She clapped her hands with delight. “Sure.”
“Go easy on my clutch,” Linc said over his shoulder as he returned to the kitchen. “She’s delicate.”
“What’s a clutch?” Amanda asked in all seriousness.
Linc spun around, looking stricken. “Oh my God.”
Landon laughed at the face his father made. “Relax, Dad. We’ll take good care of her. Don’t worry.” He retrieved their coats off the row of hooks that were labeled with each of their names. His was second to last.
“I know I’ve said it before, but those hooks are the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Landon held her coat for her. “Ever?”
Amanda turned her back to him and slid the coat on. “Ever. I love your family.”
“They love you, too.”
She turned back to face him. “Do you think so?”
He scooped her hair out of the back of her coat and let it slide through his fingers. “I know so. They tease you like you’re one of us. That’s always a good sign.”
“They do make me laugh, that’s for sure.”
They walked outside to the Range Rover that was his dad’s pride and joy. Landon helped her get settled in the passenger seat. When he was seated in the driver’s seat, he pointed to the pedals on the floor. “Note the presence of the third pedal.”
“What is that?”
“The clutch. Pressing that allows you to change gears. I’ll show you.” He wiggled the stick shift to take it out gear and fired up the engine. “Watch.” He pushed in the clutch and shifted the car into Reverse. “The secret to driving a stick is releasing the clutch slowly as you give it gas.” The car began to roll backward. “See?”
“I think so.”
At the end of the driveway, he brought the car to a stop. “I’m pressing the clutch again to go from Reverse to first gear.”
“How can you tell where the gears are?”
He pointed to the drawing on the shifter nob. “This is a five-speed, so there’s a fifth gear for when you’re on the highway.” With the car in first, he slowly released the clutch as he gave it some gas.
“How do you know when to shift?”
“Listen.” As the engine revved, he shifted into second. “You hear how it seems to be asking for the next gear?”
“Um, not really.”
“Keep listening. You’ll hear it. After a while, it becomes instinctual. You know right when to shift based on how the car is performing.”
“This is more complicated than I thought it would be.”
“It’s really not once you get a feel for it. The hardest thing about driving a stick is when you’re stopped on a hill. That’s how Hunter taught me, and I was freaking out.”
“How come?”
“When you drive an automatic, the car stays in place when you go from braking to accelerating. It wants to roll backward with a stick. That’s why going from stop to start on a hill is the hardest part. I’ll show you.” Landon drove them a couple of miles to the access road that led up to Colton and Lucy’s mountaintop home and brought the car to a stop on the hill. “The trick to this is working the fine line between where the clutch releases and the accelerator kicks in. But first, this is what happens if you don’t hit that sweet spot.” He demonstrated how the car would roll backward. “If you’re stopped at a light with a car behind you when that happens, that’s a problem.”
“There’s no way I can do this.”
He laughed. “Of course you can. This is how you make it so that doesn’t happen. You release the clutch at the same time you push the accelerator.”
“What about the brake?”
“You don’t need it.”
“Oh my God. No way.”
Laughing, he said, “It’s also critical to never leave a manual transmission out of gear when you park on a hill. You want to put it in gear and make sure the emergency brake is on, or it’s apt to roll away.”
“That can happen?”
“Yep. Happened to me once, and the car got wrapped around a tree. My father was not happy. I spent an entire weekend banging out the dent in the trunk while he reminded me—repeatedly—that I was lucky the car only hit a tree and not a person.”
“Yikes.”
“My argument was that if it hadn’t been in gear, how could I have walked away from it?”
“So wait, it can pop out of gear?”
“Yep, which is why the brake is critical. The emergency brake on that car had been broken for a while when that happened. My dad had to eventually concede that I was right about leaving it in gear. He paid to get the brake fixed.”
They arrived at the top of the mountain, where the family’s sugaring operation was headquartered. Colton and Lucy lived in a cabin on the property.
Landon turned the vehicle to head back down the hill. “This is where driving a stick is fun.”
“What’re you doing?”
“Point and shoot.” He let the car roll down the hill, gaining speed as it went until Amanda was screaming and laughing as he navigated each curve, bringing the car to a stop at the bottom of the hill. “Fun, right? It’s like sledding in a car.”
“You’re insane.”
“I know every bend and hook of that road. You were never in any danger.”
“Whatever you say. Please don’t get me killed before I have the chance to meet my daughter.”
“You’re completely safe with me.” He glanced over at her. “You want to try it?”
“Uh, not really.”
“Oh, come on. Where’s my daring, wild badass who wants to try everything?”
“I’m afraid of wrecking your dad’s prized Range Rover.”
“You won’t wreck it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Come on… Be wild.”
She blew out a breath. “If you say so.”
Landon turned the car around so they were positioned facing the uphill climb, applied the emergency brake and got out of the car. They met in front, and he kissed her. “You got this.”
“I sure hope so.”
“Your ankle feels okay?”
“Yeah, it’s good.”
“All right, then, take me for a ride.” He waggled his brows for emphasis.
Amanda laughed, got into the driver’s seat and adjusted the seat closer to the pedals.
“Release the emergency brake and then get a feel for the clutch. This one releases close to the top.”
“Like this?” The car lurched forward and stalled.
Landon bit his lip to keep from laughing. “Not quite.”
She glared at him. “I can hear you laughing.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Liar.”
“Try again.” He walked her through the steps needed to get the car moving forward. As they crested the hill, he told her to stop. “Take it out of gear, release the clutch and hit the brake. Good. Now, this is the test.”
“I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. There’s nothing behind you to hit, so if the car rolls back a bit, you’re fine.”