Page 50 of Dare Me

“I was hoping we weren’t going to do a deep dive on this topic tonight. This morning we said…”

“We didn’t really say much of anything,” he interrupted. “You gave me a bunch of excuses about why we can’t see each other, and then I got ambushed with your sister.”

“You didn’t look like you were hating it.”

“I’m not confrontational. We’ve already established that. Just like we’ve already established that your sister is willing to be a decoy so we can see each other on the sly until you’re ready to confront your family about us.”

“Wait, so I have to do the confronting? Why can’t you?”

Way to go, Will. Great way to win her over.

“We,” he corrected. “Untilwe’reready to.”

He heard her soft sigh and wished he was holding her right now. One weekend wasn’t enough. He felt like they were heading in the right direction and now…?

“Can we put a pin in this discussion for now? I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“We’re going to have to talk about it eventually.”

“I know, but…not right now. Please?”

As much as he wanted to argue, now clearly wasn’t the time.

It was hard to wrap his brain around this version of Arianna. The woman he’d met in San Francisco was friendly, outgoing, and daring. The woman he was currently talking to was a lotmore cautious than he expected, and it was getting harder and harder to figure her out.

Not that he didn’t appreciate the challenge. After all, as much as it felt like they’d learned a lot about each other on that one day, the reality was that you can’t possibly know everything in twenty-four hours.

Still…he would love to know who the real Arianna Donovan is.

“Fine,” he finally said. “So…what’s your schedule like this week?”

“Well…I got a request for an interview for a job in Durham. They want to do a video chat on Wednesday.”

“Durham? That’s…where?”

“About three hours from here,” she told him.

“Oh.”

“But I don’t think I’m gonna do it.”

It was wrong to get his hopes up—especially when she seemed to be all over the place on this subject—so he took a moment before commenting.

“Really? How come?”

“When I got home here to Ryleigh’s tonight, we had a long talk and she kind of convinced me to stick around for a little while and find a place of my own. A real place, not like an apartment that one of my siblings owns or rents. The kind of place I can put my own stamp on. She’s convinced that will do wonders for my view on staying in Laurel Bay.”

“That actually makes sense. Although it won’t change the family dynamic, will it?”

Ugh…why?! Why would I ask that?

“It might,” she said. “I mean, maybe part of the reason they treat me the way they do is because I’m sleeping on people’s couches or staying in someone else’s apartment. Maybe if I show them that I can take care of myself, they’ll back off a bit.”

He didn’t believe that for one second because Ryleigh was obviously on her own and her mother was hell-bent on fixing her up with eligible men so she’d get married and start a family.

Keep that observation to yourself…

“Have you talked to Patrick about helping you look? He found me this place in less than a week.”

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