Drive Me Crazy (9 page)

Adam, Sierra, and Alexis were all watching Kate closely. She didn’t usually take well to commands, and she knew they were waiting for her to say something that had a little bit of backbone. She didn’t. Sierra picked at her fingernails, and Alexis offered them Jake’s van keys to get back. But neither of them said anything more.

As Kate folded the blanket, Adam blurted out, “Gee, Kate, you must really be looking forward to trotting along behind him while he does his thing.”

“What’s that, dude?” Lucas clearly hadn’t heard him, but Kate had. She silenced Adam with a look of pure evil, then grabbed Lucas’s hand and walked away before her friends could do any more damage.

The moon was full when they returned to the resort. Kate followed Lucas down the wooded trail to the lake and his boat. She had finally shaken away the doubt that her friends had begun to plant in her mind at the blues fest, and had resolved to let Lucas take the lead. He clearly had a plan in mind, and she was a willing follower when there were kisses on the agenda.

He stepped into the boat first, then turned to help her in. The waves were echoing with
pat-pat
sounds on the edges of the dock, rocking the long fiberglass hull back and forth against the wood. Kate sat on the driver’s seat while Lucas hauled skis from a storage container on the shore into the boat, then rearranged the life jackets and tow ropes in the side storage bins.

While he worked, Kate was distracted. Even though she and Lucas were finally alone in a gorgeous and romantic setting, she was having trouble concentrating on anything other than Adam.
Who does he think he is?
she wondered, wishing she could just shake his comments off. But as much as she wanted to, Kate couldn’t stop caring about what Adam thought. He was like a termite, burrowing under her skin.

Finally Lucas’s focus returned to Kate. He grabbed a few beach towels from the storage compartment under the front of the boat and laid them down across the open back area. She forced herself to concentrate on the scene at hand, preparing herself for what was to come.

Kate sat watching him. His arms looked extra chiseled in the shadow cast by the moonlight. “Come here.” He gestured for her to join him on the floor of the boat. Then he set a firm cushion up as a backrest for her. She snuggled into the little nest he had created, silently begging him to touch her.

On cue, his right hand slipped into hers. His left reached around her, pressing against her lower back to pull her torso in toward him. She arched slightly from the motion, and her head tilted back. Expertly Lucas swept in and brushed his lips across her neck, sending a hot current rushing through her. His lips traced slowly up her neck, stopping to pull at her ear, then making their way toward her face.

When finally his mouth reached hers, she was ready. It made her insides feel just like they had during the kiss at the end of last summer and erased all thoughts of Adam from Kate’s mind like a magic wand. The questions and doubts were long forgotten in the heat of the moment, and Lucas was the real-life version of her fairy tale Prince Charming once again.

Sierra slid her long sarong off her legs and piled it onto the dock next to her. She sat down, and her left leg stretched across the width of the dock. She gracefully reached her toe out to touch the water. Kate, who was sitting right next to her, stretched her legs out as well and couldn’t even reach the other side of the dock. Making a face, she pulled her legs up against her body and draped a towel across her knees. She leaned her head back against Alexis’s lounge chair and let the sun warm her face.

“You look a little red.” Kate cracked her eyes open—Sierra was leaning over her. Sierra pressed her thumb on Kate’s shoulder and released it, testing for sunburn. “Yeah, you’re red. Do you want me to grab the umbrella from my cabin?”

“I can get it,” Kate offered. She’d been wearing SPF 30 every day since they’d arrived in Love, but still the sun had taken its toll on her bright white skin. “You’re lucky you don’t have to worry about sunburn, Sierra.”

Sierra stood up, stretching her lean body. “Totally false,” she said. “I get sunburned, but dark skin just doesn’t show it as well. But I’ve been known to peel.”

“Where is the umbrella?”

Sierra dipped her foot into the water, then said, “Um, I think it’s in the living room, next to the futon.” Kate set off up the hill, toward Sierra’s family’s cabin. When she returned a few minutes later, giant umbrella in hand, she was giggling.

“What’s funny?” Sierra asked. Alexis peeked her eye open to look at Kate as well. She’d been napping most of the morning in her chair. She and Jake had been up until late the night before. In fact, Kate wasn’t entirely sure Lex had ever made it to bed at all.

“I just fully walked in on your parents making out,” Kate said. She was still giggling, but was also mildly horrified.

“See what I’ve been living with all summer? At least they’re getting along, but it’s disgusting! They’re all over each other all the time.”

“Ew,” Kate said, turning up her upper lip. She inserted the big sun umbrella into one of the holes on the dock and opened it, positioning it so she was shielded from the sun.

Alexis snorted, her eyes still closed. “Ew? You’re not really one to talk, Kat.”

“What?”

“You and Lucas were full-on making out in front of everyone a few nights ago at the blues fest. I thought you hated PDA.”

“I do,” Kate acknowledged. “I didn’t realize he would want to spend the whole night making out. I figured the blues fest was a good chance for us to hang out and chill with everybody. Get to know each other, you know?”

“You know each other now,” Alexis said, and chuckled. “Is he still the man of your dreams, Kitty Kat?”

