Page 40 of Save Me

Ryker glanced at the menu and saw they had an alternate version with a brownie. “What do you say, Ryleigh? Want to split the brownie one?”

“Ooh…absolutely,” she told him with an impish grin as she pressed herself as close to him as she could get. “You know I can never turn down a brownie.”

He did now.

“And I’ll take a decaf coffee too,” he told the server. “Ry?” Because he noticed she’d had a couple of drinks and maybe that’s why she was suddenly okay with rubbing against him. After his comment earlier when she’d tried to kiss him, she’d been keeping a respectable distance without being obvious about it.

“Make it an even four,” she said, and once the server was gone, she quietly announced that she was heading to the ladies’ room.

“I’ll go with you!” Arianna said with just a little too much enthusiasm.

As soon as they were gone, both he and Will chuckled. “That was subtle, huh?”

Will nodded. “I’m surprised Ari waited this long before doing something like this. I figured after each course she’d be dragging Ryleigh off to gossip.”

He laughed again before finishing his drink. “I hope I’ve passed inspection.”

This time Will laughed. “I’ve said that many times in my life. And not always while in the service.” He finished his own drink before looking over at Ryker. “Seriously though, the Donovans are…well…they’re a bit overwhelming.”

All Ryker did was nod because he figured he was about to get a quick lesson on what to do to make things easier with Ryleigh’s family.

“They’re wildly overprotective of both Ari and Ryleigh. I mean…shit, you wouldn’t believe the crazy hoops I had to jump through because of it. They all knew me as Liam’s best friend and liked me and yet they all hated the mere thought of me going out with Arianna.”

“And yet they approved of you going out with Ryleigh,” he stated, and almost grinned at Will’s stunned reaction.

“She told you about that, huh?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, well…it was like being steamrolled,” he explained. “Their mother is…very opinionated and she’s overly passionate about her daughters finding appropriate men to date and marry.” He paused for a moment. “But the thing is, no one talks about why. It’s an outdated ideology and yet she won’t let it go. Besides the whole interfering aspect, it was all about Ryleigh being the older sister.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how much it frustrated Ari at the time.” Then he grinned. “Still does.”

“But they eventually warmed to the idea since the two of you are engaged now. What changed?”

“We owe a lot of that to Ryleigh and the dramatics she mentioned earlier. She was the one who fought for us—probably more than we openly fought for ourselves.”

Interesting. So she can stand up for other people—her siblings—and be taken seriously, but not for herself. WTF?

“Okay, I’ve got to ask because I have a feeling they’ll be back soon,” Ryker began. “Why is their mother so hard on Ryleigh specifically? Like…I get that she’s the last single daughter, but…it just seems like she goes out of her way to do things sheknowsupsets Ryleigh. Why?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. No one does. And when you try talking to Kate about it, she gets defensive and claims we’re being disrespectful. When Ryleigh didn’t come for dinner on Sunday, they all tried talking to her about it, but she wouldn’t be swayed.”

“Damn.”

Nodding, Will said, “I’m sure since we’ve hung out tonight, Arianna will get a call tomorrow from their mother. It’s exhausting.”

“That’s one way of describing it,” he murmured.

“Okay, now there’s somethingI’vegot to ask,” Will threw out there. “We were given strict instructions not to talk to you like this was an interrogation and you have no idea how hard that was for my girl.” He laughed. “But…I’m just curious what you do for a living.”

“I’m a tattoo artist,” he told him because it was nice that someone took an interest.

“Seriously? That’s awesome! Where do you work out of? Do you have your own place?”

“I’m in between places right now,” he said vaguely. “I ended up here in Laurel Bay six months ago, sort of by chance, and I’m still figuring things out.”

Will’s eyes went a little wide and Ryker knew exactly what he was thinking: How are you even living if you haven’t worked in six months?

A question he undoubtedly would have voiced if Ryleigh and Arianna hadn’t returned to the table.

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