Drive Me Crazy

by Samantha Chase

  Stepping into the elevator with a mild curse, she slammed the number six key and was thankful for a few moments to herself. Looking down at the phone clutched in her hand, she almost willed it to ring again so she could finally let loose all the thoughts swirling in her head.

  But then something occurred to her.

  What exactly was she going to say? Other than being pissed that he butt-dialed her, what else could she possibly say? How smart was it for her to call him right now? If getting over Finn and doing the whole clean break thing they should’ve done weeks ago was what she needed to do, wouldn’t calling him be counterproductive?

  When the doors slid open on her floor, Grace felt a sense of loss. To call Finn or not to call Finn? Had she just walked off the beach for nothing?

  “Welp, I’m here. Might as well go inside,” she said, unlocking the door and walking into the condo. She immediately went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water before walking out onto the balcony and staring out at the scenery. The sky was so blue, and the beach looked just as beautiful from up here as it had while she was walking it. “Maybe I’ll try again later.”

  Leaning on the balcony rail, she sighed and wondered if it was too early to call for Chinese takeout.

  “I’m an adult and I can eat when I want,” she said with a pout. “Too bad bakeries don’t deliver. I really should have bought those brownies I saw earlier. Stupid healthy eating.”

  “Grace Mackie!”

  Straightening, she looked around and thought for sure she was hearing things. It was a bit noisy up here and it was possible that she just thought she heard her name being called. And really, who around here would be shouting her name?

  “Grace!”

  Looking down at the street, she saw people walking, cars driving by, but…nothing really stood out to her.

  Then her phone rang. She had placed it on the counter in the kitchen and she ran to get it.

  Finn.

  “That can’t be a coincidence, can it?” she whispered, almost afraid to answer it. But she did reach for it and quickly swiped the screen. “Hello?”

  “Grace Mackie,” he said, breathless and his voice a little hoarse, “could you please, for the love of it, tell the security staff down here by the pool that I know you and I can come up?”

  “What?” she cried. “What are you talking about?”

  He let out a long breath. “I am downstairs, and because I’m not a resident, I can’t get in. So, can you please tell them it’s all right?”

  “Finn, I’m not at home, and I don’t have security, so…I don’t know where you are, but…”

  “Could you just go back out onto the balcony please!” he begged.

  She immediately ran back out and looked down. “Where are you?”

  “By the gate next to the pool,” he said, and sure enough, there he was. Waving up at her, he said, “Now, can you please wave so this burly guard here beside me knows I’m talking to you, and then you can get on the phone with him to confirm all this?”

  She waved frantically. “Of course! Of course! Put him on!”

  “Ms. Mackie? This is Garrett Holmes with resort security. Do you know this man? This Finn Kavanagh?”

  “Yes!” she cried anxiously. “Yes, and it’s completely okay for you to send him up!”

  “Thank you, ma’am,” he said, and before Grace could say anything else, he hung up the phone.

  She immediately sprang into action and began to look around frantically. All of her anger toward him from a few moments ago was gone. If he was here, that was a sign, right? A good one! Finally!

  The place was clean, she looked a little like a windblown mess but knew she had one very important thing to do before Finn was at her door. Running around, she found what she needed and had barely time to finish before there was a knock on the door. Squealing with excitement, she quickly made her way over and pulled the door open.

  And was more than a little surprised by the angry look on his face.

  It was hard to hold on to the pretense of being annoyed when Grace opened the door and looked so wide-eyed and happy and sexy as hell. Finn glanced at her face and then downward, and that almost made him break into a smile.

  Today’s shirt was one he had seen before that said, “You Had Me at Tacos,” and it reminded him of their time in Albuquerque.

  And she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  Damn her.

  His eyes slowly wandered up to meet her curious–and now slightly miffed–gaze. “Grace Mackie, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a dozen times, you drive me crazy.”

  Her beautiful blue eyes instantly went wide again. “What? Me?”

  Finn didn’t wait for an invitation; he took a menacing step forward and kept going until he was inside and slamming the door closed behind him. He dropped his duffel bag on the ground and Grace moved backward until she bumped into a sofa. “Yeah, you,” he said, his voice low and–he hoped–intimidating.

  Then she seemed to come to her senses because she straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t do anything!” she argued. “So if you’ve got a problem, that’s all on you.”

  He took another step forward until they were toe to toe. “No, it’s all on you.” Now they were almost nose to nose, and he had to fight the urge to kiss her.

  Grace dropped her arms to her sides as her gaze slowly met his. They were silent except for some heavy breathing, and he wondered what she was going to do or say next.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  “You must have broken several speed laws to get here this fast. You normally refuse to go over seventy-five miles per hour on the interstates. So how fast were you going?”

  “Five hundred and fifty miles per hour,” he replied calmly. “Give or take.”

  “What?” she cried, shoving him back a bit. “How…? You can’t…I mean…a car doesn’t…”

  Now he did let himself smile. “You’re right. A car doesn’t go that fast, but then again, I never said I drove here.”

