Drive Me Crazy
Road Tripping Series
Samantha Chase
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
And now for a preview of
WRONG TURN
Also by Samantha Chase
Copyright 2020 Samantha Chase
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All Rights Reserved.
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No part of this book, with the exception of brief quotations for book reviews or critical articles, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by an means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Editor: Jillian Rivera
Cover Design: Uplifting Designs/Alyssa Garcia
Praise for Samantha Chase
“If you can’t get enough of stories that get inside your heart and soul and stay there long after you’ve read the last page, then Samantha Chase is for you!”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Melanie Shawn
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“A fun, flirty, sweet romance filled with romance and character growth and a perfect happily ever after.”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Carly Phillips
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“Samantha Chase writes my kind of happily ever after!”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Erin Nicholas
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“The openness between the lovers is refreshing, and their interactions are a balanced blend of sweet and spice. The planets may not have aligned, but the elements of this winning romance are definitely in sync.”
- Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
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“A true romantic delight, A Sky Full of Stars is one of the top gems of romance this year.”
- Night Owl Reviews, TOP PICK
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“Great writing, a winsome ensemble, and the perfect blend of heart and sass.”
- Publishers Weekly
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“Recommend Chase to fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Well-written and uniquely appealing.”
- Booklist
1
As far as wedding days went, Grace Mackie could say with great certainty that this one completely sucked.
And considering she was the bride, that was saying something.
Sitting alone in the bride’s dressing room in the exclusive Lake Tahoe resort where her fiancé had insisted they have their destination wedding, she felt bored and oddly disappointed. This wasn’t the wedding she had always dreamed of. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even the wedding she had planned.
Two weeks ago, Jared suggested the idea of eloping and no matter how much Grace resisted, he steamrolled ahead and now…here they were. Granted, the resort was the most luxurious she’d ever stayed at; her gown was amazing, and…even though California isn’t exactly the destination that came to mind when she thought of destination weddings, it certainly didn’t suck.
The downside was that they went from a big, family-filled wedding to a small and intimate event that most of her family and friends couldn’t afford to attend. She had argued that point–among others–with Jared, but he had promised they’d have a big party when they got back to North Carolina. Getting married in Tahoe was a dream of his so she figured it wouldn’t be so bad.
Except it was.
She was alone in this gorgeous dressing room and wished her best friend Lori or even her parents were here with her. A light knock at the door had her turning.
“Hey, Gracie! Thirty minutes until showtime! Are you ready?” The super-perky and extremely annoying wedding planner, Tilly, said with a smile as she walked through the door.
Smiling serenely, Grace replied, “Yes, thank you.” Smoothing her hand down the white satin gown she was wearing, she tried to present the perfect image of the calm and serene bride-to-be.
Even though internally, she was like a squirrel in traffic.
“Great! In about twenty minutes, I’ll come back and…”
“Tilly,” Grace quickly interrupted before she could go any further. “If it’s all right with you, we’ve gone over the schedule dozens of times and I’d really appreciate a few minutes to myself.”
Tilly, with her severe bun and power suit, nodded. “Of course, Gracie. Anything you need,” she smiled broadly and made her way back out the door, gently closing it behind her. At the sound of the soft click, Grace sagged with relief.
She hated being called Gracie. No one she knew ever called her Gracie. And yet for some reason, Tilly insisted on calling her that.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror, she should have been a happy and smiling bride. But was she? No. Instead, she was a neurotic mess who was dealing with more than your run-of-the-mill wedding jitters. She was angry, disappointed, and she knew if she didn’t speak up for herself one last time, this was the way her entire marriage was going to go–with Jared making decisions she hated and then being resentful forever.
Knowing she wasn’t going to breathe easy until she talked to him, Grace decided to go find him and hash this out. If it meant calling off the wedding, then so be it. It wasn’t like she had any real investment in it. None of her family were here, Jared had made all the arrangements, and she had very little input into any of it.
Suddenly all the signs she should have seen were right there in front of her.
She was going to find Jared, tell him how she felt, and maybe they could look into couples counseling or something. It would be a good thing. It would help them grow closer. Looking back now, she realized this was a pattern that had gotten completely out of control. Why hadn’t she noticed it sooner?
“Hindsight and all,” she muttered, opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. They had toured the resort yesterday and she knew where the groom’s dressing room was, so there was no need to ask for assistance from perky Tilly. At the end of the hall, she turned to the left and saw the door to Jared’s room was ajar. The closer she got, Grace could hear him talking. Was Tilly giving him the thirty-minute speech too?
