Dare to Love by user (read dune TXT) 📗

Obviously he wasn’t taking this any more seriously than she was. And besides, what

was the harm? It wasn’t like they were a love match or anything. It was a just a date.

Really, more like a challenge. A dare. Like playing chicken—see who flinched first.

She pulled out her business card, scribbled on the back and handed it to him.

He took the card and read both sides, his eyebrows lifting when he looked up.

“Esquire, huh? You’re a lawyer?”

She nodded, eager to get away from this man who made her think too much about

what was lacking in her life. What she’d never experienced, but wanted to. “Yes. I really

have to go. My home address is on the back of the card.”

“Fine. I’ll pick you up at eight.”

She started to walk away, but his words stopped her. She pivoted.

“Eight?” She swallowed. “Tonight?”

“Yeah. Tonight. You busy?”

“Um, well, that is…” Good heavens. Tonight? She hadn’t really thought about doing

it so soon. Or really, at all.

“Yes or no?”

He was waiting for her to back down. Chicken. Flinch. No way. “Eight works for me.”

“Fine,” he nodded. “See you then. Dress casual. You do know what that is, don’t you? No evening gowns? Leave the tiara at home?”

She tilted her head and sighed. “Yes. Casual. Whatever. Eight it is.” With as much dignity as she could dredge up, she walked down the street, shaking

her head and muttering to herself again.

“A date. With a stranger, and an annoying one at that. I must be insane. This is all Father’s fault. If he hadn’t upset me with his ridiculous marriage idea, I’d have never

stopped to confront those men. Which means I’d have never engaged in conversation

with Jake, and wouldn’t be having a date with him tonight.” She stopped at the coffee shop, her original destination after she’d stormed out of her

father’s office. She’d merely wanted a chance to cool off, to gain some perspective, and

needed to get out of Fairchild’s stuffy offices to grab a cup of coffee.

Then she’d run into those men. And Jake.

After ordering her latte, she took the steaming brew and sat at one of the small metal

tables near the window, watching the red steel structure that would someday be a new

high rise. Men worked on the upper levels of those skinny beams, walking the narrow

steel structure with finesse and grace. She sipped her latte and watched for awhile,

wondering if one of those figures up there was Jake.

Jake Dalton. Now there was expert construction. She’d known many handsome men,

men with athletic bodies owed to hours in the gym with a high-priced personal trainer.

Men who went for weekly facials and had their hair cut by the best stylists San Francisco

had to offer. They even got manicures and pedicures. All phony perfection that didn’t do

a thing to turn her on.

But never had she seen a man so well put together as Jake. His lean body was a result

of hard hands-on labor, his tanned skin not from a booth with ultraviolet lights, but from

hours spent working outside. His hair was unkempt and mussed, not perfectly combed

and styled. The kind of hair that would be soft, that a woman would want to run her

hands through and know that her fingers wouldn’t get stuck in some kind of styling goo.

But he was utterly and completely wrong for her. They had nothing in common.

He

was more annoying than a summer fly in the house and she’d probably want to swat him

by the end of their date tonight.

Unfortunately, she’d never been more attracted to a man in her entire thirty years of

life.

Which was the precipitator of her father’s conversation with her this morning that had set her off in the first place.

Her advancing age, as he’d informed her. The fact she wasn’t getting any younger and hadn’t once dated a man who was worthy of merging with the Fairchild family and

producing an heir.

Merging. Like anyone she’d marry would be a business deal, not a love match.

She’d

like to show him a merger. Wouldn’t he just have a fit when Jake Dalton showed up at

the door tonight?

That alone would make the date worthwhile.

Though it wasn’t really a date.

“I hear you got a date for tonight.”

Jake cringed when he walked through the door of the construction trailer to find Bob

Dixon grinning like he’d just won the lottery. The old man never failed to find ways to

annoy him.

But without Bob, God only knows what would have happened to Jake. From day one

Bob had been both his mentor and fiercest persecutor, ever since Jake had left home at

sixteen and lied his way onto the construction crew Bob supervised.

Back then Jake had wondered if he’d even get hired on anywhere, and if not, how he’d manage the eating and roof over his head part.

All those years alone had made Jake resourceful. Bob had taken pity on the skinny kid with no skills and trained him. Bob Dixon had been more father to Jake than his own

had ever been. So he put up with the old man’s bizarre sense of humor.

“And they say women are gossips?” Jake threw his clipboard on the desk and faced

the other man.

Bob laughed, a big belly laugh that fit his lumberjack-sized frame. “Men are bigger gossips than women, sometimes. So, tell me about her.”

“Not much to tell.”

Bob raised a bushy brow. “You liked her enough to ask her out.”

“What? Am I wired for sound here?”

“Nah, the guys just listened in, and then, ya know how they talk.”

“Unfortunately, yeah. I know how they talk.” Their talking was what had gotten him

involved with Miss High on the Hill in the first place. Just what he didn’t need in his life

right now.

His mind should have been on business—on this job which was so critical to his fledgling company. The high rise was his first huge project, and if they did well there’d

be more business coming their way. Enough that Jake would have to expand and hire

more people.

Which meant growth, and that’s what he aimed