Fred Munson likes his job as a traffic cop. He’s good at it. It’s his personal life that could use some improvement. With no friends, and being too shy to talk to anyone while out of uniform, when Fred is forced to use some of his vacation time, he has nothing to fill his days. At least not until he comes home to find his driveway blocked by a stranger with car troubles. A month after losing his father, Zen Zeppelin Cave has also lost his place in the world. The only thing holding him together is focusing on a charity junk car race to raise money for cancer research. And he's crossing that finish line even if he ends up replacing every part of the car along the way. Zen had planned on completing the race on his own, but a spur-of-the-moment decision changes that when he invites the adorable, blushing police officer whose driveway he’s blocking to tag along. Going with a stranger on a road trip is completely out of Fred’s comfort zone, so when he accepts the invitation, no one is more surprised than himself. Together, Zen and Fred head south. But will the old junk car hold together long enough to reach their destination? And will crossing the finish line mean the end of the road for a budding romance, or will they find there’s more to their journey?

Banger Challenge

He walked a few steps down the road, turned around, and walked back again. He repeated the action fifteen times before he figured the engine had cooled enough not to blow up in his face when he opened the radiator cap.


As he grabbed the rag, a car turned off the freeway and headed right for him. A quick look around confirmed there was no way for the car to get past. His only concern had been to get off the freeway. He hadn’t thought anyone else would drive in on a small gravel road like this one.


The car, a fairly new Honda Accord, came to a stop right in front of him. The white enamel paint was shining, not a scratch in sight. They were good cars, some trouble with the transmission in the earlier models, but this was newer and it looked well taken care of.


You could tell a lot about a person by having a look at his or her car.


Chapter 5