shoulder until they were doing thirty-five along the paved road. Nick bit his tongue and let Brian try out the steering. He hoped no cop was watching for drunks this far off the freeway.
It got better. He had Brian turn onto a smaller road that turned to gravel, leaving a banner of dust billowing behind them. A few cars came by, passing them with an irritated swoop. Brian held his white-knuckled course. By the fifth one he’d relaxed a bit.
The light was getting lower, sun glinting off the mirrors, and Nick started to say, “Pull over.” Suddenly, a dark shape vaulted out of nowhere in front of the car. “Fuck!”
Brian yelped and yanked on the wheel. The car spun, careening out of the lane. There was a thump, and they jolted. Nick’s seatbelt locked. Grinding. Crunching. Nick’s side of the car dipped low. Then they stopped, half in the ditch.
Brian panted in shallow, shocky breaths, his whole body rigid. “Did I hit someone? Did I kill someone again?”
“No. Easy!” Nick cautiously rubbed Brian’s rock-tense arm. “It was a deer. That’s all.”
“I killed a deer?” Brian’s voice wasn’t any calmer.
“Probably not. We didn’t hit it that hard.” Nick kept rubbing. “Breathe. Take a breath.” He glanced at the dashboard. “Put it in park. I’m gonna get out and see what’s what.”
“Put where?”
“The car. Put it into park. The gearshift.”
“Park.” Brian peeled one hand off the wheel, fumbled with the lever, then grabbed the wheel again.
Nick verified the “P” before he said, “You can take your foot off the brake now.”
“I… oh. Oh.” Very slowly Brian sank into his seat, and his rigid pose relaxed.
“Good job. You did good to pull that off.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Brian said, staring blankly out the windshield. “Just don’t.”
“No. Really.” Nick reached out to turn Brian to look at him, then thought better of it and unbuckled himself so he could lean across and meet Brian’s eyes that way. “Deer are suicidal motherfuckers. They come out of nowhere. Drive long enough, and you’re guaranteed to hit one.”
“Have you?”
“Hell, yeah. Right in the fucking city.” Nick shifted his weight toward the door. The car didn’t rock, so he figured it wasn’t too unstable. “Now, hold still. I’m getting out.”
“Are you sure? We’re tipping.”
“It’s not that bad.” Cautiously, Nick opened his door. They were tilted at an angle, and the corner of the door dug into the loose soil at the edge of the ditch, but they weren’t going anywhere scary. All four wheels were on the dirt. “No, we’re fine.” He eased out and scrambled up to the road. There was no sign of the deer, and no major blood on the road. He went over to Brian’s window. “I think Bambi made it too.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
It was good to see a little color come back in Brian’s face. “Can I get out, you think?”
Nick eyed the angle and the wheels. “Yeah. Go slow.”
Brian eased his door open and unfolded himself from the car. Nick grabbed his hand to tug him up to level ground, and then his arms were full of big, shaking man. For a moment, he held on tight and let himself shake too. God, for a second there… He couldn’t finish the thought.
It was Brian who pulled free first and rubbed his face with his palm. “Right. Now we have to figure out how to get the fucking car onto the fucking road, right?”
Nick laughed. No choice, when Brian was being tough and foul-mouthed, except to follow his lead. “Yep. Let’s look at the fucking problem.”
It could’ve been worse. They’d lost a front turning light to Bambi, which he’d have to get fixed before they got pulled over for it. There was a clump of tan fur trapped in the broken plastic lens. Brian pulled it free and stared at it silently, then scanned the sunset landscape before tossing it aside and wiping his fingers. He said nothing, though, so Nick moved on to checking the tires and wheels, and how deep they were into the soft side of the ditch.