The long stick shift pressed against the outside of Bette’s left thigh when Tina pulled off the dirt road and onto the highway and shifted into fourth gear.  Tina glanced over and smiled apologetically, but she wasn’t really sorry.  Her fingers had grazed the bare skin of Bette’s leg in the process and sent tingles up from her fingers to her arm and into her stomach.

Bette sat in the middle of the Chevy’s bench seat with her legs crowding over to the right, next to her aunt’s, and she smiled coyly at Tina’s touch.

“You could have driven the Buick, Christina,” Miriam said as she saw the cramped condition of her niece’s legs.

“But I like driving my truck,” Tina replied.  Sitting at a traffic stop now, she revved her engine and pealed out a little and then laughed when Miriam gave her a scolding look.

“I best not get a call from Ben Tucker you’ve been caught drag racing the boys again.  And don’t challenge anyone up in Knoxville.  I don’t want to have the Sheriff drive me up there to bail you out of traffic jail,” Miriam said sternly.

Bette chuckled.  “You drag race, Tina?”

“Yep.  Win every time too,” she smiled and then she added, “Boys hate being beaten by a girl, but oh it’s so sweet!”

The two girls giggled and Miriam harrumphed.  “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you, young lady.”

At that the girls giggled again.

They reached the beauty parlor and Miriam got one last word in before she got out of the cab of the truck.  “Now I mean it.  You drive responsibly and don’t try showing off for Elizabeth.  And check in at home when you get back into town before you two head out to the reservoir as well.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tina responded respectfully.  “We should be home by lunch time.”

“See you in a few hours,” Bette said to her aunt and she kissed the woman’s cheek and then slid over next to the passenger’s window and watched as Tina helped her aunt up the curb and into the shop. 

Through the window of the shop, Bette could see two or three other women about her aunt’s age sitting in a row.  One looked like a woman who had played Scrabble at the house just yesterday afternoon.  Each woman was in various stages of getting their hair washed, straightened, or died.  They all looked up and smiled and waved when Tina and Miriam entered, and then Bette watched as Tina went over and spoke to one of the attendants and then hugged another lady before she came back out and hopped in the truck and started the powerful engine.