Dare Me by Ella Frank
Kieran
I’D NEVER SEEN Bash look quite so tongue-tied, and I was enjoying the hell out of it. The surprise and confusion on his face—along with a heavy dose of guilt—when he first saw me had made this spur-of-the-moment decision worth it, and now, as I arched a brow at him, I waited to see if he’d respond to my dare you challenge.
Bash stared at me for a little longer, until the guy beside him kicked his chair forward, hitting him in the back of the knees and forcing him onto the seat.
“Oh, Wicked,” the man who’d introduced himself as Jackson said, motioning for a woman with short grey hair, glasses perched on her nose, and a nametag that said Wanda. “We’ve got a new addition that would like to place an order.” He nodded toward me.
“The French toast you mentioned sounds great. I’ll have that.”
“Comin’ right up,” the waitress said, smiling at me and then placing a hand on Bash’s shoulder. “Can I get you boys anything else? What about another round of karaoke?”
“Don’t encourage him. He’s trying to fall on his face.”
“And this is Lucas,” Jackson said, putting his arm on the back of the chair of the guy who’d just spoken.
“Ah, the skeptic,” I said.
Lucas crossed his arms and eyed me. “A straight firefighter who happens to rescue Bashalicious here and then falls magically under his spell and wants to rip his clothes off?” Bash gasped, but Lucas didn’t take his eyes off me. “You gotta admit, that seems a little too good to be true.”
Don’t ask me what had come over me to feel so confident as I sat amongst a table full of strangers who were all looking at me with judgment in their eyes. But from the moment I stepped inside this restaurant and saw Bash again, it’d become obvious that I’d been a topic of discussion, one where they’d made a lot of assumptions, and it was up to me to set them straight.
Maybe that was a poor choice of words. But something about them thinking I was this straight firefighter asshole who’d dicked their friend around and left him brokenhearted sat wrong with me. That wasn’t how it had gone down, and I wanted to make that crystal clear to his friends.
“I’d agree with that.” I nodded at Lucas, who was still eyeing me with a healthy dose of skepticism. “But then again, if anyone could weave a little magic, I would think it’s Bash. After all, he does know how to up and disappear.”
Jackson arched an eyebrow at Lucas and shrugged as if to say, He’s not wrong. Then I turned back to Bash and reached for the champagne bottle he still had clutched in his hand.
“If ever there was a time I needed you to pour me a drink,” I said, “that time would be now.”
With his cheeks flushed, Bash’s dark hair and otherwise pale complexion all added up to a stunning picture, and I wanted to reach out and stroke a finger over his heated cheek.
Then he licked his glossed-up lips and whispered, “How are you even here right now?”
“Delta was running a sale.”
“Well, thank you, Delta.” Bash reached out like he was going to touch my face but second-guessed himself and dropped his hand. “You’re even more handsome than I remember.” Then he turned to his friends, aiming the champagne bottle at them all like an accusatory finger. “I told you he was real. As if I’d ever stoop so low as to make up a man.”
“Lucas was the only one who doubted you,” Shaw said.
“Yeah,” Lucas scoffed. “Like you weren’t all thinkin’ it.”
“Oh ye of little faith. Don’t you know you shouldn’t underestimate me by now? I’m not a liar,” Bash said.
“In all fairness, you did show us a picture, but it didn’t do him justice.” Trent fucking Knox winked—winked—at me, and I almost lost my brain cells until I realized what he’d just said.
“You showed them a private picture of me?” I asked.
Bash’s mouth fell open. “I did no such thing. Shaw muscle-manned me and stole my phone.”
“Oh, so you didn’t delete my picture? Just my number?”
“That’s not what… I didn’t… You’re twisting my words.” Bash rubbed his temples. “I can’t think straight. Maybe I need another drink.”
“Babe, you’re never thinking straight,” Shaw said. “Don’t blame the champagne.”
I thought back to when Bash was completely wasted and still able to put on a show for me in heels. There was no way alcohol threw him off his game. If anything, it made him even bolder, which was why it was interesting to see him so flustered.
