Dare to Love (Young Adult Romance) (4 page)

“You can say that again.  It’s
especially tough when your father looks the part.”  Dad, at well over six foot
tall, was a pretty imposing figure.  He had towered over my mother. 

Dare smiled.  “Your dad is a pretty
big guy,” he acknowledged.  “I’d hate to be on his bad side.” 

You and most other boys I know, I
thought.

“How do you handle having a cop for a
father?” I asked him.

“My dad was killed on duty when I was
little,” he answered. 

“I’m really sorry.”  Our eyes locked
in a silent communication.  “My mom died last summer ... in a car accident.”

I was surprised to hear the words
from my own lips.  I hadn’t talked about Mom to anyone, not even Jennifer. 
Dare nodded his head slowly, and then surprised me by draping his arm around
me.  He gave me a gentle squeeze.

Suddenly, I needed to break the spell
of heaviness that enveloped us, so I stood up and moved to stand at the water’s
edge.  Briefly, I scanned the area, and then moved toward a boulder high above
the water.

Carefully, I climbed the rock and
then positioned myself at the edge.  I glanced down at Dare, who had stood up. 
“What are you doing?” he demanded.

I didn’t answer him but instead dove
into the deep pool below.  The water felt wonderfully cold.  I swam to the edge
of the pool and hoisted myself out of it, intending to repeat the dive.

“What are you doing?” Dare shouted. 
“You’re going to kill yourself!”

“I do it all the time,” I told him
grinning, surprised by his outburst.

He shook his head, outraged.  Raking
his hand through his hair, he said in an accusing voice, “This is how you
handle your problems, isn’t it?  Instead of talking about your mom, you just go
for the adrenaline rush to…”

“Shut up,” I hissed.  “What do you
know about it?”

Instantly, I regretted the words. 
“I’m sorry....  I didn’t mean ... but...”

I didn’t finish speaking since we were
suddenly joined by two other explorers.  The boy I didn’t know, but the girl,
there was no mistaking—Courtney. 

“Dare, where have you been?” she
asked in a pouty voice.  “You were supposed to meet us back at the Blazer ten
minutes ago.”

“Sorry,” he said.  “I’ve been busy.”

Courtney glanced in my direction and
watched me coldly.  “I see.  Well, we’d better get going.”

Dare looked at me, then strode
purposefully toward my clothes.  He scooped up all my stuff, walked back to me,
and promptly handed everything to me. 

“Get dressed,” he said in a gruff voice.

“Excuse me,” I said angrily.  I
couldn’t believe his tone!

“You heard me.  Get dressed.  We’ll
walk you to your car.”

I considered arguing with him, but I
really didn’t want a scene in front of Courtney and the other explorer.  But
who did he think he was?

I pulled my long t-shirt over my head
and then stepped into my flip-flops.  I grabbed my towel and began walking
toward my car.  Dare fell into step beside me.

“Get lost,” I muttered under my
breath.

He didn’t say anything and soon we
reached my car.  I was about to climb in when he called to the other explorers,
“Tell Lieutenant Hudson I’ll be riding back with Laura.”

  I whirled around and was about to
protest, but before I knew it, he had climbed into my car.  I glanced at the
other two explorers.  Courtney was watching me hostilely, her mouth set in a
grim line and her eyes narrowed.

I knew I couldn’t physically remove
Dare from my car, or anywhere else for that matter.  I reconciled myself to my
fate as I climbed into my car for the long ride back to town.

As we neared town, I realized I
didn’t know where to drop Dare off.  We hadn’t spoken the entire ride home. 
“Well, where to?” I asked him.

“The lady speaks!” he exclaimed.

I shook my head.  “Well, I didn’t
hear you talking either,” I pointedly reminded him.

“Thought I’d give you time to cool
off,” he said with a grin.  “Are you still mad at me?”

I shrugged and turned toward him.  He
was watching me with a big, dopey smile on his face.  “How can you stay mad at
this face?”