“He’s great.”

Alexis perched herself up on her elbows, lifting her sunglasses off her eyes to look at Kate seriously. There was a heavy pause before Sierra finally said, “Really?”

“Yeah.” Kate looked at them suspiciously. “Why?”

Sierra dragged her toe through the water, avoiding Kate’s gaze. Alexis blurted out, “Because he doesn’t necessarily seem right for you, sweetie.”

The pit that had been growing in Kate’s stomach dropped like a bowling ball, dragging the remains of her insides along with it. She felt like she was going to puke. Her best friends, the people who knew her better than anyone else in the world, thought she was with the wrong guy. “Why?” she demanded.

“Kate,” Sierra said soothingly, “don’t take it the wrong way.”

“Why can’t you guys just be happy for me?” Kate said angrily. “He’s totally sweet, and kissing him is the best feeling in the world. He makes me feel like a goddess, and he’s excruciatingly hot. It’s perfect, if you ask me.” Alexis and Sierra both sat silently as Kate listed off Lucas’s virtues. “And today I’m surprising him with a picnic out at the island, just the two of us.”

Kate had spent all morning packing a picnic basket full of tasty treats, and as soon as Lucas came down to the dock, she was going to surprise him with a romantic outing. After their quasi-date at the blues fest a few nights before, the last few evenings had been spent around the bonfire with the whole resort crew. She and Lucas had snuck away a few times to make out, but they still hadn’t really gotten any time to talk. He always found another way to spend their time together.

“So you really think he’s going to give up waterskiing today to hang out with you on the island?” Alexis’s doubtful tone frustrated Kate even further.

“Yeah,” Kate retorted. “We talked about it last night. We agreed to spend the afternoon together.” When she saw her friends watching her with true concern on their faces, she softened a little. She realized that if she could share her doubts with anyone, it was with Lex and Sierra. “The thing is, I feel like I hardly know him still. All we ever do is hook up.”

“That’s all Jake and I do,” Alexis said, and beamed proudly. “But that’s all I want to do. Have you guys noticed how
stupid
Jake is? Geez. It’s pretty much impossible to hold a full conversation with him.”

Kate giggled. “Lex! That’s terrible!”

“Seriously, though. He’s not very bright.”

“Okay, so that’s what you’re looking for this summer—but I want more than that.”

“We know you do, Kat. That’s why we’re worried about what you’re going to get with Lucas.” Alexis perched her sunglasses up on her head, pushing her long bangs away from her face.

“All he ever does is water-ski,” Sierra accurately pointed out. “He doesn’t necessarily seem as interested in long afternoons talking and nights curled up together in a blanket under the stars as, say,
you
might be.”

“I see where you’re going with this, but you’re wrong. Besides, after the blues fest we
did
sit in the boat curled up in a blanket under the stars. That counts!” Kate started to feel sort of desperate, realizing that she was trying to convince her best friends of her boyfriend’s strong points—and she was having a hard time making her case. She had to admit that things weren’t turning out exactly as she’d wanted them to.

Kate couldn’t help but wonder if she’d had impossibly high expectations about the summer she’d been waiting for all year. “I’m not ready to call it a lost cause,” she finally said. “And I need you guys to stop questioning it, okay?”

Jake waited until Kate was comfortably situated in the back of the canoe with her picnic basket at her feet, then gave the canoe a push to guide it into the lake. “Have fun!” he called, and Kate could have sworn he was laughing as she clumsily dipped her paddle into the lake.

Kate looked at the empty seat in front of her, where Lucas should have been, and sighed. Less than an hour after her conversation on the dock with Alexis and Sierra, Kate had set off in search of Lucas. Despite the fact that at the bonfire the night before, they had discussed spending the afternoon together, Lucas had apparently decided to go waterskiing at a neighboring lake instead. She found him loading his gear into his family’s car around lunchtime, which meant Kate’s planning and packing had been all for nothing.

She acted as though she didn’t care, and told Lucas to have a good time. He kissed her quickly as he hopped into the car. As soon as he pulled away, Kate decided to head out to the island for a picnic anyway, refusing to let a guy spoil her plans. It would be good for her to get some time to sit and think about things on her own, and she didn’t want to spend the afternoon with her friends looking at her with I-told-you-so looks on their faces. Dipping her paddle into the water again, she felt the canoe tilt dangerously low to one side, and she cursed under her breath.

After spending this many years at a lakeside resort, Kate should have been far more adept at paddling a canoe by herself. But when she tipped the wooden paddle into the water, she realized that she’d always sat in the front of the canoe and let someone else steer. Adam had been that guy when they were kids, and Kate hadn’t done a lot of canoeing since.

She dug her paddle through the calm lake water and attempted a C-stroke to steer the boat toward her favorite island. It was only a few hundred feet offshore, but it looked a million miles away as Kate struggled to turn her boat in the right direction while moving forward at the same time.