  She gasped softly and was practically pressed up against him now, her soft hands on his chest. “But…you don’t fly. You hate flying. You said you’d never fly again.”

  Unable to help himself, he reached up and cupped her face in his hands. “And I probably would have stuck to that way of thinking for the rest of my life if I’d never met you.”

  “I don’t understand…”

  There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t go another minute without kissing her. In the blink of an eye, Finn captured her lips with his and kissed her as if his life depended on it.

  And right now, it totally did.

  Grace was up on her tiptoes and pressed against him from head to toe and it was better than he remembered. His arms banded around her and he knew for certain now that he never wanted to let her go. This was what had been missing from his life. She was what had been missing.

  They moved clumsily across the room until they fell onto the sofa, and the feel of her body stretched out on top of him, straddling him, had thoughts of anything but making love to her flying right out of his head. Grace broke the kiss and quickly sat up. He saw her reach for the hem of her t-shirt and he immediately stopped her.

  “Don’t,” he said breathlessly. “Not yet.” His hands skimmed up and cupped her breasts, and a slow smile spread across his face. “I kept thinking about what I should’ve brought with me to try to win you over. Tacos never occurred to me.”

  Throwing back her head, she laughed hysterically. His hands stayed exactly where they were and she felt glorious in his hands. Gently he squeezed and kneaded her breasts until she stopped laughing and looked down at him. “The only thing you needed to bring was yourself,” she said softly. “You have no idea how much it means to me that you did this, Finn. That you conquered your fear so you could get here.”

  As much as he hated to release her, he did. There was no way they could have a conversation while he toyed with her breasts. “I
should have done it sooner,” he said gruffly. “I should have done it weeks ago. Hell, I should have done it right after you left to go home that day.”

  She smiled sadly at him. “We both know you couldn’t have done it then. There was too much you had to do, and we said we weren’t going to do that. Clean break.”

  Reaching up, he placed a finger over her lips. “I never want to hear that phrase ever again. It was wrong to even think it was a good idea in the first place.” His hand moved up to caress her cheek and then to anchor in her hair. “I kept thinking it was just a fluke. That what happened between us was just because of the crazy circumstances and that once we went back to our regular lives it would be okay, and I’d be able to move on.” He shook his head. “But I can’t. I’m in love with you, Grace.”

  A very satisfied grin crossed her face and he had a feeling she might be a little smug about his confession. Mainly because she had been trying to tell him how she felt while they were making their way home and he refused to believe it could be true.

  “I didn’t think it was possible,” he went on. “Nothing like that had ever happened to me before and…I don’t know…it almost seemed too crazy or too good to be true.” He gripped her hair a little harder. “You seemed too good to be true–even when you were making me crazy.”

  Her smile grew.

  “You once told me you believed love was more than just having mutual respect for one another. You said it was the kind of thing that makes your heart race every time that person walks into a room. At the time, it sounded unbelievable, but then you called me a month ago and the sound of your voice got my heart racing. Then it was just the thought of you. And when you opened the door just now? I thought I was going to have a heart attack! That’s what you do to me.”

  Grace leaned forward slightly and let her hands rest on his chest. “You’ve done that for me ever since the night in Vegas,” she admitted. “I walked out of the bathroom and saw you standing by the window and looking down at the Strip, and I couldn’t breathe. You were just…you were everything.” She paused, and he could see the slight flush to her cheeks. “The timing was so wrong, and I kept telling myself it was crazy to even think of having feelings for anyone, so I blamed it on simple lust. Because you, Finn Kavanagh, are an incredibly sexy man.”

  He knew he was the one blushing now.

  “Like you, it wasn’t until I got home that I realized just how wrong I was.” Then she started to laugh, and it took her a minute to get serious again. “I mean, you are an incredibly sexy man, but my feelings for you are so much more than just lust.” She smiled. “There were several long days where I allowed myself to sit and think about my life, and I came to realize so many things. For starters, I wasn’t living the life I wanted. Don’t get me wrong–it wasn’t like it was bad; it just wasn’t what I wanted. I let Jared dictate so much and I went along with it. After spending a week with you, it hit me how there was no laughter in my life. Everything was always so damn serious, but you made me laugh and smile even when you were making me crazy.”

  He could only chuckle because he remembered all the times he knew he did stuff that annoyed her.

  “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d still be so lost, Finn. That night at the car rental place, I thought our situation was going to be the worst thing to happen to me, and it turned into the best. The first time you kissed me? It was like…” She let out a long breath. “It was like everything became clear to me. You gave me peace even as we embarked on an adventure. You gave me hope when I thought I’d lost everything. But most of all, you made me feel when I had been numb for so long.”

  She leaned down a little further until her lips were a mere breath away from his. “I know now what I want in my life–for my life. And it’s you. You make me so happy, and I feel like you know me better than anyone ever has. And I want a chance to make you happy, Finn. I know we can live without each other–we’ve proven that. But I want a chance for us to be together and have everything we’ve ever wanted.”