I had to admit, it wasn’t easy.  His
sky blue eyes twinkled merrily and I hadn’t noticed before, but when he smiled,
dimples appeared on his cheeks.  Nudging me with his elbow, he asked, “Well?”

I shrugged resignedly.  “I’m not
mad.”

“Great, where are you taking me for
lunch?”

My eyes leapt in surprise.  “Lunch?”

“Yeah, I’m starving,” he declared. 
“How about pizza?  Actually, I’ll even treat.”

I glanced at his uniform, and he read
my thoughts.  “We’ll have to stop by the station so I can change and then we
can go.  Whatdaya say?”

I hesitated for a few seconds.  “Well
... okay.  Pizza sounds good.”

When we reached the station, I
watched him as he climbed out of my car.  “Coming in?” he asked me.

“I’ll wait here,” I told him.  I
didn’t want to risk seeing my dad.  I figured he was still pretty angry with
me.

“Okay,” he said with a smile.  “I’ll
be right back.”

I studied his retreating figure.  He
sure looked good in a uniform.  It was so hard to believe that yesterday, I was
being hauled off to jail by him, and today, we were going out for pizza
together. 

As I sat there, I thought about what
had happened at the river.  Dare had scared me to death with his tactics, but
he had taught me a lesson.  Maybe Dad and Jennifer were right.  Maybe I was
reckless.

I wasn’t allowed to ponder the
thought for long, however, since I spotted Dare leaving the building.  He was
dressed in baggy cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and brightly colored skater shoes. 
He looked even better in civilian clothes than in a uniform!

When he reached my car and was about
to climb in, Courtney and the other explorer pulled up beside us.  Dare
hesitated before getting into my car. 

“We’re going to pizza,” he told
them.  “Wanna come?”

I winced.  Just what I needed.  Lunch
with Courtney.

The boy, who was driving, turned to
Courtney, then back to Dare.  “Sure, where?”

Dare leaned into my car.  “Where to,
Laura?”

I shrugged.  “Uh, how about
Leonardo’s?”

He nodded, and then swung back around
to talk to the boy.  “Leonardo’s?”

“Sounds good,” the boy said, “we’ll meet
you there.”  He and Courtney climbed out of the Blazer then.

“Okay,” Dare called out as he climbed
into my car.

I was about to start the car when
Courtney hurried over and peered into the passenger side window.  She didn’t
bother looking at me but she flashed Dare her most dazzling smile.  “Are you
sure you don’t want to ride with us?” she asked him.  Then her voice softened
to a whisper.  “What if she gets pulled over again?”

“I’ll keep a close eye on her,” he
whispered conspiratorially.  “I think she’ll be okay.”

I was about to get really angry, but
Dare turned and winked at me.  Then he turned back to Courtney.  “We’ll see you
at the pizza parlor.”

Her eyes widened in surprise and she
drew back from the window.  “Well, okay,” she said, and then walked huffily
into the station.

As I backed my car out, I shook my
head.  “I can’t imagine why she wants to be a deputy,” I commented.  A
statuesque brunette with emerald green eyes and a knock-out figure, Courtney
hardly fit the profile.  “Isn’t she afraid she might break a nail?” I asked in
a saccharin tone.

“They do tend to get in the way when
we go target shooting,” Dare said, smiling, “but actually, she does seem to
know her stuff.”

I found that hard to believe but
decided to get off the subject of Courtney.  She just wasn’t one of my favorite
people.  Apparently, Dare had the same idea.  “Anyway,” he continued, “let’s
not talk about her.  Let’s talk about you.”

Suddenly, I felt very uncomfortable. 
“Let’s not,” I said with a nervous laugh.

“Really,” he urged, “tell me about
yourself.”

I turned toward him briefly and
heaved an exasperated sigh.  “What do you want to know?”

“Whatever you want to tell me,” he
replied.  He was watching me intently, and I felt my face go red.  I glanced
away and he chuckled.  “Man, Laura, is that you or the sunburn?”

