Love Like Crazy (Crazy Love Book 1)

by Carmen DeSousa

  Gram winked and squeezed my arm. “It definitely is.”

  “I should get to bed. Thanks again, Gram, you were right. Jesse’s absolutely perfect.”

  I leaned down and gave her a kiss, then strolled off to my bedroom, certain I wouldn’t be able to sleep.

  Chapter 6 - Jesse

  I’d like to say that I woke up with a smile on my face, but I don’t think I ever really went to sleep. I couldn’t get Kayla out of my head.

  Not a good thing when I had such a long drive ahead of me. I could have taken Kayla to countless other places nearby that I liked, but today’s spot was my favorite and the farthest away. We only had a week to be together. What better way to get to know someone than a two-hour drive each way and a four-hour kayak run in between. If we still liked each other at the end of the day, I’d ask my father for a much-deserved vacation.

  I’d been working non-stop for the last several years. And this year, since I only had to take two classes, I’d basically worked full time while finishing my senior year. I planned to start at St. Pete College in the fall. It wasn’t prestigious, but with my grades and SAT scores, I had a full ride. After two years I would enroll at USF or UCF.

  I got out of bed early enough to pack a lunch. PB&Js again, peanut butter crackers, and a few snack-size Snickers. I filled a gallon cooler with ice water, hoping she’d be okay with sharing. My ex wouldn’t have been. Morgan had been a priss in just about everything she’d done. Admiring how hard Kayla worked yesterday, I was hard-pressed to remember what I had ever liked about Morgan.

  After loading my thirteen-foot kayak, life vests, and two paddles into the back of my truck, I headed over to Mrs. Johnson’s house.

  When I arrived, Kayla was sitting on the front porch, duffel bag on her arm, and dressed sexily — well, most guys wouldn’t consider it sexy, but I liked it when girls left something to my imagination. She was wearing black-and-pink board shorts, with what looked like a very sensible matching bathing suit top underneath a sheer white shirt that she’d tied around her waist. And to top it all off, a pink Buccaneers cap. If that wasn’t enough to excite me, she was outside, ready and waiting at six. She wasn’t going to make me wait, even after I’d almost stood her up last night. Okay, so she was too good to be true.

  “Mornin’, cowgirl,” I called as I hopped out of my truck.

  She trotted down the steps. “Morning! I guessed we were going kayaking. Am I dressed appropriately?”

  “You’re dressed perfectly! Did you bring a change of clothes?”

  “Yep, and a towel. Do I need anything else?”

  “Nope. Just your smile.” She rewarded me with the smile I was referring to. Why play it down? I liked her, so why hide my feelings? I’d never been good at playing games anyway.

  I opened the passenger door for her, then strapped her bag down in the truck bed. When I got in the truck, I didn’t pull her next to me as I had last night. It was too far a ride in my compact pickup for her to sit in the middle, so I was surprised when — before we even made it out of her driveway — she scooted next to me.

  “We have about a two-hour ride ahead of us,” I offered, not wanting her to move, but letting her know. To my utter delight, she didn’t move.

  “Where we goin’?”

  “Ocala National Forest. Juniper Springs actually. Have you been to a Florida spring before?”

  “Uh-uh.”

  “Then you haven’t seen Florida. Everyone thinks Florida is about Disney and the beaches. And the beaches in this area are nice, but the springs are the best. I’ve been to almost every one of them. No two are exactly the same.”

  Two lines formed between her eyebrows. “What about gators?”

  “What about ’em?” I draped my arm across the back of the seat. “You aren’t scared of gators, are you? I thought you were feisty?”

  “Won’t they jump in the boat?”

  “No, silly … besides, I wouldn’t let anything eat you.”

  “You’re gonna wrestle an alligator for me?”

  I peeked down at her. “I would if it came to that.”

  She laughed, then sighed. Happy with my comment, I guessed. I didn’t say anything while I made my way to the highway, but once on Highway 19, I decided to roll with the questions. We had two hours to fill, and I didn’t want it to get awkward.

