Page 121 of Meet Dare

Mercury lives in a house outside of town. He’s made sure people believe his house is haunted. Not because it is. But because he doesn’t want visitors.

“Okay,” he grunts before wandering off.

“Who is he?” Beckett asks as he watches the old man leave.

“Old Man Mercury,” Rowan answers. “He founded this town with his wife, Adhara.”

“I haven’t met anyone named Adhara.”

“Because she died along with their child. It was tragic.” I don’t explain further as I don’t know any more details. The how and why of their deaths is a closely kept secret in Winter Falls. The only secret as far as I know.

“I’ll ask Lilac.” Unfortunately for him, this is one secret even his fiancée doesn’t know.

“I don’t care about Mercury,” Rowan declares. “I what to know what happened with Cassie.”

I don’t want to talk about how the woman I love threw me out. I rub a hand over my chest. I know she panicked, but the knowledge doesn’t alleviate the pain.

“She broke up with me.”

Beckett growls. “What did you do to her?”

I want to lash out at him for assuming I did something wrong, but he’s Cassie’s brother. I need him as an ally. Especially over the next days as I push my princess further than she’s willing to go.

“Besides love her?” I shrug.

“What brought it on? Did you accidentally say the wrong thing? You know you can’t tell a woman what to do or to calm down.” Rowan shivers.

I shake my head. “I know better than to try and tell a woman what to do.”

“You must have some clue as to what you did wrong,” Beckett says.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Are you sure?” Rowan asks. “Describe the last conversation you had with her.”

I’m not going to stand here and dissect every single thing we said to each other.

“She panicked.”

“Panicked? Why? What did you do?”

I clench my jaw before I lash out at Beckett. I know he’s protecting his sister, but I’m about done with him assuming I was in the wrong.

“She saw the calendar and realized the date of our dare was over.”

“Your dare? Didn’t you explain to her earlier the dare was off?” Beckett asks.

“I told her I wasn’t leaving no matter what. The dare be damned.”

He sips on his beer as he considers my answer. “She obviously didn’t believe you.”

I waggle my eyebrows. “Don’t worry. She believed me.”

He pokes me. “Don’t push it.”

“Hey now.” Rowan shoves between us. “The two of you fighting won’t help the situation.”

It would feel good, though. I’d love to get rid of some of this excess energy banging around in my body since Cassie kicked me out.

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