Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Part Two: What Happened That (Other) Night; Chapter Forty-One: Joe, August

Friday.

Here was a conundrum: you had two vehicles, both being used to drive a caravan of vacationers two hours along Highway Seven to Harrison Hot Springs. One was a Toyota Highlander, which seated seven people maximum, but it wasn't a comfortable fit, plus there was all the luggage to stow. The other was a Nissan Versa, which seated five maximum, but it was definitely not a comfortable fit, and there was all the luggage to stow. You had eight vacationers with all their luggage. Neither car would hold all of them, but the Highlander might hold all their luggage. Joe understood the math, and he understood they would have to use both vehicles to hold them all comfortably (Al and Rachel proposed a Modo vehicle for their own use, but that was costly, and they already had two vehicles they could use); what he couldn't figure was how to arrange all the vacationers between the two cars to make everybody happy, but mainly make him happy.

Emma and Naomi had to sit together. Everyone agreed on that. Naomi and Emma also wanted to sit with Rachel, because apparently she was the It adult in the group. Logan didn't care where he sat. Tosh preferred the Highlander. Joe had to drive the Highlander because it was the only vehicle of the two he was comfortable occupying for a two hour stretch. That meant Lauren had to drive the Versa, because only she or Joe could drive each other's vehicles and still be insured. Thus lay the main problem: where to put Rachel and Al. If they both sat in the same vehicle, which one? If the Versa, then one would get the front passenger seat while the other sat in the cramped back seat with two of the kids. One of them couldn't be Logan, because he was too tall and lanky. Emma and Naomi would be thrilled to have Auntie Rachel in the backseat with them, but it wouldn't be fair to Rachel to cramp her back there, because she was tall as well.  They could both sit in the Highlander, he supposed, and Rachel could sit in the middle row of seats with Emma and Naomi, leaving Tosh in the cramped back row. It would put Al in the front passenger seat, though, because the very back was too cramped for a man his size, and Joe had no appetite to have him in the front with him, because he could barely look at him right now. If Al were to just not come at all, it would make this so much easier.

The matter hadn't been settled yet by the time both vehicles pulled up in front of Rachel and Al's place, ready to set off, but to Joe's relief, Al seemed to intuit the discomfort between them, even if neither of them ever mentioned it to the other. He offered to ride in the Versa, with or without Rachel, but here lay the bigger problem: if he rode without Rachel, he would be in the car alone with Lauren, and that was the source of his problem with Al. One of the kids had to sit in the car with them, then, but who? Emma and Naomi would want to sit with Rachel in the Highlander. Tosh wanted the Highlander. Logan?

Nobody volunteered and, even more infuriating, Lauren didn't ask for volunteers. It appeared all the kids wanted to sit in the larger, more comfortable vehicle. So, he drove with Logan in the front passenger seat, Rachel, Naomi and Emma in the middle row, and Tosh in the back row, completely content to read or listen to music by himself.

Before they set off, but after Lauren and Al set off, completely unconcerned with his conundrum, apparently, he took Rachel aside after the kids got in the car and said, "What just happened here?"

She blinked at him and said, "I don't know what you mean."

"Lauren and Al in the car alone? Isn't this a little asymmetrical?"

She squinted at him and said, "Are there rules for seating on a family vacation?"

"Come on. Al and Lauren alone? Are you comfortable with this?"

"Why wouldn't I be comfortable with this, Joe? What do you think is going to happen on the two hour drive?"

He shrugged and squirmed under her gaze. "I don't know."