  “So, would you like a difficult or easy question to start with?”

  She leaned forward and caught my eye. “Oh, I have a choice today? Unlike last night, when you pitched a personal question at me without warning me first.”

  I grimaced at her reminder.

  “Do I have any passes?” she continued.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, like three times I can refuse to answer a question without you harassing me. And remember, if you get to ask questions, I get to ask them in return.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Three passes, and I get to ask on the way up, and you can ask on the way back.” I was cheating, of course; she’d be asleep on the way back, I was certain.

  Kayla wiggled in the seat as though preparing herself for my first pitch. “Okay. Shoot. Ask me whatever you want, but I get three passes, and you can’t just rephrase the question.”

  “Hmm …” Now I had to think about a great first question — second question, actually, since I’d flung that fastball at her last night. I’d came up with some questions on my way to her house, but wasn’t sure where I wanted to start. She sat back, her head leaning on my arm, and waited patiently. “Okay, an easy one. What do you want to do with your life when you finish school?”

  “Skip.”

  “What?” I shot a quick look at her, then returned my eyes to the road. “That’s like the easiest question in the world.”

  “No, it’s not, and I’m afraid you’ll think I’m crazy, and hey … I said no harassing when I skipped a question.”

  “Okay. Hard one, then. You mentioned only you and your father last night and that you cooked and cleaned. Where’s your mother?”

  Kayla sat upright and sighed softly. “My mother died when I was twelve. Heart attack. Gram and Dad don’t like to talk about her, so I really don’t know too many of the details. She was so great, but I’m finding it harder and harder to remember the little things. She made me feel special, though. I remember that. Whenever my father was away on business, we’d always have a date night. We’d rent the newest romantic comedy or watch one of her classics, order a pizza the way we liked, and she’d let me pick out a tub of my favorite Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.”

  “Oh! I’m so sorry, Kayla. I had no idea.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Life happens. And my dad is great. I know he misses her too, though.”

  “How’d they meet?” I asked, not caring about my list of questions anymore, but genuinely curious about this interesting girl.

  Kayla shook her head. “Nope! Skip number two. You aren’t ready for that one yet.”

  “Uh … I don’t understand,” I grumbled. “You’ll answer the tough questions but not the easy ones.”

  “That’s only because you assume they’re easy, when in fact they are deep personal questions that give away more about me than maybe you’re ready to know. My mom is gone; it’s over. Nothing will change that, but I’m afraid if I answer your first question and your last one, you’ll know more than you want to know about me.”

  Surprised that she couldn’t see how interested I was, I huffed out a breath. “That’s not possible, Kayla. Why do you think I asked you here today? I could have taken you to a local beach or a nice kayak run only a half an hour away, or Lord forbid the old stand-by movie date.” She chuckled, so I figured I hadn’t upset her with my honesty. I shrugged. “Since you asked, ‘Where do we go from here?’ last night, I figured if we had fun today, I could take off the rest of the week.”

  She cocked her head. “You’d do that for me?”

  “I told you, I’ll wrestle an alligator for you.” I laughed lightly, then stole a glance
at her again. “Please talk to me.”

  “Promise you won’t laugh?”

  She was obviously serious, so I nodded in compliance.

  “Okay,” she said on a sigh. “I guess we’re not too far away. You could always take me home.”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t intend to take her home before I had a chance to get to know her.

  “Well,” she continued, “I know most teenagers have dreams of grandeur of what they want to do when they grow up, but did you ever stop to think that not every woman ends up being a doctor or a lawyer? Where are the girls who say, ‘I want to be a mother and a wife’?”

  “I never thought about that, but you’re right. I’ve never heard a girl say that’s what she wanted. Why? What do you mean? Things don’t turn out anyway, so why bother?”