  His heart felt so full he was afraid to even breathe.

  “You’re kind of stealing my thunder here, Grace,” he said, smiling against her lips as her forehead rested against his. “I came here to make all these declarations of love and you just blew me away with your words.”

  “That’s okay because you blew me away first,” she said, kissing him soundly. And then they were done talking for a while. Grace broke the kiss and sat up to finish what she had started several minutes ago, whipping her t-shirt up and over her head. Finn’s hands immediately resumed their earlier position as well, and even though he knew there were still so many things they needed to talk about, he also knew there’d be time.

  Later.

  “Oh my God, that’s so good.”

  “You sound surprised.”

  Grace laughed and reached for a napkin. “I am a little,” she admitted. “Every place likes to brag about being the best, but these tacos are clearly the best.”

  “The scenery’s not too bad either.”

  They were picnicking on the beach and eating tacos, and it was the absolute perfect night. The restaurant they ordered from was only a block from the condo, and rather than dining outdoors there, they opted to head down to the beach. “Now you know why I come here to get away.”

  “I have to admit, it’s better than I imagined,” Finn said, reaching for another taco.

  “Okay, now you have to tell me how you did on the plane,” she said. “I’m so stinking proud of you!”

  He chuckled. “I have to admit, I almost passed out about a dozen times between the time I got through security and liftoff.”

  She patted his thigh. “I’ll bet.”

  “I packed some Dramamine and sipped ginger ale and only ate some pretzels while on the plane, but I distracted myself by watching some TV on my tablet, and really, it was an incredibly smooth flight. Once I settled in and put on my headphones and a movie, I was okay. Plus, it was a direct flight, so that helped.”

  “I can’t even believe you did it!” she said excitedly. “But I’m so happy you had a good experience! I’m sure you’ll be even more relaxed for the flight home.”

  He made a non-committal sound and took a bite of his taco. “So, what did you have planned for the week? Anything?”

  “Honestly? No. I just figured I’d come here and sit on the beach and listen to the waves and try to figure out how I was supposed to move on without you.” She turned her head and gave him a smile. “Now I’m glad I don’t have to.”

  He grinned. “So that means we’re free to do some sightseeing, right?”

  On their road trip, she always brought up that idea, and it was highly amusing to hear the question coming from him. Pretending to consider his question, she tapped her chin thoughtfully before saying, “I suppose. I mean, we do have some free time. Maybe there are some budget-friendly or even free places we can go? After all, this wasn’t supposed to be a pleasure trip. What did you have in mind?”

  Clearly he was on to her. “You’re going to make me work for this a bit, aren’t you?”

  It wasn’t a question.

  Finn shrugged. “I’ve never been here before, but I heard Sea World is here, and people think it’s pretty cool.”

  “Ooh…yes! It’s very cool!” she said eagerly. “Actually, there is so much to do here! We can spend several days just walking around and still not see everything, so we’ll have to decide on our must-see places! When we get back to the condo, we can go online and check it out and…” She paused. “I think it’s only fair to warn you, I did rent a compact car. So we’ll probably only want to go to local attractions and not venture too far if we want to be comfortable.”

  “It’s a good thing I planned ahead,” he said mildly, popping the last of his meal into his mouth.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Finish eating and I’ll show you.”

  It was a rather vague response, but now she was too curious to eat. Quickly packing everythin
g up and gathering the trash, Grace ran to the nearest trashcan. When she ran back to Finn, she found him laughing.

  “What? What’s so funny?”

  “You really have no patience, do you?” he asked. “There was no reason to hurry and clean up. You could have finished your dinner.”

  “I was full,” she lied and couldn’t help but grin. Pulling Finn to his feet, she said, “C’mon! Now you have to tell me how you planned ahead! What does that even mean?” She was happily dragging him across the sand toward the sidewalk.

  “For all you know, I was talking about how I had a list made of the places I wanted to see or the name of a good tour bus company,” he teased, but then surprised her by scooping her up in his arms and running the rest of the way.

  Grace was giggling happily and when he didn’t put her down on the pavement but kept walking with her in his arms, she began to squirm. “You can put me down now,” she said, even though she was laughing and still enjoying the whole thing. “I don’t mind walking the rest of the way.”

  “I know you don’t, but I really like the feel of you right where you are,” he said and then gave her a quick kiss. At the corner, he did stop and put her on her feet but quickly took her hand in his.

  They started walking past the condo and she tugged on his hand. “Wait, where are we going?”

  “You’ll see,” he said vaguely, but he had a huge smile on his face.

  This was something Grace knew she’d never grow tired of–seeing Finn look so happy and relaxed. So much of their trip had been spent with him being uptight, but she knew that was largely because of the stress he was under. Having spent time talking with him over the last several weeks, she felt like this was closer to who he really was, and she was glad to see it firsthand.

  A block later, they were in a convenience store parking lot.