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"I'll drive you."
She blinked. "What?"
"Come on, grab your things. I'm coming with you to the inn. Do you have the key?"
"Y-Yeah," she stammered, which was unlike her. "Why would you want to take me out there?"
"Because you need to go there, I have a car, and I don't mind driving you.”
“You can just drive me to my place and then I’ll take my own car.”
“It’s faster if we drive directly there. Besides, I don't want you to go out there all alone."
"Chase."
"You have a problem. I’m offering you a solution."
She bit her lip and ran her hand through her hair. It fell over her left breast in thick, golden waves. I had to look away and breathe out slowly through my nostrils. I had no idea how I could go from problem-solving to being turned on in a fraction of a second, but I was.
"All right, let's go. And, Chase, thank you so much."
"No problem. I'll wait for you here. Even better, I'll wait by the elevator."
"Okay."
Her voice was still shaky.
"Why are you so worried?" I asked her.
"Because I'm afraid the storm will cause some issues at the inn. I didn’t manage to repair a lot of it... never mind." She turned and started gathering her stuff.
When we met at the elevator, I’d never seen her so stressed out, not even when the wedding planner didn’t show up. Hannah was silent during the drive too. As we approached Point Loma,I could see why no taxi company wanted to come out here. The storm was much worse here, and the wind was raging. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ripped out a few trees along the road.
"We'll be there soon," I told her.
She rubbed her palms up and down her thighs, looking outside. "Why didn't I close the shutters?"
"Don't blame yourself, Hannah. It's summertime. We never get storms."
I reached out, resting my palm on her left hand. "Hannah, whatever we find there, we'll deal with it."
She snapped her head in my direction. "Chase, I appreciate that you're driving me there, but I don't expect you to deal with anything."
Hannah was going to find out soon enough that I had her back.
The storm got even worse as we approached the inn.
"You can just park in front of it," she said. “Thank God none of the shutters have been ripped away. Not that I can see, anyway."
We had to be fast. The shutters were smashing back and forth with the wind. The rain was pouring down. We’d get soaked in seconds.
"I want you to run inside and stay there, and I'll close the shutters," I told her as I stopped the car.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I mean it."
"Chase, it's my inn. You don’t even know where all the windows are. You stay in the car with the heat on.”