In twenty minutes flat, they rolled into town despite the heavy fall traffic along the route. She hadn’t achieved it by speeding, well, not any more than he would, but rather by not wasting a single second during the entire passage.
She parked with the same efficiency and speed that she drove. Had there been two fewer inches, they wouldn’t have fit. She nailed the parallel parking on her first try without so much as a hesitation. That was creepy; nobody did that.
By the time Vern was able to release his stranglehold on the door handle and climb out of the car, Denise had transformed back. No race-car-skilled driver in evidence, no rock and roll; she was once again the quiet woman he’d thought he knew at least a bit.
He rested a hand against the slender trunk of a handy maple tree to mak
