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

“Dad understood. We’ve always been alike, and I think that pissed Mom off more than anything, so when he got really ill, I split.”


“Yeah.” Zen nodded. “There was nothing to be done, and Dad didn’t want me to watch him die. We closed shop, and I went to Scotland.”


“You went to Scotland?” Fred stared at him as if he’d gone insane. Maybe he was insane. He’d abandoned his father on his deathbed.


“Dad always dreamed about riding a bike around Scotland, so I did.” Zen swallowed hard, his eyes stung, but he blinked hard to make it pass.


“I went where he’d always wanted to go, did what he always wanted to do.”


Chapter 12