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“I do.” His voice was harsh. “Kel, I’m…” He trailed off, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “I suck at this.”
A bubble of a laugh escaped my chest. “Like I’m any better? You get near me and I just want to climb on you. It’s so crazy. I never had that problem before. My past boyfriends haven’t exactly been like you.” I twisted the ring on my forefinger as I took in the streaks of pink and purple along the lake.
“What? Blue collar?”
I whipped my head around. “What? No. I mean, It’s not like I dated rich guys, Dare. I’m a regular girl—a teacher, for Pete’s sake. I’m not sure why you’re always saying things like that.” I reached over to grip his upper arm. It was flexed tight, the muscles under his sports coat unforgiving. I swallowed. I remembered every inch of his arms when he leaned over me. “I don’t care what you do.”
He finally relaxed under my touch. “Not all women feel the same way. Plenty want to have a little fun with a mechanic, but any more than that, not so much.” He shrugged.
I let my hand slide away. Evidently, we both came with a bit of baggage. I’m not sure why that relaxed me a little, but it did.
“Let me ask the hard question then.”
I clutched my hands in my lap. “Who’s the other guy?”
“Yeah.”
His voice was low and gruff in that way that made me want to do anything else but talk about this. But it wasn’t fair to ignore it. Even if I wanted to do just that. Because Tommy Larson was not the man I wanted to think about right now. Especially with a man as virile and exciting as Dare right next to me. The veritable bad boy complete with a car that made my thighs vibrate.
But that wasn’t the important part. That wasn’t what would make a good future for my baby. And even without knowing all the meaningless details I could rattle off about Tommy, Dare was still a far better man. The way he took care of his son, took care of everyone—including me. Those were the things that really mattered.
If I didn’t have Dare in my life, I’d be okay. Not perfect, but I could do this.
I just didn’t want to.
We drove in silence for a few minutes. The sun finally truly disappeared and the night was so clear. I felt like I could reach up and actually touch the stars. I wasn’t exactly a city girl, but my hometown seemed so different from Crescent Cove.
I was still staring out the window when I started talking. “Tommy is a good guy at heart. I can’t say I hate him or anything. He didn’t exactly treat me badly. I just don’t think he cared enough to make me a priority in any way.”
“Hate to break it to you, but that’s a shitty guy.”
I turned to him. The dim lights of his dashboard made his face seem even more angular and dangerous. I shivered and he instantly reached for the dials on his heater. “No, I’m good.”
He nodded and his hand went back to his shifter.
“It took some time for me to get there, but I agree. We broke up awhile ago. Then his Granny Flo died. I actually liked her a lot and when I went to the funeral, one thing led to another. It was stupid. I knew that right after I did it, but we were both sad and there was a bottle of wine.” I sighed. “He left the next morning and sent me a text that he had to go find himself.”
“What a fucking asshole.”
I laughed. Maybe it was part sob, but I blinked away the tears.
“Tell me you’re not crying over that dirtbag.”
“No. Definitely not.” Dare’s answer was a grunt which made me laugh even more. “It was just the impetus to me getting up the courage to go out on my own. When the full-time job came up at the Academy, I wanted to make a fresh start. Last year, I’d just been filling in while one of the teachers was on maternity leave.”
So many babies. No more drinking the water in Crescent Cove—check.
“Ah. That makes sense. I knew you were friends with Sage already.”
I nodded. “I really loved it here. I was going to keep commuting until I found a place I liked that was a bit closer, but when Tommy up and left after the night we spent together, I impulsively decided to move to Crescent Cove. And you know the rest.”
“You moved here without a damn bed.”
My cheeks heated. “You didn’t seem to mind that first night.”
“Of course I didn’t. A hot girl gives me a look like that and I’m all in.”
“I did not.”
