Last True Hero by Diana Gardin Read Free Book Online Page A

is everything. The only thing keeping me upright on my bed.
    “Dare…I’m surprised you’re calling me.”
    “Why?”
    Well, that’s direct.
    “Because? I don’t know…”
    “Weren’t you giving me an explicit green light last night to go ahead and call? I mean, you dared me. I don’t take that lightly.”
    Now his tone is jovial, light and flirty. It sends the annoying crop of winged insects inside my belly into a frenzy.
    “No? Well, then if I get results this quickly I’ll dare you more often.”
    Bold, Berkeley. Very bold.
    “That could be dangerous for you,” he warns.
    “I think I need a little danger in my life.”
    “I’m going to be honest here, Berkeley.” My name, now my favorite word when he uses it, rolls over me like a tidal wave. “I want to see you again. Are you working tonight?”
    I nod mutely, and then remember he can’t see me. I swear, I wasn’t such an idiot before I met this guy. Mea dissolves into another fit of giggles on the bed, and I kick her.
    “Oh, no. Silence? That’s a no…right? You’re going to kill my ego here, Berkeley.”
    A delicious shiver is crawling its way up my spine at the same time a small trickle of sweat slips down between my boobs. “No! I mean, yes. I am working tonight.”
    “After?”
    I shake my head and find my confidence. I actually do have a large stock of it somewhere. “Yes, after. Would you like to come to See Food around ten and wait for me to finish up?”
    “No.”
    My heart sinks somewhere near my feet.
    “I would love to.” I can hear his crooked little smile lifting his voice. “I’ll see you at ten.”
    He clicks off the line, and my heart is now somewhere so high I’m afraid I won’t be able to reach it to put it back inside my chest.
    “Well.” As I toss my phone down on the pillow beside me, my smile spreads wide. “Shit just got real. I have a date with Dare tonight.”

5
Dare
    D rake’s after-work routine is very simple: He takes a twenty-minute shower, grabs a frozen dinner to microwave, sits on the couch in a pair of sweats, and drinks a bottle of Bud.
    As he enters the final stage of this custom, I’m buttoning my shirt. Drake pauses, beer in hand, on his way to the couch. His mouth falls open as he takes in my appearance.
    “Why are you wearing a shirt that buttons?”
    I glance down at the soft blue-collared shirt with white checks, the snap buttons down the front of it lending it a retro vibe, and then back at him. I could tell him, but I’m not ready to announce to the world that I’m trying to date a girl I’m not even in the same realm of living with, much less the same league.
    “My mom sent it to me.”
    Drake’s eyes narrow. He looks like a big, beefy, muscle head, but he’s no fool, and I know it. “Which foster mom have you kept in touch with to the extent that she’d send you a shirt for no good reason?”
    Damn. I had blurted out the first thing that came to me, forgetting that Drake knows my history.
    “Okay. That was a lie, Drake.”
    “No fucking kidding?” The sarcasm drips from each word like nectar.
    “I’m going to see Berkeley. It’s not a big deal, just meeting up with her after she gets off work.”
    Drake’s face settles into its normal state of being, grinning at me with an extra gleam in his eyes. “Yeah? Good luck with that, man.”
    “Gee, Drake. I’m so glad I have your vote of confidence here. It means so fucking much to me, dude. Come here…let’s hug it out.”
    Drake plops onto the couch, and I follow him into the living room.
    “I have all the confidence in the world, man. If you’re interested in this chick, does that mean you want to stay in Lone Sands?”
    I sigh, running my hands over my face as I contemplate the question I’ve been avoiding. “I don’t know. This could still just be a stop on the train for me. You know I don’t stay in one place for too long. Force of habit.”
    The army lifestyle suited me so well because it allowed me to move