Page 85 of Dare Me

“Okay, okay,” she called out as she calmly made her way down the stairs, like it was no big deal that they were all there together. It would have been nice to have pants on, but she refused to focus on that right now. Facing her brothers first, she shook a finger at them. “Shame on both of you! No one asked you to come in here and act like such super overprotective jerks! You know Will’s a good guy and yet you’re standing here—in his home, by the way—and threatening him? You’re lucky he doesn’t call the cops!”

“No one’s calling anyone,” Patrick said in his typical condescending tone. “And this doesn’t concern you. This is aboutthisguy swooping in where he shouldn’t!”

“Oh my God,” she murmured before reaching out and smacking him in the head. “Shut up! Do you even hear yourself?”

“Ari, please,” Liam said. “This is between us and Will.”

“No, it’s not,” she argued. “This is between me and Will, and the two of you have no say.” Pausing, she stepped in close to Liam until they were toe to toe. “Do you remember our conversation on Monday?”

It took a moment for Liam to realize what she was referring to. Muttering a curse, he sighed loudly. “Seriously? You were talking about Will?”

“Yup. And do you remember what you said to me?”

“It doesn’t matter. I didn’t have all the facts!”

“Well now you do! And it should make it completely better because you know Will! You know he’s a great guy and he’s done nothing wrong!”

“He lied to me!” Liam yelled. “To my face!”

“And so did I!” she yelled back.

“Okay, I think we’re all getting a little too worked up,” Patrick chimed in. “Why don’t the three of us go across the hall and talk about this?” Then he glared at Will. “But not you. We’ll deal with you later.”

Ari was ready to correct him when Will stepped in close to her and wrapped his arm around her. “She’s not going anywhere. Neither of you has the right to make any kind of demands on her. Arianna’s her own woman and she’s completely capable of deciding where she wants to go and who she wants to be with.”

Aww…

“Now I get that you’re both upset, but you don’t get to come into my house and talk to me or Arianna like this.” Pausing, Willgave her a gentle squeeze. “I know I should have handled this differently, but…” Looking at Liam, he said, “But you’ve always talked about how protective you were of your sisters. At first, I thought it was just talk, but once we got here to Laurel Bay and I sort of observed your family, I realized what I was up against.”

“I told him he should have talked to me about it when we met last year,” she said, and immediately realized her mistake when two pairs of wide eyes stared back at her.

Uh-oh…

With a nervous laugh, she said, “So, um…funny story. Will and I actually met a year ago in San Francisco. We only met the day before I was flying home and he was flying back to D.C. and so…he didn’t put two and two together until we ended up on the same flight. Small world, right?”

“I don’t think this is helping,” Will whispered to her.

“It was going to come out eventually,” she said. Facing her brothers again, she went on. “We flew to Atlanta together and then we were going to be on different flights. We made plans to keep in touch and do the whole long-distance thing, but…he figured out who I was and decided not to see or talk to me again because of you.” Pointing an accusatory finger at Liam, she frowned. “Your stupid attitude cost us a year!”

“I…I didn’t even know,” he stammered. “And…” He looked at Will. “How could you have kept this a secret? And if you were so determined not to see her again, why would you take me up on the whole business plan?”

“I never forgot her,” he admitted. “There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about her and when you started talking to me about the business, I thought it would be okay for me to come here and just…just see her. I knew she would be pissed at me and part of me thought she had moved on. But as soon as I saw her, I just knew.” Looking down at her, he smiled.“It was still there for me and I had no idea how to make things up to her, but I knew I had to try.”

Liam cursed and stalked away.

“If Arianna told me to leave, I would have gone,” Will went on. “I just knew I needed to try because…I love her.”

Now it was Patrick’s turn to curse before he paced away too.

Her heart was racing, but in a good way. This wonderful man had just declared his love for her in front of her brothers and the sky didn’t fall and everything was going to be okay.

“Oh, Will…”

“And just so you guys know, she doesn’t need all of you breathing down her neck telling her what to do and who to do it with. She doesn’t need you to act like a bunch of overprotective bullies. I can take care of her. I’mgoingto take care of her. If anyone needs to protect her, I’m going to do it, okay? So you don’t have to worry,” he explained.

“I don’t think Ineedprotection,” she murmured.

“She’s a child!” Patrick stated. “She’s too young to be falling in love with someone as old as you. She should be dating guys closer to her own age. Guys who won’t hide their relationship.”

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