Drive Me Crazy by Erin Downing Read Free Book Online Page A

roof of the cart and hoisted his other up onto the top of the fence. He dangled there for a minute, then flipped his other foot effortlessly over the edge and lowered himself down so only his fingers were in view over the top of the fence.
    Kate, Sierra, and Alexis watched from the ground, listening for a deadly thud on the other side. Adam’s whoop of success told them he had landed in one piece. Finally Sierra vocalized the thing they were all thinking: “How are we supposed to get over?”
    “Sierra, you could make it…but there’s no way I’m tall enough,” said Alexis.
    “Quit your nay-saying, Cousin,” Adam said, as his head poked over the top of the fence. “We’re all going swimming.” He lifted a lifeguard’s rescue ladder over his head and twisted it in midair to lower it down on their side of the fence. “Thanks be to lifeguards. Who wants to go first?”
    Kate bravely stepped forward to the ladder. Her foot touched the bottom rung, and she got a shiver of excitement. She’d never really broken the rules before, and she was in the process of breaking and entering. She realized it was the most harmless kind of trespassing, but still…they could get caught!
    Another foot, then another, and suddenly she was at the top. Adam was smiling at her, and when he grabbed her arm, she felt incredibly safe. He held her hand to help her over the top of the fence, then guided her hips as she settled her feet onto the ladder he was standing upon on the other side of the fence.
    Kate tensed up. There was something in his touch that was so reckless, yet so gentle, that she shivered in the hot night. It was a momentary thing, but Kate was shaken by it nonetheless. Adam usually made her boil with frustration, but this time the feeling was different. When she hopped off the last rung of the ladder on the pool deck, Adam lifted his hand to give her five.
    “Nice effort, princess! Good to see you’re able to have a little fun, even though we don’t have an instruction manual.” Then he winked, and climbed back up the ladder to help Sierra over.
    Kate instantly hated him again. She couldn’t believe she’d started to warm up to him just because he’d helped her over a freakin’ fence! As though he was some sort of Prince Charming, coming to rescue her. Whatever . They didn’t need him to have fun, and they didn’t need his help to break into the pool. They could totally have done this without him. Just because he wrapped his hands around my hips, I don’t need to be all charmed by him , Kate reminded herself.
    “I’m so glad Adam is here,” Sierra said breathlessly when she stepped off the ladder. “This is exciting!”
    Kate pretended she hadn’t heard her, because she didn’t want to acknowledge that Sierra was right. They would, of course, have been having fun, but they probably wouldn’t have been sneaking into a country club pool to cool off. Adam did bring a level of excitement to their trip that she wasn’t sure they would have achieved without him.
    Kate surveyed the pool area. There were two separate swimming spots: one that was shallow for little kids to wade in, and another that was deep and dark and refreshing-looking. There were padded lounge chairs all around the edge of the pool, and little cabanas in each of the corners. A concession stand stood next to the entrance gate and was stocked with sodas (behind locked refrigerator doors) and boxes of candy bars.
    As soon as Alexis had been safely shepherded down the lifeguard’s ladder, Adam grabbed the ladder he had propped on the exterior of the fence and secured it back on its stand alongside the interior wall. No one would ever know it had been moved. Then he plunged, fully clothed, into the deepest part of the big pool. He pulled off his wet shirt and whipped it onto the pool deck, narrowly missing Kate. She, Alexis, and Sierra sat together on the edge of the pool, dangling their feet in the water.
    “Ohhhh.” Alexis sighed. “This