He nodded against my belly, his eyes still closed. “Yeah? More or less? Holes need to be dug to hold the posts. And I don’t even know how the fuck the signs go together. The posts are basically logs and…ohhhh, that feels good.”
I grinned. “You’re so easy.”
His brown eyes popped open. “I’m really not,” he said, his voice all rumbly-deep and serious.
“Shhh. Tell it to someone who doesn’t know better.” I tugged on his hair and his eyes slid shut once more. “So, I’ll just come help you. I’m finishing up a project for Mr. Bane by Tuesday at the latest. I’ll have all of Wednesday and Thursday free, and I might be able to give you Friday morning too, if it takes that long, but I bet we can get it done in two mornings.”
Dare pushed up, bracing his hand on the ground near myotherhip so he was leaning over me. “You don’t have to do that, Brian.”
“Of course I don’thaveto. Iwantto help.Duh. Tell you what… we’ll start really early Wednesday setting posts, then you can take me on a scenic hike. We haven’t done that inages.”
“I can’t pay you for labor,” he warned. “The contracts are all set—”
“Comeon. It’s not like that between us, Darius Turner. Never has been. Friends help friends.”
“Right,” he said slowly. “Friends.”
“Though, you know, if you felt grateful enough to never call meBri-briagain, that’d be excellent compensation,” I teased.
He stared down at me for a minute, completely silent. I could almost sense his mind whirring, probably thinking up a smart-assed retort, but I felt totally at peace. The sun was high and bright, the world smelled like green grass and grilled food and something sweet that might have been Dare’s soap, and I could hardly remember why I’d been upset earlier.
Dare was so darn handy that way. It was hard to resent the man for bearing witness to my catastrophic fuckups when he was so very good at picking up the pieces and making everything okay aga—
“You wanna know how to get a guy like Mark?” Dare said, so apropos of nothing the words were like a record-scratch in my mind.
I frowned. “Ummmm. First of all, you don’t know Mark any better than I do. Second, since when do you give me relationship advice?”
Dare leaned down just a little, his familiar coffee-dark eyes intent. “I’ve known plenty of guys like Mark. And… sincenow. If that’s what you want.”
I swallowed, not entirely sure why the idea of Dare telling me how to win Mark made me uncomfortable when it really shouldn’t. Dare had a track record with guys that was fairly legendary. He’d never found anyone he wanted to sleep with more than once, and that was pretty legendary too, but if anyone knew how to get a guy interested in them… it was Dare.
“You wanna know or not?”
I nodded wordlessly.
“You need to chill when you talk to him. Be your real self. Joke with him the way you do with me.”
“What?I’m totally chill!”
Dare’s lips twitched. “Brian.Babe. Death Valley in summer is more chill than you when you’re talking to a guy you find attractive. You’ve been that way since legit forever, but I don’t know why. You’re awesome.”
I shook my head slowly. I reallywasn’t.
Dare couldn’t see it, probably because we’d been friends so long, but there was somethingoffin my romantic relationships with other guys, even guys I dated for a long time like Jamie Burke. Try as I might—and believe me, I tried—I never felt as comfortable and relaxed with them as I did with Dare.
As badly as Icravedfinding my one true love, I was very much afraid I wasn’t cut out for romance.
Dare laid his head back down on my stomach.
“The only thing wrong with you is your shit taste in guys,” Dare continued like he was reading my mind… which, after all these years, would not have surprised me. “You pick a guy you think fits your very strange soulmate criteria—”
“Hey!”
“—because of his sadvibeor his niceeyes, and you think that means they’re the total package.”
“Do not!”
“Do so. Started with Lance Germaine back in high school,” Dare insisted. “Total asshole, despite hisdeep, artistic nature. Even Jamie Burke—”
