Page 73 of Dare Me

Arianna blinked sleepily at her phone before she realized that Will really wasn’t here and the message was from him. Sitting up, she pushed her hair out of her face and yawned.

“Why would he leave to go for a run?” she murmured. “And why is Liam with him?” Yawning again, she contemplated getting up, but she was so damn tired. They didn’t get a whole lot of sleep the last two nights and as much as she was loving it, she was a girl who truly enjoyed sleeping.

It took less than a minute to decide to put the phone back down and curl back up under the blankets. Will would be gone for at least an hour and she planned on sleeping the time away.

The next time she opened her eyes, it was to the sound of her phone pinging with more incoming texts.

“Seriously, does no one believe in sleeping in on a Sunday?” she huffed as she sat back up. A quick glance at the clock showed it was after nine, so obviously she’d slept much longer than an hour.

Will: Are you awake?

Will: I’ve got muffins

Will: And bagels

Arianna: Give me one minute

Smiling sleepily, she stretched and slowly got out of the bed and slipped her robe on before making her way to the door to let him in. When he pretty much sprinted from his door to hers, she got suspicious.

“Is everything okay?”

By the time she closed the door, he was already in the kitchen and pulling stuff out of bags. “Do you want me to make you some coffee?”

Yeah, she was definitely suspicious.

Walking back into the bedroom, she grabbed her phone and then went back to join him. Sitting down at the table, she held up her phone to him. “Are we going to talk about this?”

“I bought blueberry, chocolate chip, and banana nut muffins,” he said as he walked around making coffee and putting their breakfast together. “I also grabbed a half-dozen bagels and cream cheese.”

“Will,” she whined. “Come on. What’s going on?”

When he finally sat beside her, she could see how stressed he was. There was a boatload of carbs staring her in the face and she had a feeling she was going to need them, but she needed information first.

He looked miserable as he explained how he ran into Liam as he was leaving her apartment and their subsequent conversation.

“Basically, if you invite your family over and tell them you live here, Liam’s going to know…”

Holding up her hand, she stopped him. “Yeah, I got that,” she murmured and reached for a muffin. “Why was he back? And what is wrong with the two of you that you need to get up and run every damn morning?”

“Habit,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Ari. I swear I had no idea what to do when I saw him. I panicked.”

“I would have done the same thing. There’s no way I could have come up with a cover story on the fly like that either.” Taking a bite of the muffin, a million thoughts flitted through her mind. “So, basically, he’s annoyed because you’re fake dating Ryleigh and sleeping with an unknown neighbor, but still managed to find time to warn you that you couldn’t date me.”

Nodding, he said, “Yup.”

“Wow.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said solemnly. “If I had just stayed in bed, none of this would have happened.”

You got that right…

They sat in companionable silence, but Arianna knew they were both lost in their own thoughts about what a freaking shitshow this was. There was going to come a point when the topic of where she was living came up and then what was she supposed to say? Her sister had already done so much for the two of them. Could she really expect Ryleigh to keep lying to everyone indefinitely?

“Please say something,” he said gruffly. “Yell at me. Tell me I screwed up. I…I just hate that I caused this.”

“It wasn’t like you did it intentionally. It was just a really crappy coincidence.” Shaking her head, she asked, “Why did he come home early?”

“All he said was ‘change of plans’ and before I could question it, he was breathing down my neck about screwing around behind Ryleigh’s back.” Groaning with disgust, Will got to his feet and began to pace. “I think we just have to sit everyone down and let them know about us.”

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