  “I’m saying that’s what I want. I know I can have a career and be a mother and a wife. My mom did it. But I don’t want that. I want to be home, always.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. She was right. I hadn’t heard that, and yet many women decided just that. I wondered … did any woman ever really decide to lead that life, or did they just get pregnant right out of high school, like my mother?

  “See. I told you that’s how you’d react.” She pulled away from me again; it was the first thing she did when she got irritated, I noticed. I’d lost count, but she’d done it several times yesterday.

  “I didn’t react any certain way, Kayla. I was simply thinking about what you said. I haven’t heard a woman say that, but I think it’s an honorable decision.”

  “Really?” she asked, relaxing again.

  I laughed. She was so easy to read. “Yes, really. So will you answer the other question, then?”

  “Okay, but you asked for it.” She gnawed on her bottom lip before she started. “My dad came to Florida on spring break twenty years ago when he was a senior in high school. He met my mother, who was a junior. They fell in love and managed to stay together through the next year while my mother finished high school. They got married within weeks of her graduation.”

  “Oh,” I said on an exhale, certain my heart had stopped. Unable to frame a coherent response, I reached for her hand and held it to my lips. I could see exactly what she painted coming to fruition. I could see myself falling in love with her. The idea of a woman who wanted to be home … with her children, always, and never leave … was wonderful. Yet, all that came out of my mouth was oh.

  “Told you so,” she whispered. “You want to take me home now?”

  Rightly so, she was upset. Instead of my responding to her answer after pulling it out of her, I’d uttered a meaningless Oh.

  I removed her hat and touched the side of her face, pressing my lips to the top of her head. Apple, the scent I couldn’t place last night along with all the other aromas. “I don’t want to take you home, Kayla. I want you to stay with me.”

  She peered up at me. “You sure?”

  “Positive.” I now knew what approach I would take: a bold one. I reached for her hand. “So, like, how rich will your husband have to be to support you and kids?”

  She laughed, so it’d worked. “Not too rich. I’m pretty simple. I think life gets more complicated with money.”

  I blinked. “You’re the most amazing girl I’ve ever met, Kayla. There’s no doubt I could fall for you, then you’ll break my heart when you leave.” There, that was as honest as I could get. “I need to think of some easy questions. My head is spinning.”

  “Tell me about your parents then,” she suggested.

  “No, it’s still my turn,” I reminded her.

  The remainder of the trip, I continued with easy queries that didn’t dig too deeply into her personal life. I asked her about her horses, what she did on her birthday last year, which classes she liked, and which ones she didn’t. Kayla was talkative, using her hands to animate everything she talked about. She rambled on over minute details, and I found myself fascinated just listening to her accent. The trip flew by, and before I knew it, I saw the turn for the park.

  Chapter 7 - Jesse

  I registered at the ranger’s office and paid for a return ride on the shuttle.

  “This is a seven-mile run,” I explained. “But it’s fairly easy. The current travels about two miles per hour, so all we really need to do is navigate the boat and occasionally port.” She stared up at me as though I were speaking in another language. “You’ll see.” I thought it better not to explain that port was short for portage, which meant that if the water was low, we might have to get out of the kayak and carry it over any shallow, swampy areas.

  The drop-in area was just a small bubbling spring about ten feet across and only a couple feet deep, but the course opened up and remained fairly deep the entire seven miles.

  I handed Kayla a purple life vest almost as old as me. It’d been my mother’s. “You can sit on your life jacket; you don’t have to wear it. It just has to be on the boat.”

  Kayla hopped in the water, then shrieked. “Holy cow, that’s freezing!” She scrambled into the kayak like a pro.

  I laughed as she scrunched her eyebrows together, grimacing at me for not warning her. “It’s seventy-two degrees year-round, and believe it or not, you’ll get used to it. We’ll snorkel in the main boil later.”

  “In that?” She pouted as she crossed her arms. “I will not.”

  “Yes, you will, and you’ll like it,” I insisted.

