Page 43 of Dare Me

“Definitely not. It would have been like hooking up with Pollyanna,” he said with disgust.

“So cheerful people are annoying,” Arianna stated dryly. “Is that what you’re saying?”

He gave her the side-eye before explaining. “This woman wasn’t just cheerful; she was like mega-cheerful on steroids. Everything was great! Everything was beautiful! Everything was super fantastic!” Pausing, he shook his head. “Everything with her was super exhausting. I couldn’t wait to be done with groomsman duties just so I could get away from her. I wouldn’t doubt if the groomsman with the broken leg did it on purpose just to avoid being stuck with her.”

“Wow,” Ryleigh said with annoyance. “You are the worst. Like seriously, the worst.”

“You don’t have to deal with a whole lot of uber-cheeriness in the military,” Liam replied. “Ask Will. He gets it.”

“Um…” Because this was not a conversation he wanted to get dragged into.

“Well, I hope he doesn’t act so openly hostile like you,” Ryleigh went on. “Because if we’re going to go out together, that’s going to annoy the crap out of me.”

“What?!”everyone at the table cried out at once.

“What?” Ryleigh said with a sweet smile. “Obviously Mom’s set us up and we were making plans together.” She cuddled up next to him and gave him a look that he didn’t know what to make of. “You won’t be a grouch like my brother, right?”

“Um…”

“You’re going out with my sister?” Liam asked sternly, his expression growing harder by the moment.

“Um…”

“Hey,” Arianna interrupted, gently shoving Liam away. “Who would you rather your friend go out with, me or Ryleigh, huh?”

He frowned again. “Good point. But still…”

“You know how Mom is,” Ryleigh added. “There was no way out of this. Will and I are going to have to go out at least a few times just to get her off our backs.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to argue, but if she was serious about her plans, it would be best for him to stay quiet.

Jamie pulled a second table over and moved chairs and before long, everyone was calling out their dinner orders. Both Mr. and Mrs. Donovan joined them and so did Uncle Ronan, and it was clear with this family it was the more the merrier. Beside him, Arianna never looked at him or even spoke directly to him, but every once in a while, he would feel her leg brush against his. And when she rested her hand on the seat between them, he decided to test the waters and gently caressed it.

He felt more than saw her stiffen, but he didn’t move his hand away.

And neither did she.

“What do you think, Will?” Ryleigh asked.

That’s when he realized he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around him and looked over at her in mild panic. “Um…what?”

“Movies aren’t great for first dates,” she said. “So I was thinking of going somewhere like…one of those lookout cruises that leave out of Beaufort. We can do dinner and then the cruise. What do you think?” There was a twinkle in her eye as she added, “I thought I remember you mentioning a cruise you did around the San Francisco Bay.”

Then she winked and he knew exactly what she was doing.

Clearing his throat, he nodded. “I really enjoyed that cruise, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this one too.”

“Yeah, don’t get your hopes up,” Liam told him. “Nothing around here is as scenic as what you saw there, I’m sure. Just a lot of beaches and ocean.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Aren’t there any closer ones?” Patrick asked. “Beaufort is kind of a long drive. I thought there were smaller ones out of Magnolia Sound?”

“I’ve been on those,” Ryleigh said pleasantly. “I thought it would be nice to see something different.”

“Just more beach and ocean, but…whatever,” Patrick murmured and went back to looking at his phone.

“I thought you hated going out on boats,” Jamie commented a moment later. “You hate the whole wind in your hair thing.”

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