Page 17 of The Castle

Moira collected the cake plates and her brown curls danced as she shook her head. “You boys. Seriously confusing butseriouslyentertaining.”

“I can’t go to Dare’s house,” I told Brian after Moira left. “You heard her! He has a date.”

“And?” Mark stood, grabbed his coffee, and gulped it down. “Dude, you’re into fairy tales, right? The dragons don’t slay themselves.”

“Well, yeah, but…”

But I’d expected that someoneelsewould do the slaying. Which, come to think of it, was pretty fucking stupid.

And limiting.

And not very fair.

“If I had a chance with my…gravity,” Mark said firmly, “I would grab it with both hands.”

I bit my lip so hard it hurt. Mark didn’t get it. He had no idea how many times I’d put myself out there for guys in the past or how often I’d been rejected…

But, I reminded myself,notby Dare.Neverby Dare.

“Okay.” I pushed to my feet. “Right. I can do this.”

“You can! You’re gonna march up to his door and tell him honestly how you feel. No equivocating. Then see what happens.”

Right. Like, how hard could that be?

Every part of my body broke out in a sweat at the same time, and I started hyperventilating just slightly at the idea of losing Dare…

“Come on, dragon slayer. You look like you’re about to vomit,” Mark said sympathetically. “I’ll drive you.”

“Yeah, good,” I agreed. “But can we make a quick stop on the way?”