“You have to trust me, baby. It’s all going to be okay. This is only temporary,” she heard Jared saying.
Temporary? What was temporary?
“How could you do this, Jared? You said you loved me! You said we were going to be a family!”
What?!
Slowly, Grace moved closer to the door and tried to figure out who Jared was speaking to.
“We will, baby. We will,” he promised. “You have to trust me, Steph. Marrying Grace will help me secure this promotion, and then six months from now, I’ll divorce her and we’ll be together. Just in time for the baby to be born.”
Steph? Steph? Wait…the only Steph she knew was Jared’s assistant, and he wouldn’t…
“How am I supposed to come into work every day knowing you’re sleeping with her every night?” Steph cried.
Grace heard Jared’s soft laugh. “Baby, you need to relax. Grace and I haven’t slept together for almost two months. What’s a few more?”
Grace was about to barge through the door and put a stop to this, but…
“Just because she was stupid enough to fall for that whole ‘wanting to make the wedding night sex better’ excuse before doesn’t mean she’ll keep falling for it, Jared. And besides, tonight is your wedding night!”
“Don’t worry,” he cooed. “I’ll come up with an excuse. The only woman I plan on sleeping with from now on is you.”
Rage filled her, followed by a wave of nausea. How could she have been so blind? When Jared had mentioned not having sex to enhance their wedding night, it sounded kind of sexy. Hell, she had been horny all this time, and for what?
Taking several deep breaths, she told herself to calm down. Everything would be all right. She’d get through this. And then, something weird happened. She was suddenly calm–like eerily calm. It was true that Jared needed her to secure his promotion–Grace had been grooming him for the position of junior vice president of operations practically since they met! Her job as a career coach meant it was her specialty and Jared had begged her to help him move up in the company. She’d helped him change his image and his wardrobe and gave him lessons in manners and how to present himself in social situations. He was a complete doofus when she met him! And now that she transformed him, someone else was going to reap all the benefits of her hard work?
Well, she had news for him…he was never going to pull it off without her. He had definitely made great strides and his bosses were impressed, but without her there beside him, there was no way he was going to secure that promotion. His bosses weren’t completely wowed by him yet and she had no intention of sticking around and helping him any longer. True, she could marry him and when he asked for a divorce, take him for everything he was worth, but that wasn’t her style.
Wait, do I even have a style? She wondered.
Turning around, she made her way back toward her room and calmly walked inside and closed the door. In the corner was the small satchel that had her makeup bag, her wallet, her iPod and earbuds, her phone, and…
Before she knew it, the bag was in her hand and she was walking back out the door. The hallway was still deserted as she made her way to the rear exit and stepped outside. The sun was going down–Jared had said a sunset wedding would be romantic–and as she looked out at the lake, she had to admit the view would have been stunning.
“No time for that, dummy,” she muttered, pulling her phone out of her bag and quickly pulling up the Uber app to request a ride. Saying a silent prayer that she wouldn’t have to wait too long and risk someone finding her, she sagged with relief when the app showed a car was only five minutes away. Doing her best to stay out of sight, Grace hid behind some tall shrubs and prayed no one would come out and find her. Of course, a woman in a blindingly white gown didn’t exactly blend into the greenery.
If they weren’t so close to the ceremony time, she would have run up to their room and grabbed her luggage. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself and would just have to deal with making her escape in her gown.
Staring at her phone, she willed the damn car to hurry up. The ride to the airport would take an hour, and she was hoping to get enough of a head start that should Jared try to come find her, she’d be on a plane before he could reach her.
Wishful thinking, but still…
Behind her, someone came out the back door but luckily, it was a janitor and he didn’t even look in her direction. Her heart was beating a million miles an hour and when she glanced down at her phone again, she saw the car was two minutes out.
In any other circumstances, she would be pacing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option right now and she suddenly wished she had packed a change of clothes in her satchel. If she were in jeans and sneakers, she would be trekking toward the road to meet up with the car and burning off some of this nervous energy. But no, she was stuck in this stupid, bulky gown hiding behind a shrub.
“Worst wedding day ever.”
Seriously, in the history of wedding days, this one had to set some kind of new record in awfulness.
Off in the distance, Grace saw a car pulling into the resort driveway and was relieved when she realized it was her ride. Sprinting as well as she could from the bushes, she rushed to meet it and quickly jumped in.
“Are you Grace?” the driver asked.
