The sight of Gabe tapping his brakes brought Olivia back to the present. She could just make out through the camper shell that he was pointing for her to take the open spot at her right between an SUV and a Prius. Olivia’s stomach filled with unease as she sized up the opening. It seemed just big enough to park in—at least for those who knew how to parallel park and hadn’t learned to drive in a place where parallel parking was almost nonexistent.

Olivia was pretty sure she’d make the list of worst parallel parkers in the brief history of automobile driving, and typically she went to extreme lengths to avoid it. As she glanced up and down the crowded street, her palms began to sweat. There didn’t seem to be anything bigger than the spot he was waving her into.

Tension set up in her shoulders, but she did her best to shake it off and pulled forward next to the front car, the SUV, until her mirror was adjacent to the back tire. Then she slipped into reverse and did the hard turn she knew she was supposed to do. Perhaps her inadequacy had something to do with poor depth perception because she immediately began to feel as if she were angled all wrong.

Seeing that Gabe was busy parking fifty feet up the road, she slipped her car into drive and started over, determined to get it right. After toggling between forward and reverse several times, her confidence swelled. She had managed to park parallel to the curb and equidistant between both cars.

It wasn’t until she stepped out that she realized she’d done everything else right, but she was a good two and a half feet from the curb, and Gabe, who had parked and was headed for her, seemed to have noticed but had the expression of someone who was trying not to.

“Ah, yeah, full disclosure. If my survival ever depends on my ability to parallel park on the spot, I’m pretty sure my odds are dismal.”

Gabe laughed, a deep, rolling laugh that reverberated through his chest and sent pleasure all the way down to her toes. “It’s not so tough once you get used to it. And what you did here isn’t bad, but drivers cut through this street, and I’d hate for you to get clipped. Why don’t you get back in, and I’ll give you a few pointers so it’s easier next time?”