“I’m calling your mother. I’m not letting you drive home like this.” I turned to open the door and leave.

He caught my hand and slowly intertwined our fingers. He pulled me into his chest and used his other hand to push my hair from my face.

“I have her car. Will you drive me home, Faith? I need you.”

Those three words did me in. I didn’t want to say no to him. He needed me and I’d be there for him the way he had been for me. Even if he didn’t know he was helping me, he was. He brought color to my life and I’d always be grateful for that.

“Give me your keys.” I reached out my hand and waited as he dug through his jeans pocket.

I’d only ever driven a car once. My dad let me drive home from the grocery store and I’d hated it. I wasn’t very good at it and every time a car came up behind me, I freaked out, but I had to do what I had to do.

We snuck out of the movie theater, careful not to run into Stephen or ever worse, my dad. I’m sure he’d been called by now. I was already thinking of things to say to my father when he freaked out on me. Not to mention poor Stephen. I felt awful for doing this to him, but he’d never understand. He was like a younger version of my father. They had no idea what it meant to be alive.

Finn leaned against me through the parking lot to his mother’s Jeep. I opened the passenger’s side and helped him get in. Once I was inside, I felt like I was too high off of the ground. It was much different than being in my dad’s Taurus. I rolled down my window and slowly pulled out of the parking space.

I was more nervous about the fact that Finn watched me like a hawk from the darkness of his side of the car while I drove than I was about driving. I tried to remember how to get to Finn’s house, but I’d only been there once and I had to keep asking him which way.

Nothing looked familiar to me and I kept waiting for his neighborhood to come up, but there was nothing but woods. I was starting to worry that Finn was drunker than I thought. I continued to drive as thoughts kept coming to me. Like, how was I going to get home? I thought about all the trouble I was going to be in when I finally did get home and how badly I was going to get it.

“Take a left here,” Finn said from the darkness.

I took a left onto a dark road and continued to drive until finally I came to a clearing. There were woods behind me and in front of me was the ocean. The smell of saltwater engulfed the car as the waves rushed toward the shore that was practically in front of us. A long dock stretched out over the water and in the distance, I could see boats with lights on them. The Cooper River Bridge was the backdrop. It was lit up with light-blue lights as cars drove across it and into the black star-filled sky.

“It’s beautiful,” I said in awe.

I’d never seen a place more beautiful in my life. Not that I’d been many places.

I turned when I felt Finn’s fingers in my hair. He was sitting beside me and pulling softly at my fingers on the steering wheel.

“Then it’s perfect for you,” he whispered in my ear.

My body went up in flames. I was burning and it felt so wonderful.

He captured my face in his hands and turned me to face him. Even in the darkness, I could see his light eyes as they skimmed my face and then landed on my lips.

“Can I please kiss you again?” He ran his thumb across my bottom lip as he asked.

I nodded my answer and closed my eyes. His soft lips landed on mine and I absorbed everything I could. The feel of his breath, the taste of him, and the way his tongue moved softly over my lip. I didn’t want to miss a single second. Tiny noises traveled from his lips and rushed down my body, landing in the bottom of my spine.

When he broke the kiss, he pressed his forehead against mine and we both took a much needed breath.

“I have a tiny problem,” he said as his lips brushed mine.

“What?”

I sounded like a different person. My voice was deeper, like that of an experienced woman. One kiss—that’s all it took—and I was blooming under his heat like a ripened flower.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I think I might be falling in love with you.”

He opened his eyes and looked deep into mine as he waited for my reaction. He was drunk. Only a drunk man could think he was in love with me. Me? The boring pastor’s daughter who never went anywhere or did anything exciting, but then again, wasn’t I here alone with him in the middle of nowhere? Hadn’t I run out on a date without telling anyone?

“That’s the alcohol talking,” I stated.

He blinked at me and then shook his head. “No. That’s my heart talking. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I’m sorry if that freaks you out.”