  After she adjusted her body in the kayak, I fiddled with the seat straps. She watched my hands as I moved from one side to the next, tightening the straps so she wasn’t slouching.

  Next, I arranged the handgrips on her paddle and demonstrated how to stroke. “I do the turning; you simply keep a steady stroke from left to right. Or you don’t have to paddle at all if you don’t want to.” I held my hands over hers as I demonstrated, feeling a surge of heat soar through my body. My hands stilled, and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her. Just a short kiss, but it made my insides burn and my heart speed up. “You’re beautiful, Kayla.” And she was. Not just on the outside, but through and through. I’d seen plenty of beautiful girls at my school, but Kayla’s inner beauty radiated through her bright eyes and sunny smile, outshining them all.

  I forced myself to walk to the rear of the boat and hopped into my seat. With a hard shove to expel some extra energy, I pushed us away from the dock, wondering how I’d go two hours without kissing her again. Focus, I reprimanded myself. Focus on the beauty of the outdoors, not just the siren in your boat. Okay … I could do this. You love this part of Ocala National Forest, I reminded myself. And I did. I especially liked the crystal blue water and the fact that nothing but canoes and kayaks were able to weave their way down the narrow path of water. I always knew when I was nearing the end of the run because I’d start to hear the sounds of the city, which always depressed me. Over the last few months, I’d spent every waking minute that I wasn’t working or studying doing something outdoors, and I’d planned to do the same thing every second of my spring break. Now Kayla was vying for my attention. Tough choice. Focus, Jesse! Talk to Kayla instead of daydreaming about her!

  “We have about seven miles to paddle, and for at least three-quarters of the way it will stay narrow like this, but at the end it opens to marshland. That’s where we’ll see gators and otters. For now, keep your eyes open for turtles, deer, and if we’re really lucky, wild boar, panthers, or black bears.” I said the last two quietly, anticipating her reaction.

  She whipped around in her seat. “Bears … Panthers … Seriously?”

  I chuckled. “It’s unlikely we’ll see any, but they’re out there. No worries. I’ll wrestle bears and panthers if I have to as well.”

  “Hah!” she scoffed, but she chuckled through her words. “Sure you will.”

  We paddled easily through the water. She was great at recognizing when I needed help in a turn. Happily, I noticed she kept looking overboard in awe. Turtles, trout, and numerous species of fish swam direc
tly under the boat. I enjoyed sharing her elation; it made everything seem new again.

  I pointed out different trees along the water’s edge. My favorite was the majestic cypress tree with its roots stretching out like long slender fingers into the marsh. “See all those rounded stumps?” She nodded. “Those are called knees. My dad taught me a rhyme the first time he brought me here when I was eight years old, since I assumed, like most people do, that the knees are saplings. A knee will never be a tree, but brings oxygen to the tree.”

  She giggled. “I’ll remember that.”

  We traveled about fifteen minutes in complete silence, just glancing around at the wildlife. I wasn’t sure what to ask her or if I should even badger her for more information. She was probably tired of my probing since I’d asked her about every part of her life.

  “As much as Charity?” she asked, slicing through my thoughts.

  “As much as Charity, what?” I hadn’t realized I’d asked a question.

  “Am I as beautiful as Charity is?”

  “Oh!” I chuckled softly. “More. Charity couldn’t come close to your beauty.”

  “What if she was nice, though? You’re just saying that because she’s rude. What if all of a sudden she was nice?”

  I stopped paddling. “Yes, I admit, Charity is beautiful, even if she’s a snob, but still, you’re far prettier than she is. Do I need to go into detail?” I stroked the paddle through the water once, straightening our track.

  “Not as long as you’re telling the truth.”

  “I never lie, Kayla.” I paused to let that fact sink in. “How about just one detail? Your eyes are the most incredible color I’ve ever seen. A dazzling color of green, like tropical water.”

  She turned to look at me. Her eyes sparkled in the sun, confirming my assessment.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Hey, I thought of an easy question. What’s your full name?”