“Don’t do that,” he says softly. “Don’t give me your ‘let-him-down-easy’ speech. Let’s pretend we’ve moved past that, okay? You don’t want to do this again, then tell me the real reason. I don’t do bullshit.”
He releases my skin, but there’s a burning in the spot now that wasn’t there before.
It takes me a moment to find my voice, and Dare waits patiently while another rumble of thunder rolls over our heads.
“I’m…I’m super attracted to you, Dare. But I’m not available to date right now. I’ll probably never be available to date. It’s…complicated.”
“You have a boyfriend.” He says it like a fact, not a question.
“I do not have a boyfriend.” It would have been the easy way out. I could have just let him believe that, but I find myself unable to lie to this sharp, sexy, honest man.
He stares at me, his expression unreadable. He rubs his rib again, and I allow my eyes to travel to that spot. He notices, and stops rubbing. When he speaks again, his voice hasn’t changed. It’s still soft, and still like a rough edge of a stone left out in the wind.
“So…you just aren’t that into me.”
I wish he’d stop searching for reasons. “Some things just aren’t going to work out.”
“I didn’t ask you to marry me, Berkeley. I didn’t even ask you out on a second date yet.”
I raise my eyebrows, and he quickly regroups. “I was going to. Shit, of course I was going to. But, if you don’t want to hang out again, I guess I have to accept that.”
I so don’t want him to accept it. But I nod my head, just as the sky above us opens, and we leap out of our chairs and sprint for the house.
By the time we reach it, we’re soaked. We run around to the driveway, where Dare’s truck is