Page 72 of Dare Me

Liam’s gaze narrowed. “Why are you getting so pissy about this? Do you have a thing for Arianna?” Now his voice had taken on a slightly accusatory tone.

“I think both of your sisters are great. And the few times I’ve hung out with Arianna, I’ve found that we…you know…have stuff in common. More than I have with Ryleigh. So, again, what gives?”

Standing and shifting a bit on his feet, Liam straightened and then crossed his arms, doing his best to look intimidating. “Arianna is a child compared to you, Will. Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t care if you want to be friends with her, but…”

“But what? She’s old enough and mature enough to make her own decisions about who she wants to date. She’s got a seriously impressive career and has a good head on her shoulders. She’s not the child you all treat her like. And besides that, I’m far from ancient, okay? I’m getting a little tired of everyone talking about me like I’m some sort of relic.”

Liam took a menacing step toward him. “I can put the age thing aside, but considering you’re somewhat dating Ryleigh and coming out of some random woman’s apartment, that alonetells me you’re not right for Arianna. The guy who’s good enough for her wouldn’t be fake dating one woman while sleeping with another.”

Ugh…I really stepped into that one. Shit.

“Look, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell everyone’s thinking. And as for the whole thing with Ryleigh, I already told you, it’s a non-issue. That was all an act to get your mother off our backs. We made up some pretend dates so if anyone asked, our stories would be straight.”

“And the woman across the hall?”

“What? So now I should live like a monk? I’ve recently retired from the Marines and I’m enjoying civilian life. I’ve missed having the freedom to hang out with a woman whenever I want to. Sue me.”

Turning his back on his friend, Will made himself a cup of coffee and did his best to calm down. This whole episode meant that Arianna’s plans of telling her family where she’s living had to be put on hold, otherwise everyone will put two and two together. And as much as he wouldn’t mind it just so it was all finally out in the open, he had a feeling she wouldn’t feel quite the same way.

This is seriously exhausting.

Now he didn’t know what to do.

I should have just stayed in bed.

Yeah. Lesson learned.

Taking a sip of his coffee, he faced Liam. “So what were you doing up here this early anyway?”

“I figured you’d be up and getting ready to run and thought I’d join you. I didn’t realize you’d already had your morning workout.”

It was a toss up whether to grin or groan, but he opted to simply shrug. “That’s why I was heading back to my place—tochange and go for a run. So if you give me a few minutes, and you’re still up for it, we can go.”

“You sure? I don’t want to drag you away from…”

“Can we just…not talk about this?” he begged.

“Why? What’s the big deal?”

Great, draw even more attention to the awkward situation.

“Um…I’m just more of a private person,” he replied and hoped that sounded believable. “All this stuff with your family and how everyone knows your business makes me really uncomfortable, so if you don’t mind…I’d rather just pretend that you didn’t see…you know…what you saw.”

Laughing, Liam walked past him and clapped him on the back. “I’m grabbing a bottle of water. Go get changed and let’s go.”

“No problem.” After taking another sip, he put his mug down and went upstairs to change into his running gear.

But first, Will pulled out his phone and typed out a quick text to Arianna and he hated that he was going to end up waking her up after he tried so hard not to. She needed to have a heads-up so there wasn’t a second awkward encounter this morning.

Chapter Eleven

Will: Please stay inside.

Will: Your brother’s back and I’m going out on a run with him right now.

Will: I’ll explain it all when I get back

Will: And no, he doesn’t know you’re living here.

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