“I lost it. I left home when I was seventeen to join the Navy. I guess hanging out with a bunch of people from all over does that to a person. Besides, I never had a strong accent to begin with.”
“Wow. I would never have guessed. So what on earth are you doing in Mayberry Holm?”
Dare opened his mouth and closed it again. I sensed a story there.
“Love,” he said. “I was in love. I wanted to retire and run a farm. It seemed like it’d be a simple, cozy life. That was all I wanted after all the years in service and never having a home.”
I was almost afraid to ask my next question.
“Wh-what happened?”
Dare sighed and put his knife and fork down.
“He…uhm…he chickened out. He wasn’t ready to come out, let alone shack up with me in a small little farm where there would be no doubt what we were. So he backed away and I was left with this place.”
“That…” I started and searched for the right words. “That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged and towered over his food, hunching more than I’d ever seen him do so before.
“Oh well. What can you do?”
I pursed my lips and cocked my head to the side.
“Yeah. I guess there’s not much you can do when someone isn’t ready. I guess moving on is the only solution.”
“And I have,” he exclaimed, putting down his utensils and gesturing at the house around us. “I’ve got a great farm, a small business, and the quiet life I wanted.”
A lonely life, I added in my head.
It was so strange how if this shit with Victor hadn’t happened I wouldn’t have known that. I would have thought Dare was a happy-go-lucky farmer who loved his life and who was all too excited to be surrounded by people, but this…
I’d only been here a couple of days, but I could see the real Dare now. A lonely, but resilient man whose dream and most importantly, his heart, had been shattered and who didn’t know how to pick up the pieces.
We were more alike than I cared to admit.
“It’s a wonderful life,” I replied and watched him eat more of his food appreciating that I’d got this chance to meet the real Dare.
Not that I could do anything about it. I was a guest haunted by my past in a house full of Dare’s ghosts. The last thing either of us needed was to start something while tending to our broken hearts and souls.
Besides, why would Dare want a sad excuse of a man like me, when he could have anyone he wanted?
“That was great,” I said after a while.
We’d gotten quiet as we worked through our dinner.
“I need a nap. I feel so heavy and sleepy,” I chuckled.
“Me too,” he answered. “Maybe we should have a sandwich for dinner later.”
I smiled.
“It’s a date,” I said and rolled my eyes. Why would I say that?
I helped Dare wash up and retreated to my room. Well, his room.
Fuck my life. After everything I’d found out about him, now I had to sleep in his bed and pretend I didn’t want to share it with him?
Agh. Life has a funny way of playing with my feelings, doesn’t it?
