Swoon Sunday: Dylan McCarthy from Lost Girls by Merrie Destefano!

Welcome to Swoon Sunday where you get to meet some of our swoon-worthy heroes. Today we have a visit from Dylan McCarthy from Lost Girls by Merrie Destefano!

Thanks for joining us, Dylan! Do you have a special skill?

Making girls fall in love with me. Just kidding! There’s only one girl I care about. I know most people would think I’d say wrestling is my special skill, since I always win. But I wouldn’t call that special—maybe because it’s always seemed easy. The skill I consider special is writing poetry. I don’t really talk about it much, because some guys think it’s nerdy. Only my best friends know. Is my name going to be on this? Could you leave my name off?

Sorry, we can’t do that, Dylan. Next question: What’s your favorite pastime/hobby?

Riding my bike. Whenever it’s not in the shop. LOL. It doesn’t break down often, but every now and then it gets a bit temperamental. But there’s nothing like a long ride through the San Gabriel Mountains or a trip down Pacific Coast Highway to clear out my head.

Early bird or night owl?

Night owl, definitely. I have trouble sleeping, so I’m always looking for something do at night. I joined an all-night gym and that seemed to help. For awhile.

Chunky peanut butter or smooth?

Chunky, all-natural, ground up at the local health food store. I put it in a protein smoothie with milk, protein powder, a banana and whatever fresh berries we have, plus either some flax seeds or chia seeds. That’s what I have for breakfast most days of the week.

Describe the craziest thing you have done.

Lately it seems like everything I do is crazy. So maybe the normal stuff is crazy now. Like going to school and studying for tests. Or sitting around hoping the girl I’m wild about will text me. It’s a bit weird when the girl you really like doesn’t remember you. Maybe that’s the craziest thing. Trying to make Rachel remember how much I care about her.

Describe your idea of an ideal date.

Ideal? Boy, you know how to ask the tough questions, don’t you? Ideal would be if Rachel and I could spend time together doing anything, absolutely anything except—this is the really hard part—I wish she could remember that we’ve already been dating for a year. I feel like we’re starting all over again. A part of me is worried that she’s going to remember the bad things but not the good things. I mean, everybody has bad stuff in their past, don’t they? The best date ever would be Rachel and I hanging out together, just like we were last month. Or the month before that. Or the month before that. But this month has been pretty awful. You know she went missing, don’t you? She’s back now, but it was the worst thing that’s ever happened.

What’s your darkest secret?

Are you really going to ask me that? I mean, if I tell you then…really, I can’t talk about it. All I can say is I messed up once, really bad, and someone I care about got hurt. Nobody told me you were going to ask questions like this. I need to go. Thanks for, um, wanting to chat with me, but I seriously need to leave now.

Liked this interview with Wade? Now check out a cute excerpt between Rachel and Dylan from Lost Girls:

His Harley was parked at the curb, in a pocket of shadow, blocked from the streetlight and behind one of the flowering trees Dad had planted earlier this year. Dylan started to hand me a helmet, but stopped, as if there was something else more important.

“There’s something I have to do,” he said.

I thought maybe he needed to give me a few pointers on how to ride a motorcycle, that I should lean into the curves, that I should hold onto him, that I shouldn’t be afraid because he was a great driver.

I was wrong.

He slipped one arm around my waist and pulled me close, so close that I couldn’t have gotten away if I wanted to, while his other hand cupped my jaw, thumb just below my mouth, long fingers brushing against my ear. “I’ve wanted to do this since you got back,” he said, his voice a low, hoarse whisper.

I wanted to say, me, too, but I didn’t get a chance.

His lips found mine in the darkness where we could barely see each other, where the heat of his body melted into mine. There were two short, gentle kisses as if he didn’t believe I would be here very long, that I might disappear at any moment, and then after that came the third kiss—

The third kiss stole my heart.

And my soul.

I didn’t remember our first date or what we had in common or who was his favorite band, but I remembered this. I remembered a thousand kisses, a hundred nights, a million stars glittering overhead. We leaned into each other, as if we were each drawing an electric charge from the other, as if we’d been unplugged and powerless but now we were stronger, invincible, immortal. The world stopped spinning and we were all that existed; there were no other people, no cities, no countries; there was only this.

His lips pressed against mine, his scent filling the air, his hands touching me.

And then at last, the kiss ended and we stared into each other’s eyes, me remembering, him knowing, both of us breathless.

“I almost lost you,” he said, his words soft as if he couldn’t say them very loud because it would show how strong the emotion was.

“I’m here, I’m safe.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said. “I haven’t always been”—he hesitated—“a very good person. But I’m going to do everything I can to make sure no one ever hurts you again.”

He had a way of enchanting me with his words, maybe it was the poet in him, maybe this was easy for him, but it didn’t matter. I knew he was telling the truth.

I just didn’t know if I wanted to be safe.

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About Lost Girls:

Yesterday, Rachel went to sleep listening to Taylor Swift, curled up in her grammy’s quilt, worrying about geometry. Today, she woke up in a ditch, bloodied, bruised, and missing a year of her life.

She doesn’t recognize the person she’s become: She’s popular. She wears nothing but black.

Black to cover the blood.

And she can fight.

Tell no one.

She’s not the only girl to go missing within the last year…but she’s the only girl to come back. She desperately wants to unravel what happened to her, to try and recover the rest of the Lost Girls.

But the more she discovers, the more her memories return. And as much as her new life scares her, it calls to her. Seductively. The good girl gone bad: sex, drugs, and raves, and something darker…something she still craves. The rush of the fight, the thrill of the win—something she can’t resist, that might still get her killed…