Flustered, I stared straight ahead. 

“Well?”

“What?” I asked confusedly.  I knew I
was acting like a real air head, but he was making me so nervous.  

“Tell me about yourself,” he urged
again.

“Let’s talk about you,” I suggested
brightly, eager to divert the conversation away from me.

He raised his eyebrows and watched me
speculatively.  “What do you want to know?”

Do you have a girlfriend
?  The errant thought popped into my
mind.  Fortunately, my lips hadn’t formed the words but they had certainly come
close.  I swallowed over a lump in my throat. 

“What do you want to know?” he asked
me again, smiling widely.  I glanced at him for a split second, then resumed
staring straight ahead.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’d read my mind.

“Uh...well,” I mumbled, racking my
brain, “I know!   How did you get the name Dare?”

He grinned.  “Everyone asks me that.”

“Well?”

“My dad named me.”

I nodded.  “Is it short for
something?”

“Nope.  I was named for a place. 
Dare County, North Carolina.  My mom says it was Dad’s favorite place in the
whole world.”

“Oh.  I thought maybe you were named
for D.A.R.E.”  I spelled the word, and Dare’s brows furrowed into a frown. 
“You know, the acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.”

“Oh, right,” he said, smiling.  “But
no, I wasn’t named for that.”

“Do the explorers do anything for the
D.A.R.E. program?” I asked, although I really didn’t care one way or another. 
It was simply my attempt to keep the conversation moving.

Dare frowned.  “I don’t know.”

“D.A.R.E. is one of my dad’s favorite
programs,” I told him, grateful to have something to talk about.  “He likes to
go around to elementary schools and talk to little kids about the dangers of
drugs.”

“You know, that sounds really interesting,”
Dare acknowledged.  “If you’d like, you could talk to Lieutenant Hudson about
it.”

I nodded, though I wasn’t especially
eager to talk to Lieutenant Hudson about anything.  He had arrested me for
speeding, after all, and because of him, I’d been forced to join the explorers. 
I was lost to my thoughts, so Dare’s next words startled me.

“Why so quiet all of a sudden?”

I shook my head, relieved to see we’d
reached the restaurant.  Hastily, I parked the car and got out.  I quickly
rounded the car and collided with Dare, who had also gotten out of the car in
record time.  “Oops,” I mumbled, “sorry.”

“No problem,” he replied, grinning. 
I moved to step around him but he moved at the same time.  “What’s your hurry?”

Glancing up at him, I realized he was
teasing me.  Flustered, I asked, “Are we going in or what?”

“Or what,” he quipped. 

I ignored him and hurried into the
pizza parlor.  I grabbed the first available table and promptly began studying
the menu.  Dare slid into the booth beside me.  I was surprised that he didn’t
take the seat across from me.

“Interesting reading?” he asked,
after I’d spent a good five minutes with my nose in the menu.

I glanced up and our eyes met.  He
grinned devilishly at me and I resumed staring at the menu.  He took it from me
and folded it closed.  “Man, Laura, you’re a fake,” he declared.

“What?” I asked, thoroughly confused
by the remark.

“You try to play such a tough girl
but you’re really shy.”  He nudged me in the ribs.  “You’re a marshmallow.”

“I am not,” I huffed.

“Yes, you are,” he said smugly.

“I am not!” I insisted.

“You may be a thrill seeker, but
you’re a marshmallow.”

Exasperated, I declared, “I am
neither a thrill seeker nor a marshmallow...”

“But you are a lawbreaker,” Courtney
said importantly as she slid into the booth. 

The remark caught me off guard and I
could only stare at Courtney, who was watching me haughtily.

“Don’t mind her,” the other explorer
said as he sat down.  “She sometimes forgets that she’s only an explorer.  We
have to keep reminding her she doesn’t have any real police powers.”

“Oh, shut up, Keith,” she said,
shaking her head.  “I don’t mean to be rude, but really, you and Dare know as
well as I do that we’re not allowed to associate with lawbreakers.”