Page 15 of The Dating Dare

TARA:Do you consider nine o’clock late?

A simpleyeswould’ve sufficed, but why be accommodating when she could be passive aggressive?

She stared fixedly at the ellipses that scrolled and scrolled. Was he writing her a sonnet? Why was he taking so long to respond? Then she almost dropped her phone from shock when it rang. As soon as she answered, Seth’s sexy, teasing voice nibbled at her ear.

“Since I’m not a seven-year-old with an eight thirty bedtime, nine sounds great.”

“Sounds great for what?” Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He suddenly wanted to see her on such short notice? Like she had nothing better to do? She was obviously overreacting, but she was nervous and confused, which made her so mad at herself.

“I’m back in town, and I thought we’d meet up to talk about that night. I expected to hear from you during the week, but… that’s fine,” he said magnanimously.

“Youexpected to hear fromme? To say what?” To fess up that she didn’t remember a thing? No way. She couldn’t.

“I don’t know. To apologize or thank… wait a minute. Why do you sound angry?”

“I’m not angry,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m… curious.”

“We obviously can’t do this over the phone. Can you come over to Landon’s place after work?”

“You want me to come over there?” She was repeating everything he said, but she couldn’t help it.

Was he hoping for a repeat of whatever had happened that night?You don’t know what happened. Why are you freaking out so badly?From Seth’s casual tone, he didn’t sound like a man ridden with guilt, but that could be good or bad.

“Look. I would love to meet you somewhere in Weldon, but it’s such a small town,” Seth explained calmly. “Do you really want to have this conversation in public?”

She wanted to tell him they could talk about whatever he wanted to right at the brewery, but Jack and Alex would watch them like a hawk and eavesdrop shamelessly. She didn’t want her humiliation, whatever it was, revealed in public.

“Fine. But no funny business,” she added in a rush of nerves.

“What? What funny business?” He sounded genuinely perplexed. Then silence stretched on, weighing down on her as heavy as a boulder. “God, if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I’m going to be very pissed off.”

“We’ll talk later.” Tara’s stomach dropped. He already sounded pissed. “Bye.”

She hung up the phone before he could say anything else, and went back out to the hall. It was a relatively quiet weeknight, so she had plenty of time to dissect her conversation with Seth. As she was in the dark about what went down that night, she’d been at a distinct disadvantage. Since Jason, not being in complete control of a situation terrified her—things could spin out of control in the blink of an eye—so she’d taken the offensive with Seth to hide her insecurities. She couldn’t do that when she saw him later tonight. She had to be calm and reasonable.

“Hey, Alex.” She put a hand on his arm to get his attention. She’d been wiping at the same spot on the bar for half an hour, and it wasalready a quarter till nine. “It’s pretty slow tonight. Do you mind if I take off a few minutes early?”

“Nope. Go right ahead.”

“Thank you.” As she turned away to grab her purse, she remembered that she had to drive to Aubrey and Landon’s house.Dammit. She’d rode her bike into work. “Did you drive in with Jack?”

“No, he had to run some errands, so we drove in separately. Why?”

“It’s just… can I borrow your car?”

“Sure,” he said without hesitation. He dug into his jeans pocket and threw her a set of keys, and she snatched it out of the air. “Don’t do anything too wild with it.”

“What do you take me for?” She scoffed at him. “I’m only taking it for a little drag racing.”

She left Alex chuckling behind the bar and hit the road. Even though she was an excellent driver, the windy, narrow roads weren’t easy to maneuver in the dark. At least, it kept her mind from drifting to what she was going to say to Seth. More importantly, whathewas going to say to her. She couldn’t think about it, or else she would freak out like she had during their phone call.

Tara drove up to Aubrey’s brightly lit house and parked next to Seth’s fancy electric car. After taking a long breath to calm her nerves, she walked up the short steps and rapped her knuckles hard against the front door. Now that she was here, she wanted to get the whole thing over with.

Seth opened the door as though he’d been standing on the other side waiting for her. His gaze met hers for a heated second before his eyes traveled over her body. He swallowed hard. “It’s good to see you, Tara.”

She struggled to breathe properly. Her memory of how attractivehe was and how she reacted to his proximity was nothing compared to the combustible lust that hit her like a blast from a furnace.

“Seth.” She sounded undeniably breathless. “Are you going to invite me in or are we having our conversation on the doorstep?”

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