‘What did you do?’
‘I basically accused her of sleeping with Beckett.’
Silence fell between them.
Benson cleared his throat. ‘That wouldn’t have gone down very well.’
‘It didn’t.’
‘What are you going to do about it?’
Dare looked at him bleakly. ‘The hell if I know.’
‘Want my advice?’
‘Please.’
‘Tell her how you feel. We all make mistakes, Dare. You’re not perfect. And neither is she.’
Dare stared at him. ‘You make it sound so simple.’
‘Simple it’s not,’ Benson said. ‘But it’s a lot harder living without love. Trust me, I tried.’
Dare reached out and clasped his grandfather’s shoulder. ‘I’m glad you contacted my mother.’
‘Best thing I did. Now go get your girl.’
Not knowing where to start, Dare did the only thing he could think of.
He called her again and told her he loved her. He poured his heart out to her message bank and admitted that he’d been wrong and hoped she’d forgive him because she was the most important person in his life. Then he called again and told her he wanted to marry her.
By the third day when he hadn’t heard from her Dare felt as if he were going mad. No one knew where she was. She hadn’t been back to Rothmeyer House to collect her things, and she’d quit her job with the agency.
He’d even called her parents in Liverpool. Her polite mother had said that Carly wasn’t there. When he’d called again her polite father had confirmed her polite mother’s words. They hadn’t seen her. And then her father had graciously advised him to never call again.
Dare stared out of his office window.
Her father, the Viking, protecting his little girl. He would have smiled if he didn’t feel so, so— Dare’s eyes narrowed. Why would Carly’s father need to protect his daughter if he hadn’t seen her?
Dare closed his eyes and when he opened them he searched the room for his helmet.
* * *
Carly glanced at her cell phone and saw another voice mail message from Dare. Without even thinking about it she deleted it. After that first message she’d had from him she’d deleted every single one since without listening to them.
What woman in her right mind would do any differently after that first pompous message about panties?
Panties?
Carly hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry.
‘What was that, honey?’
She glanced up from her cell phone to where her mother was making tea for them both in the family kitchen.
As it was past ten o’clock her father had bid them good-night hours ago, but, since she had arrived home three days ago, Carly and her mother had taken to staying up late into the night talking.
And it had been so cathartic to finally confront those things that had hurt her the most and face them head-on. She’d even told her parents how responsible she had felt over Liv’s death and a weight of guilt had finally lifted from her heavy shoulders. Then last night she and her mother had cried themselves dry over photo album after photo album; remembering Liv, crying for Liv and loving Liv all over again.
And as for Daniel, well, she’d finally admitted that he’d dented her pride and not her heart and that if she ever saw him in the street again she wouldn’t hang her head in shame. She’d likely walk up and give him a piece of her mind.
The one person she hadn’t mentioned was Dare. And it wasn’t because she was trying to avoid thinking about him. It was just that her mistake over him was still too new. Too raw. Because while Daniel had only dented her pride, Dare had torn it in half, making her feel like a fool for loving him so completely so quickly.
Now she just longed for the day that she didn’t wake up thinking about him. When she didn’t go to bed seeing his face in her mind.
‘Carly?’ Her mother set tea down in front of her. ‘Did you say something?’
‘No,’ Carly laughed reassuringly at her mother. She hadn’t realised she’d spoken out loud. At the time she’d heard the message she’d replayed it twice over. She shook her head. If she had found a pair of women’s underwear anywhere near his sofa she wouldn’t have bothered telling him to find a high cliff, she’d have driven him to it and pushed him off it herself.