The canoe spun in several circles before beginning to make progress away from shore and toward the island. Kate thrust her hand into the picnic basket at her feet and grabbed a handful of M&M’s for sustenance. She needed the chocolate as fuel to make it the rest of the way to her destination. She was sufficiently embarrassed, as well, and was mildly relieved Lucas was out with the guys, since she knew she didn’t look like the vixenlike water goddess she longed to be. She looked slightly more like a water bug, spiraling and spinning in frantic circles in the lake in her canoe.

After a few more large circles Kate finally straightened the boat out and paddled the rest of the way to the island with no further snafus. She was beaming with pride and self-confidence as she eased the front of the canoe up onto the little sandy shoreline and stepped out into the shallow water. After hauling her picnic basket up onshore, she grabbed the tip of the canoe and pulled the boat up onto dry land.

Not exactly the romantic picnic I had planned
, she mused, pulling a woven blanket out of her basket.
Screw him
, she thought, suddenly angry at Lucas for dismissing their date and even angrier at herself for letting herself get so upset about it. She wasn’t comfortable enough with Lucas yet to tell him how pissed she was, which frustrated her even further.

Kate shook the blanket and spread it on the ground under a tall pine tree. Needles had fallen off the tree and created a soft blanket on the ground. She lay down with the picnic basket at her side and closed her eyes, relaxing in the warm afternoon. She tucked her shirt into the underside of her bra, which allowed the warm breeze to float over her bare stomach.

“You look comfy.”

Kate shot up, alarmed at the voice. She had been certain she was alone. There was no other boat onshore, and few people knew the island was a great place for a picnic. She had always believed this place was sort of her little secret. “You didn’t look quite that relaxed in the canoe on your way over here.”

“Adam,” Kate groaned, yanking her shirt out of her bra and pulling it back down over her belly. She recognized the mocking, sarcastic voice even before he came into view from behind some bushes. “Just my luck.”

“Hey, now.” Adam looked hurt. “I’m just teasing.”

Kate closed her eyes again and lay back on the blanket. “I know. It’s been a crap day,” she muttered. “I’m not really in the mood.”

“There’s always room for teasing, even in a bad day,” Adam said, and grinned. “Right?”

“Your annoying comments? Not so appreciated today, okay?”

Adam sat, uninvited, and dipped his hand into Kate’s picnic basket. He pulled out the loaf of bread she had packed, ripped a chunk off the end, and stuffed it into his mouth. “Mmm.”

“You’re a pig,” Kate declared. “This…” She sat up and gestured toward her basket. “Not your picnic.” She realized she was being especially abrasive, but after being ditched by one guy that day, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with another. And a part of her still saw this as Lucas’s picnic. Watching Adam eat it was making things worse.

“Come on, Kate.” Adam looked at her seriously. “Don’t take it out on me. I don’t know what happened, but I seriously doubt it’s my fault.”

“Fine. Eat whatever you want. No one else is going to.” Kate’s mood was quickly souring. She had gotten up that morning planning to spend the afternoon alone with Lucas, and now she was stuck alone on an island with Adam.
Great
.

Adam munched on his bread. “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked so simply, so genuinely that she was tempted. It really seemed like he cared, but she knew he had an agenda. He was so bent on criticizing both her and Lucas, and she knew he was just fishing for something else to be rude about.

“Not really,” she finally muttered. She knew Adam would be full of arrogant I-told-you-so’s if she ’fessed up to what was going on.

“Okay.” Adam started to stand up.

Without thinking, Kate grabbed his arm. “Stay,” she insisted. She didn’t know why she wanted him there, but she suddenly didn’t want to be alone.

“I was just going to grab my banjo. It’s in my kayak on the other side of the island.” Adam smiled. “I thought you might like some music.”

She nodded. When he returned a few minutes later, she had scooted over on the blanket to give him room. Though she was lying down with her eyes closed, she could feel him watching her. “What?” she demanded.

When he didn’t respond, she cracked her eyes open and peeked at him. The look on his face was strange, an expression she hadn’t ever seen on him. He was squinting in the filtered sunlight, but his eyes were firmly locked on her face. When he realized she was looking back at him, he blinked and coughed a little.

“Do you want some chocolate?” Kate offered, just to say something. Before he could reply, Kate blurted out, “Can I be honest about something?”

“In my experience you’ve been honest about everything,” Adam said.

“That’s just me.”

“I know.”

Kate relaxed into their easy banter. “I’ve never been good with the filter.”

“Really?”

Kate sat up and narrowed her eyes playfully. “Are you being sarcastic with me?”

“Who, me? Sarcastic?” Adam grinned and pulled his knees up against his chest.

“I just don’t like wasting time figuring out what people are really thinking. It seems to make more sense to just say what you have on your mind and move on.” Kate picked at a piece of fuzz that was sticking out of the blanket beneath her leg. “If people are honest about what they’re thinking and feeling and whatever, everyone knows where everyone stands. You avoid that whole level of confusion that’s introduced into situations when people say things they don’t really mean and then get upset when things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to.”

Kate stopped rambling and pulled at the fuzz. It had pulled loose from the blanket and she twisted it around her finger like a tiny sleeping bag. Adam watched her fingers do their work and said, “So you’re trying to tell me you’re always honest and straightforward?”