Page 60 of Meet Dare

He chuckles. “Since I’m the CEO of the same company, I am aware.”

The door bangs open and Sage barges in. “Are we too late?”

She’s followed by Feather, Clove, Cayenne, and Petal. Oh good. The gang’s all here. And that, folks, is how you do sarcasm.

I throw my arms in the air. “Too late for what? What in the world are the gossip gals doing here?”

Elizabeth stomps to me and snaps her fingers in my face. “I don’t care why they’re here. The horsemen of the Apocalypse could ride into town and I wouldn’t give the first flying fudge. I want to know why you hid your intentions aboutElectric Vibesfrom us.” She pounds a fist on her chest. “Your family.”

“Ten bucks says Elizabeth cries,” Petal hollers.

I switch my attention to the gossip gals. “No one is betting on when my sister cries. Do you understand? No one.”

“I knew it!” is Sage’s bizarre response.

I can’t stop myself from asking. “Knew what?”

“Knew you had a kind heart hidden under all the crazy prickly outer skin.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” I grumble at her before motioning toward the door. “Out. Anyone who does not have the last name of Dempsey or West needs to vacate the premises.”

No one vacates the premises. Seriously. No one. In fact, the gossip gals gather together.

“Cedar was the correct choice for her.”

“She’s going to fix him.”

“And then he can fix her.”

“Or the other way around. I’m not picky.”

“Fix us?” I explode. “We’re not broken dolls. We’re human beings.”

Sage pats my hand. “Of course, dear.”

I narrow my eyes on her. “Why do I feel as if you’re patronizing me?”

She places a hand over her heart and feigns injury. “Me? Why I would never…”

My ass she would never, but I can be flexible. I try a different tactic.

“Can you please leave now? I need to discuss things with my family.” Which is absolutely, positively the last freaking thing in the world I want to do but getting shot of the gossip gals is priority number one now.

“I’ll go as soon as you give me some kind of indication of how things are going with Cedar.”

I scowl. This is exactly why they need to leave. Things are going nowhere on the fast train with Cedar since I freaked outand stomped out of his house over a week ago. Lucky for me, there’s no need to say any of this since Lilac takes over.

“No. I won’t stop you from betting on Project Hermit—”

“Because you can’t,” Clove butts in to say.

Lilac’s lip curls, but she motors on. “But I will stop you from trying to gain inside information in order to win the bet.”

“But I still haven’t been able to buy those all natural yoga pillows forEarth Bliss,” Cayenne pouts.

“You’ll have to buy those pillows for your yoga studio the old-fashioned way,” Lilac says.

“The old-fashioned way?”

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