Page 47 of Dare Me

“And it would serve him right! We’ll just call in the reinforcements and hopefully it will get him off my back.”

“Right, right…because you don’t want him to know you’re in love with Will.”

“Exactly!” Then she gasped. “Dammit! Stop doing that to me!”

“Then stop lying about your feelings! For crying out loud, Ari, there’s nothing wrong with having feelings for this man! He’s a really nice guy!”

And the murderous look was back.

“Relax, I’m not interested in him,” her sister assured her. “I’m just saying that it’s crazy for you to pretend you’re not into him when you clearly are, and it’s even crazier for you to be looking at jobs three hours away! Especially when the guy you cried over for a damn year is literally here in our backyard!”

“It doesn’t matter where he is, Ry! He didn’t care enough to fight for me a year ago and it’s obvious he still doesn’t! I mean, he let Mom fix him up with you rather than saying something about how he’d rather be with me!” She shook her head and knew she was pouting. “No. It’s not going to go anywhere and the sooner I move, the sooner I can meet a great guy who’s never met a Donovan and then I can live happily ever after.”

With a snort, Ryleigh stood and walked to the kitchen and began making herself a cup of tea, muttering under her breath the entire time.

“What? What did I say?” she demanded as she followed her sister into the kitchen.

“You’re pissed that a guy you knew for twenty-four hours wouldn’t go head-to-head and fight with his best friend of many years. Do I have that right?”

When she said it, it sounded a little unreasonable…

“Fine, maybe it was wrong to expect that of him, but he didn’t even try! He never even broached the subject with me or Liam! And what about now, huh? What’s your take on what’s going on right now?”

“Right now you’re throwing him all kinds of mixed signals, and you know what? You’re acting irrational and immature.” Crossing her arms, Ryleigh leaned against the kitchen island. “Maybe heistoo old for you.”

It felt like her head was going to explode. She hated when people called her immature—even if it was accurate—and right now, all she wanted to do was storm out of the room and slam a door, but…she didn’t have her own room.

She didn’t even have her own door.

All she had was a sofa cushion, and that wasn’t going to be very satisfying.

“I can practically hear you thinking from here,” Ryleigh said after several moments. “And I’m not trying to be mean. I’m just pointing out the obvious. Mom and Dad didn’t want you going away to school, but you fought them and won. You’ve never taken no for an answer before, so why are you willing to take it now?”

Good question.

The breath she let out was shaky and she hated it—hated looking or sounding weak. But this was Ryleigh—her sister, her best friend, and confidante.

Swallowing hard, she looked at her. “Because I never wanted anything the way that I want Will. If I didn’t go away to school, I would have been fine. I would have been miserable, but I would have been fine. If I didn’t get to go on a trip with friends or to move into a place I wanted to or to take a job that I really wanted, I’d survive. But if I fight for Will and it doesn’t happen? If they scare him off and he leaves? I don’t think I’d recover from that.”

“Oh, sweetie…” Walking over, Ryleigh hugged her. “Thank you for being brave enough to share that with me.”

With her head on her sister’s shoulder, Arianna felt tears stream down her cheek. “It’s just better to let this go. I don’t want to be the reason he loses out on this business opportunity with Liam or why he has to move when he’s admitted to me how he knows this is exactly where he’s supposed to be.” Lifting herhead, she wiped at her tears. “He’s had a rough life, and the last thing I want is to make it rougher for him. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“I wish I had something wise to say here. But what Icansay is that you need to be patient. Don’t do something rash like accepting the first job offer that comes your way.”

“Ry, be reasonable. We both know I can’t stay here much longer. Right now, you’re working on my bed. I think we can agree that we’d like our privacy back.”

“That’s fair, but…maybe just give it six months,” Ryleigh suggested. “We’ll find you an apartment. I mean, how hard can it be? Will found one in less than a week.”

“Yeah, funny how Patrick could find him one, but he could never find one for me.”

“Okay, that is a little suspect, but maybe we don’t go through Patrick. Maybe you and I find one on our own?” And before Arianna could say anything, she was sitting back on the sofa with her laptop and typing like wild.

“Can I at least sleep on it? I mean…I don’t have to decide right now, do I?”

“Oh. My. God!”

“What? What is it?” Quickly, she rushed over and sat down on the sofa beside her. “What did you find?”

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