A Little Dare - Brenda Jackson [12]
“Yeah, yeah, I understand,” the boy all but snapped. “Can we go now?”
Dare nodded and handed her the completed form. “I’ll walk the two of you out to the car since I was about to leave anyway.”
Once Shelly and AJ were in the car and had buckled up their seat belts, Dare glanced into the car and said to the boy, “I’ll see you tomorrow when you get out of school.”
Ignoring AJ’s glare, he then turned and the look he gave Shelly said that he expected to see her tomorrow as well, at Kate’s Diner in the morning. “Good night and drive safely.”
He then walked away.
An hour later, Dare walked into a room where four men sat at a table engaged in a card game. The four looked up and his brother Stone spoke. “You’re late.”
“I had important business to take care of,” Dare said grabbing a bottle of beer and leaning against the refrigerator in Stone’s kitchen. “I’ll wait this round out and just watch.”
His brothers nodded as they continued with the game. Moments later, Chase Westmoreland let out a curse. Evidently he was losing as usual, Dare thought smiling. He then thought about how the four men at the table were more than just brothers to him; they were also his very best friends, although Thorn, the one known for his moodiness, could test that friendship and brotherly love to the limit at times. At thirty-five, Thorn was only eleven months younger than him, and built and raced motorcycles for a living. Last year he’d been the only African-American on the circuit.
His brother Stone, known for his wild imagination, had recently celebrated his thirty-third birthday and wrote action-thriller novels under the pen name, Rock Mason. Then there were the fraternal thirty-two-year-old twins, Chase and Storm. Chase was the oldest by seven minutes and owned a soul-food restaurant in downtown Atlanta, and Storm was the fireman in the family. According to their mother, she had gone into delivery unexpectedly while riding in the car with their Dad. When a bad storm had come up, he chased time and outran the storm to get her to the hospital. Thus she had named her last two sons Chase and Storm.
“You’re quiet, Dare.”
Dare looked up from studying his beer bottle and brought his thoughts back to the present. He met Stone’s curious stare. “Is that a crime?”
Stone grinned. “No, but if it was a crime I’m sure you’d arrest yourself since you’re such a dedicated lawman.”
Chase chuckled. “Leave Dare alone. Nothing’s wrong with him other than he’s keeping Thorn company with this celibacy thing,” he said jokingly.
“Shut up, Storm, before I hurt you,” Thorn Westmoreland said, without cracking a smile.
Everyone knew Thorn refrained from having sex while preparing for a race, which accounted for his prickly mood most of the time. But since Thorn had been in the same mood for over ten months now they couldn’t help but wonder what his problem was. Dare had a clue but decided not to say. He sighed and crossed the room and sat down at the table. “Guess who’s back in town.”
Storm looked up from studying his hand and grinned. “Okay, I’ll play your silly guessing game. Who’s back in town, Dare?”
“Shelly.”
Everyone at the table got quiet as they looked up at him. Then Stone spoke. “Our Shelly?”
Dare looked at his brother and frowned. “No, not our Shelly, my Shelly.”
Stone glared at him. “Your Shelly? You could have fooled us, the way you dumped her.”
Dare leaned back in his chair. He’d known it was coming. His brothers had actually stopped speaking to him for weeks after he’d broken off with Shelly. “I did not dump her. I merely made the decision that I wasn’t ready for marriage and wanted a career with the Bureau instead.
“That sounds pretty much like you dumped her to me,” Stone said angrily. “You knew she was the marrying kind. And you led her to believe, like you did the rest of us, that the two of you would eventually marry when she finished college. In my book you played her for a fool, and I’ve always felt bad about it because I’m the one who introduced the two of you,” he added, glaring at his brother.
Dare stood. “I did not play her for