Love Me If You Dare (Safe Haven) Read Free

disappointed—the girl was
even more attached to her phone than I was to mine.
    Girl!
Gotta see you! Nate and I r having a party right now. UR welcome to come, but not
really your scene. Want to catch up tomorrow?
    I
scowled for a moment. Not really my scene? Back in New Haven I was the party queen .
I might have gone out so much because I was seriously messed in the head, but
no one else knew that.
    I
calmed down after a moment. The Caroline that I texted and emailed with hadn’t
seen me in person in over three years. She had no idea how much I’d changed.
    She
would have no idea how a few hours back in this town was making wanting to stay
the same.
    Rising
to my feet, I hurried back to my room to change, typing out a text as I went.
    A
party sounds perfect. C u there.
    A
party at Caroline and Nate’s meant beer, loud music, and people. Lots of
people. I could have a drink, dance, forget my problems for a while.
    It
was risky, since Caroline and Nate had been part of the group that Ella had hung
out with. But I had no idea if Dylan McKay was even still in town.
    If
I couldn’t even face the room where the tragedy had happened yet, then I sure
wasn’t ready to face him. But I was going crazy, trapped here in this house.
    I’d
take my chances.

Chapter Two
    T he
bass of the music coming from inside the small house that Caroline shared with
her boyfriend Nate weighed down air that was otherwise crisp with early summer.
I stood for a moment on the sidewalk, letting the vibrations work through the
soles of my shoes and up my legs to my belly.
    When
I’d started college it had taken a lot of effort for me to break free of my
shell, my natural inclination to hang back and observe rather than participate.
But I’d pretended for so long that my alter ego was now a real part of me.
    Hearing
the loud music, seeing the people standing on the front porch, made me smile.
This was exactly what I’d needed.
    Still,
I was a bit nervous as I smoothed my palms on the skirt of my dress and headed
up the concrete path to the front door. I wondered if Dylan would be here.
    The
thought of seeing him in the flesh after so long was terrifying, and yet at the
same time, I desperately hoped for it.
    I
was nuts.
    Raking
my fingers through my red curls, I shook it off. The Kaylee I was back in New
Haven would have charged through the front door, grabbed a drink and climbed on
the biggest speaker to dance.
    Knowing
what these people remembered about me was like feeling invisible arms, holding
me back. Irritably, I shrugged, then pushed through the people who were
clustered on the worn wood of the deck. Apart from Caroline, who cared what
they thought? I’d be gone again in a few months, anyway.
    The
air inside the house was heavy, thick with the scents of booze and pot, layered
with the saccharine sweetness of hormones, of lust, of the neediness of people
searching for a hookup. The living room before me was packed, the floor beneath
my feet sticky. I rose up onto my toes, searching for a familiar face, ignoring
the ones that stared at me without bothering to disguise their fascination.
    I
was probably imagining it, after all. Fish Lake was a small town, but
everything that had happened—well, it had been three years ago. Tragic as it
was, life moved on. Surely people had other things on their minds now.
    Glancing
down at my dress, one that screamed sex, I smiled wryly to myself. I sure looked
like I’d moved on, and when I wasn’t in Fish Lake I could almost convince
myself of it.
    Caroline
was in the far corner of the room, by a card table set up with countless
bottles of booze and soda. As I set off across the room in her direction I felt
my nerves beginning to fall away, lost in the familiar atmosphere of people
converging together for the basic human need to socialize.
    Though
this crowd had always been more Ella’s friends than mine, I’d always felt
welcome enough, the few times I’d come to parties thrown by Nate and Caro. I
knew