Free Drive Me Crazy by Erin Downing Page B

straight through with only a few quick bathroom breaks.
    Alexis hopped out of the car and jogged over to the main house to grab a wagon they could use to pull their stuff from the car to their cabins. Lucas was nowhere nearby, so Kate started to unload the bags, eager to get to her cabin, where he’d surely be waiting.
    Adam came up behind Kate and reached around her to get his arm into the trunk. “Can I help?” he murmured, gently pulling her hand off Alexis’s huge suitcase. His hand stayed on hers for what felt like a few seconds longer than necessary, and while his skin touched hers, Kate’s heart stood still. Her chest constricted, catching her breath between her ribs and holding it hostage there.
    “Thanks,” she muttered when finally he pulled his hand and the bag back out of the trunk. I guess I’m extra sensitive now that I’m finally so close to Lucas , she reasoned.
    Adam smiled his dopey grin at her, and walked away from the car. She shook the flirty sensation off and grabbed her duffel bag out of the trunk. When they had everything loaded up in the giant wagon, the three of them headed off toward the cabins near the lake.
    Their families always rented the same cottages, so instinct led them each toward their usual summer homes. Kate’s family was in cabin four, Alexis’s was in two, and Adam’s family rented cabin number seven, which was sort of off by itself around a curve on the lakeshore. Lucas’s family rented one of the more distant cabins with greater privacy and better views of the lake. As they approached Kate’s and Alexis’s cabins, Adam grabbed his bag off the wagon and said, unceremoniously, “See you later. Thanks for the lift.”
    Kate and Alexis split up a moment later, agreeing to meet before the bonfire that night. For as long as they could remember, every night there was a group barbecue, followed by a bonfire where all the under-twenties hung out until the mosquitoes got too persistent for anyone to stay outside any longer. The trick, Kate had learned, was to sit in the line of the campfire smoke, and the mosquitoes stayed away. That was her plan for that night, when she wanted to stretch her first evening with Lucas out until the last possible moment.
    Kate stepped inside her family’s cabin, and was happy to see that nothing had changed from the summer before. There was a lumpy futon couch that divided the kitchenette from the living room. She and her sister fought every year over who got to sleep in the tiny second bedroom, and which of them was relegated to the futon in the common room. The “dining area” was defined by a warped card table that stood between the other side of the kitchenette and the bathroom. The table still had a small hole where Kate and Alexis had dropped a burning candle during a late-night giggle fest more than five years before.
    As Kate surveyed her surroundings, the screen door burst open and her little sister, Gina, came charging in. “Oh.” Gina stopped short when she saw Kate. “You’re here. Mom! Kate’s here!”
    “Hey, G,” Kate replied, and smiled at her sister. Gina was fourteen—and the boss of the family. Gina had been a competitive figure skater since she was four, and the whole family revolved around Gina’s skating practices, competitions, and performances. Kate had never excelled at anything, so she just tried to stay out of the way while everyone planned around Gina. “When did you guys get here?”
    “Two days ago,” Gina replied, while applying a shiny lacquer to her lips. “You’re on the futon.”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She would deal. It was easier to just relent than to fight with Gina, who would surely find a means to get her way. Kate planned to spend most of the summer with Lucas, anyway, so it’s not like she’d be hanging out in her room reading books or anything.
    “Have you seen Lucas yet?” Gina asked, innocently enough.
    “No. We just got here,” Kate responded as evenly as she