Bash looked me in the eye. “Of course I didn’t delete it. Your picture or your number.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“There’s no foolin’ anyone,” Lucas said. “He hasn’t shut up about you since you met.”
“Well, I think it’s a nice surprise.” Jackson smiled at me and cocked his head. “But, and no offense by this, why are you here?
I wasn’t about to lay it all out for Bash’s friends right here and now. I hadn’t expected an inquisition, only hoped to get to South Haven and seeBash. Finding him here and surrounded by his best friends wasn’t the ideal situation for what I wanted to say to him.
“I’m sure you’ll find out eventually,” I replied. “But I’d rather talk to Bash first. Privately.”
Shaw nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Fair enough, my ass.” Lucas sat forward in his chair and narrowed his eyes. “If you came all the way down here to break his heart or get him all twisted up again, I swear to God I’ll—”
Jackson saved the day by covering Lucas’s mouth and whispering something in his ear, and after a long moment, Lucas rolled his eyes and nodded.
“Fine,” he murmured, and Jackson lowered his hand. “I’ll try—keyword here try—not to kick your ass.”
I couldn’t help but snort as I looked down at my sling. “I’m not exactly a hundred percent right now to defend myself, although I almost punched Sanderson out, so you never know.”
“Sanderson?” Bash frowned. “You guys got in a fight? When?”
“Friday. I got suspended, he got fired, and now here I am.”
Bash’s jaw hit the floor, but he quickly shook himself out of his stupor. “Okay, on that note, I think we should get that French toast to go. We obviously have a lot to discuss.”
“Wait, you can’t leave now. It was just getting interesting,” Lucas said.
“Shut it, you.” Shaw cut his eyes in Lucas’s direction, and apparently that was enough to make the mouthy guy clamp his mouth tight. “Bash?”
“Hmm?” Bash replied, but didn’t take his eyes away from me.
“How about Trent and I give you two a ride home, since you’re right next door?”
Couldn’t say I wasn’t excited him and Trent were Bash’s neighbors, but… “I actually have a rental parked down at the beach access point. So if you could just give us a ride there?” Shaw nodded, and I turned to Bash. “Is that okay with you?”
Bash blinked at me. “Is what okay?”
“If I come to your house?”
There was a snicker from across the table. “Pretty sure it’d be okay for you to come anywhere, as long as he can watch.”
Man, that Lucas sure had a mouth on him, but I wasn’t paying any attention to him now. Bash got to his feet, and when he swayed a little, I got up and took his elbow.
He looked down at where I held him and then back to me, a hopeful expression swirling in his eyes. “Saving me again, lieutenant?”
“Seems to be the norm with you.”
We stood there for several seconds, not willing to break the connection just yet. When the server appeared with my French toast, Bash finally looked away, frowning at the scrumptious-looking meal.
“Oh no, we forgot to get this to go.”
“It’s fine—”
“Apologies, Wicked. We’ll need a box, please.” As she headed off to go wrap the plate, Bash smoothed his hand up my arm. The touch was familiar, but strange given the circumstances. “You are really here, right? This isn’t some drunk hallucination that I’m going to wake up from tomorrow morning and want to drown myself in the river, only to be eaten by alligators?”
“I’m really here.”
“And you want me to take you home? To my home?”
“I think that’s probably a good idea.”
Bash nodded and dropped his hand, his mood ever-changing under the influence. “Okay, let’s do that.”
“How about you guys go on? I’ve got this,” Jackson said as Wanda came back and handed him the check.
She gave me the to-go box and smiled. “Now you take care of our Bash here.”
Jesus, did everyone in this town have a vested interest in Bash’s personal life? Actually, who was I kidding—that seemed totally normal, considering the way people gravitated to the guy.
“Okay, okay, let’s go,” Shaw said as he and Trent walked by hand in hand, and I had the crazy urge to grab Bash’s hand. I stopped myself at the last second, not knowing if that was something he would want, because after all, he’d been the one to leave me.
“After you.” I stepped out of the way to let him pass by, and that amazing cologne of his made me think of that night by his hotel door. The first night we’d kissed.
Before I could follow, Bash looked over his shoulder. “Welcome to South Haven, lieutenant.”
