Page 1 of Dare to be Different

Chapter 1

Nothing quite like slugging my ass off in the cold, trying to get this plane loaded while Remy bitches about how busy we are. Like, fuck off, bud. We wanted to be this busy. We worked our asses off to be this busy, and neither of us has ever been afraid of a little hard work, so I don’t know why he’s wasting time complaining about it.

“Are you going to sit there and bitch for much longer?” I ask him, hauling crates to be stacked in the back of the seaplane. “This ain’t a marriage, Rem. And I sure as shit ain’t your bitch.”

“This is a marriage, and you are my bitch,” he laughs, getting up to help. “We need to hire someone. Or at least get Four working with us more. Think he’ll leave S&R?” He passes me a crate and I load it.

I shake my head at his moaning and groaning. “He won’t leave S&R.” Search and Rescue is Four’s calling, and there isn’t a chance in hell he’d leave it to fly bush planes.

We’ve been nonstop busy for months. So busy, we don’t even have time for our own lives. We work. We sleep. We sometimes fit in a hookup or a drink with my brothers, but otherwise, it’s work and repeat. We have two planes running pretty much full-time, plus a few jobs we contract out to other guys. It’s exhausting, so I understand his complaints, but I don’t know what to do about it. I haven’t had the time to think about it.

“There’s that Canadian company out of the Yukon looking to expand. We could join up with them,” Remy says, his ass hitting my hip to push me out of his way. “Wanna look into them?”

“I’m not joining a company without working with them first. We know nothing about them.” And I have weird trust issues when it comes to business. Me and Rem—that’s all it’s ever been. It freaks me out a little to bring someone else into our mix. I ass-check him this time, loading medical supplies we’re taking to a remote reservation up north.

“We’ve done small jobs with them before,” Remy says. “We gotta do something, man. We’re burning out. What if one of the planes goes down, or we need a day off?” He shakes his head and lights a smoke. There are still fifty damn crates that need to be loaded, but he’s stressed out.

Maybe we should look into hiring or converging with another flight company. A day off sounds kind of nice, but more than that, I don’t want the stress of this business to ruin our friendship.

“Are we having our first fight, baby?” I taunt him while he smokes like an asshole.

“Verbal fight, maybe. Pretty sure I’ve kicked your ass at least five times since the sixth grade.”

I scoff at that. “Yeah, okay.” I grin at him. We’ve been best buds since we were tots, and we started this business when we were nineteen and horny all the time. If we can get through that, we can get through anything. “Fine, set up the meeting with that company. I’ll ask Four if he can take a few more odd jobs to help us out until then.” I keep stacking. “And stop being a lazy ass.”

He doesn’t stop. He sits on his ass for another ten minutes, taking a break until only twenty crates are left.

I really am his bitch.

By the time I walk into Mom and Dad’s place in the middle of the night, I’m pretty much a zombie. That medical supply run took way longer than planned because the front propellers kept icing up. We had to cover and heat them just to get them running again, but what else is new?

Now I’m tired and wired, unsure if I want to sleep or go find trouble. I close the door behind me and toss my coat on the chair by the front door.

“Work or pleasure?” Laken asks, smirking at me from the kitchen chair. She’s making tea, looking like a hot mess. Still sexy as hell.

“Can’t it be both?” I walk over and lean against the counter. “Why you up?” I glance down the hallway, wondering if Gen and Four will be in there or if they stayed at Four’s place. I really need to find the time to move out of here, but there isn’t any spare time for that right now. I used to have a place of my own for a bit, but it was stupid to pay for it when I was away for work or staying here more than I stayed there.

“Freya had a mild panic attack about being a mom,” Lakes laughs. “She’s good now. Hardin distracted her.”

I have to laugh at that. Freya is all over the place with this pregnancy. She goes from excited to terrified, to pissed off that she’s knocked up, to overbearing mama mode. It’s probably normal, but what the hell do I know?

I pour myself a whiskey, because why not, and sit down at the table with Laken. “You wanna get your pilot’s license and come work with me and Remy?” I ask her. “You’re good at motorsports. It’s basically a big dirt bike.” I grin.

“Yeah, highly doubt that. Still crazy busy?”

“Yep. ‘Remy’s starting to bitch’ busy.”

“Why don’t you hire someone?” she asks, turning to face me and taking a swig from the bottle.

“I’m trying to recruit you. Come on, Lakes. Imagine all the overnight trips we’d get to spend together. You do think I’m beautiful, after all.” I smirk and pour myself another shot.

Laken laughs. “Don’t tempt me.”

Overnight trips with Laken and Remy sound fun, and my cock gets a bit over-imaginative about it, but that ship has sailed. I might be beautiful, but Kade and Jed aren’t letting another Dare in there. Probably for the best. Laken couldn’t handle me anyway.

“You’ll find someone. You and Rem always work shit out,” she says, her big turquoise eyes looking right at me. Is she begging me to fuck her, or am I more tired and delusional than I thought? Wow, I need to get laid. How long has it been since I’m now manifesting fuck-me eyes in the middle of the night?

“Yeah, we do. Remy’s smarter than me, so he’ll figure it out.”

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