Page 26 of Dare Me

“Obviously there’s plenty of property here in town just waiting to be developed,” Patrick commented. “We’re really starting to see an influx of new businesses, but most of them are tapping into the existing buildings and real estate. We haven’t had any developers come in. You’d be the first.”

“I hate the thought of losing so much green space,” Mr. Donovan commented as he wiped down the bar, “but we knew it would happen eventually. I’m just glad it’s Liam doing it and not some big corporation looking to flatten the whole town.”

Will popped the last bite of his burger into his mouth and was content to just listen to everyone’s thoughts and opinions. It had been an incredibly productive week and it felt like they had been busy pretty much from the time the sun came up each morning until midnight. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, but he was excited about all the potential opportunities.

Plus, it meant he didn’t have a lot of time during the day to think about Arianna.

But once he went to bed? Um, yeah. She was all he thought about.

Well, that and the fact that the bed in the guest room was the absolute worst.

As soon as he found a place of his own, his first purchase was going to be a top-of-the-line mattress.

Speaking of…

“Hey, um…Patrick? Any chance you know of any apartments for rent?” he asked. They talked about it briefly on Monday morning, but the topic hadn’t come up again, so he figured it couldn’t hurt to bring it up.

“Actually, there is,” Patrick said before pulling out his phone and tapping the screen. “Right in the same building as Liam. I just got word this morning that the tenant in 4B is moving out this weekend.”

“This weekend? Seriously? That’s kind of short notice, isn’t it?” Liam asked.

All Patrick did was shrug.

“I know it would be convenient,” Liam said, “but if you want to look around a bit…”

“He only needs to sign a six-month lease,” Patrick commented without looking up from his phone.

“How soon can I move in?” Will asked. Not that he minded staying with Liam—he had his own bedroom and bathroom—but they were basically in each other’s pockets 24/7.

“The place needs to be cleaned and painted, so I’ll say by next Friday it can be yours.”

“Where do I sign?” he replied with a laugh.

This time Patrick looked up and gave a half-grin. “I’ll have the papers to you on Monday.” Then he returned his attention to his phone. He was clearly the serious sibling.

“Patty works too much,” Shane said, but he sounded proud. “Although it wouldn’t kill him to look up from his screen once in a while and call his mother.”

“I see Ma all the time,” Patrick countered, but before he could say anything else, his phone rang. “Sorry, gotta take this.” And with that, he stood and walked out of the pub.

“So,” Will said, turning to Liam. “I know I don’t have a lot of stuff, but do you mind helping me move on Friday?”

“Oh, um…actually…” Liam said with a pause. “I was sort of heading out of town next weekend.”

“Seriously? For what?”

Ugh…way to sound needy and pathetic.

“A friend of mine from high school is getting married down in Myrtle Beach. We just sort of reconnected on social media and he invited me. I’m heading down on Thursday and staying until Monday. I figured now’s the time to do that sort of thing before we get started with one of these projects.”

He nodded. “That’s true.” And while he really didn’t care that Liam had plans, it meant he would be on his own for several days. It would be the perfect time to just sort of settle in and relax, but now it looked like he was going to be shopping for furniture and moving. “So, um…any malls nearby that I can go for…well…pretty much everything I’ll need for the apartment?”

“You don’t have anything in storage?” Jamie asked.

“Nope,” he replied, shaking his head. “I mean, I’ve got personal items in a unit back in California, but no furniture or housewares or anything like that.”

“You should ask Ryleigh or Arianna to take you shopping,” Jamie said. “Ryleigh more so than Ari. She’ll know all the places to go.”

“Definitely,” Liam agreed. “Ryleigh’s a whiz with that sort of thing so you don’t blow your budget, and she’s almost fanatical about staying on task. Shopping with Arianna is a little more chaotic. She never has a plan and you’ll end up spending days just trying to find the simplest things.”

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