“I am, I am,” she said quickly. “Just drive. Please!” He looked at her like she was crazy but fortunately didn’t hesitate to get moving. It wasn’t until they were off the resort property and a few miles away that she finally felt like she could breathe. Sagging against the back seat, she immediately began searching for flights back to North Carolina. It didn’t take long for her to realize she might not be leaving California or even the Lake Tahoe area tonight. Muttering a curse, she continued to search.
“Are you okay?”
She wanted to roll her eyes at that one. Did she look like she was okay? She was sitting in the back of a Toyota Corolla in a wedding gown and heading to the airport alone. However, she didn’t think the poor guy would appreciate her sarcasm and opted to bite her tongue.
“Um…yeah,” she said with a small smile. “Just…I’m not having any luck finding a flight out tonight.” She scrolled the screen some more. “Where’s the next closest airport?”
“That would be Sacramento. But it’s two hours away in the opposite direction,” he explained. He looked like he was close to her age, maybe a few years younger, and Grace remembered the app saying his name was Mark.
“Thanks, Mark. If I happen to find a flight out of Sacramento, would you be willing to drive me there?”
“Uh…I’d have to adjust the route and it’s not that easy to do,” he said with some hesitation. “I mean, we’d have to pull over somewhere so I could do it and…”
He prattled on a bit about all the steps it would take for him to change the route, but Grace wasn’t fully paying attention. Her main priority was finding the first flight she could to get out of here. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t going to happen. She was stuck. Her only hope was to book a flight for first thing in the morning and find a hotel as close to the airport as possible.
And pray it was next to a mall so she could buy a change of clothes.
Her phone began to ring, and Grace was surprised it had taken this long for it to start. Jared’s name and picture came up and she felt sick at the sight of him. She immediately rejected the call and did a quick swipe of her screen to block his number. Not that it would stop him. All he’d have to do was grab someone else’s phone and try again. Still, it was a start. Next, she turned on the do not disturb feature on her phone so she wouldn’t be bothered for a little while.
“Do I need to turn around?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.
With a weary sigh, she put the phone down. “No. We can keep going. There are no available flights tonight. I’ll have to find one for the morning.”
“I don’t know where you’re trying to go, but you could always rent a car and drive.”
Again, she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes but…the idea had merit. Sure, a cross-country drive wasn’t ideal, but it would give her plenty of time to clear her head. There would be no distractions and no chance of Jared–or anyone else for that matter–coming to talk her out of what she was doing.
“Mark,” she said excitedly, leaning forward, “you’re a genius!”
He smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “Wow. Thanks!”
“Okay, so where is the closest rental car place? I mean, we don’t have to go all the way to the airport for that, do we?”
“It might be easier, and considering it’s a Saturday night, I would imagine the smaller places might be closed already. The airport car rental offices have to stay open later.” He shrugged. “At least, I think they do.”
Maybe he had a point, but reaching for her phone, Grace figured she could find that out for herself without any problem. “Aha! There is a car rental place just outside of Carson City and it doesn’t close until eight!” She leaned forward in her se
at again. “Can you get me there by eight, Mark?”
It had just started to rain, so he flipped on the windshield wipers and grinned at her. “As long as this rain stays light, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
Relaxing back in the seat, she felt like things might finally start going her way.
“Dude, are you all right?”
Finn Kavanagh was so busy muttering curses that he almost didn’t hear the guy. Pacing back and forth in the crowded parking lot, he wasn’t expecting anyone to come up and talk to him. “Yeah. Peachy, except my car is gone.”
The guy looked at him in shock. He was glassy-eyed and looked no older than twenty; there was no doubt he’d used a fake ID to get into the casino, and right now was of completely no use to Finn.
“You gonna call the cops?”
Under normal circumstances he would have, but considering he knew exactly who had taken his car and why, it was pointless.
But he wanted to. Boy, oh boy, did he want to. Cursing again, he paced and turned and…oh, right. He still had an audience. “Uh, no. No, I’m just gonna call…a cab or something.” With a forced smile, Finn walked back toward the casino as he pulled out his phone. With the help of an app, he knew he could have a ride here in less than five minutes, but he had a call to make first.
Pulling up the number, he hit send and–surprise, surprise–it went right to voicemail.
“Hey, Dave,” he said through clenched teeth. “Classy move taking the car. Where the hell are you? In case you’ve forgotten, I’m eight hundred miles from home, and I got here in the car you currently hijacked, you son of a bitch! You need to get back here and…”
Drive Me Crazy Page 1
