Page 53 of Dare Me

“I want it all,” he murmured and swore silently because he should be able to. He’d served his country, made sacrifices, and now it was his turn, dammit.

He just didn’t know how to handle such an opinionated group as the Donovans. Everything they did was with love, but their methods and their delivery left a lot to be desired.

Staring up at the ceiling, he began to relax and knew he just needed to close his eyes and get some sleep. But his last thoughts of the night were how he was possibly looking at this the wrong way.

Dealing with the Donovans—all the Donovans—needed to be treated like a military mission. He needed a plan. A strategy. There was no need for any kind of hostile maneuvers. He just needed to find the best way to go about proving that not only was he a good guy who was worthy of their trust, but worthy of their daughter.

Arianna, not Ryleigh—lovely though she was.

With a small laugh, Will rolled onto his side and got even more comfortable. And now that he knew what he needed to do, he’d start working on it right away.

Or…first thing in the morning.

Chapter Eight

Once Arianna told her sister that she agreed to look for an apartment, the two of them hit the ground running. They decided they’d handle the search on their own without the help of Patrick, and even weighed the pros and cons of whether or not she should consider living in the same building as Will and Liam.

As it turned out, that was the one she ended up with by default.

There were two other apartments she would have preferred, but others beat her to signing the lease.

So, a week after shopping with Will to furnish his apartment, she was out doing the same for herself.

With Will.

“And you haven’t told anyone yet…why?” he asked as he pushed a second shopping cart around Target.

“I want to be completely moved in with everything already done and in place so that when I invite them over, no one can tell me how I should decorate or what I need or any of that nonsense. As it is, I’m still not sure I made the right decision on the place. The studio was a decent size, but I really hated the idea of not having a real bedroom.”

“So? Then you made the right choice because now you do.”

“Yeah, but…it’s small. I don’t think I’ll be able to put any other furniture in there except the bed. Especially since the mattress you gave me pretty much dominates the entire room. I might have to downsize.” She threw some decorative pillows into her shopping cart. “It’s a good thing the closet is as big as it is.”

“That’s how I feel with my place too. The bedroom loft is cool in theory, but losing wall space meant that most of my stuff is in bins in the closet. I’m thinking of installing one of those custom closet things to make it more organized.”

“Ooh…good idea. Maybe we should go to one of the home improvement stores next and check them out and we can install them together!”

The craziest part—or maybe not considering how bizarre things had been working for them so far—her apartment was literally across the hall from his. And the fact that they were on the floor above her brother and on the opposite side of the building ensured their privacy.

Sort of.

Speaking of Liam…

“Where is my brother at this weekend that you were able to come shopping with me?”

Laughing, Will playfully shoved her cart. “Believe it or not, I don’t have to check in with him when I go out. We’re friends and we’re building a business together, but we don’t share our schedules. If anything, I think he’s relieved that I’m doing stuff on my own.”

All she did was shrug.

“I just hope he’s not home when we get back with all this stuff. I’d hate to run into him and ruin the big reveal next weekend.”

“That’s when you’re going to do it? Next weekend?”

“Yup. Once I have everything, I’ll just sort of drop the bomb and then wait for them all to come and check it out.”

“So what did you end up saying to Patrick about it? Is he keeping your secret?”

Smiling, she looked at him. “I said nothing to him because I handled this lease without him.”

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