Love Me If You Dare (Safe Haven) by Kate Laurens Read Free Book Online Page A

spaghetti strapped purple tank top before
leaving the house—cute, but nothing that couldn’t be replaced. I opened my arms
to accept the hug, and was startled by the wave of emotion that had tears
prickling at the back of my eyes when I inhaled the scents of engine oil and
sweat.
    I
wondered if Fish Lake was exactly as I remembered it, or if my time away had
skewed my thoughts. First Caroline, now Jax... even Dylan.
    They’d
all welcomed me home, when I’d expected nothing but whispers and rumours.
    “Glad
you’re back, Kaylee.” Jax grinned down at me, a devastating smile that had set
more hearts aflutter that he could probably count. He and Dylan, and another
friend named Nick had wreaked havoc in Fish Lake in their younger years, all of
them gorgeous with a badass swagger that girls hadn’t been able to resist.
    I
wondered if Ella had resisted. I wanted to pinch myself black and blue for the
thought.
    “You’re
looking sexy, girl.” Jax pulled back and looked me up and down. No matter how
sexy his crooked grin was, I just didn’t feel the tug towards him that I did
with Dylan.
    I
wished I did. Jax would have been easier on my heart.
    “Thanks.”
Here, I felt comfortable relaxing into the habits I’d developed while at
school. I cast him a saucy smile back, gesturing Serena and Maddy forward.
    “We
were walking by and I wanted to say hi. And introduce you to my prettiest
friends.”
    Serena
flushed at my words. Maddy grinned at Jax like he was prey, and I felt a little
spark of triumph.
    Just
because my love life was a hopeless mess, didn’t mean that Maddy couldn’t have
some fun while she was here.
    “You
trio are a sight for sore eyes.” Jax whistled as he grinned at the three of us.
I was a bit disappointed that his eyes didn’t linger on Maddy, but that was
Jax. There had always been rumors about him, but I couldn’t have named a single
person he’d actually had a relationship with.
    “Thanks
Jax.” I looked around the shop with curious eyes. The workbench that had once
belonged to Dylan was occupied, but the tool box on it was strange to me. “Can
we bring you a coffee or something on our way back? Or do you want to come?”
The last was offered with a strange surge of trust.
    I
felt certain that Jax wouldn’t say anything I didn’t want him to.
    “I’m
good here, sweetie.” Jax reached out and ruffled his fingers through the long
tail of my scarlet curls. “And nothing for Dylan either, cause he doesn’t work
here anymore. Don’t know if you knew that.”
    “Who’s
Dylan?” Maddy asked.
    “I...
ah... I did know that. Actually.” I froze at the sound of Dylan’s name,
swallowing hard.
    “You’ve
run into him already, then? How long have you been back?” The assessing look
that Jax gave me told me suddenly, certainly, that my feelings for Dylan hadn’t
been nearly the secret I’d thought they were.
    Or
maybe Dylan had told him what had happened that night— all of what had
happened.
    “Two
days.” I managed. Questions about Jax’s friend crowded on the tip of my tongue,
ones I couldn’t bring myself to ask Dylan himself.
    I
couldn’t spit them out to Jax either. I looked into his eyes as I widened my
own, sure my feelings were running riot on my face.
    After
a long moment he turned back to the truck he was working on, picking up a
wrench casually and leaning under the hood.
    “He
works for Rap Attack now. Did he tell you tell you that?”
    I
cast an uneasy look at my friends, who were pretending to look around at the
shop but who I knew were listening to every last word. I cleared my throat.
    “No,
we never got that far. He just told me he wasn’t here anymore.” I tried to
sound casual. “What’s Rap Attack?”
    “They’re
firefighter adrenaline junkies.” Jax poked his up out of the truck long enough
to grin at me. “They’re flame eaters. But instead of riding around in a red
truck, they use helicopters to rappel into remote areas to fight forest