Page 65 of Save Me

Uncle Ronan came out from behind the bar and hugged her too. “Tell Ryker we said hello and maybe the two of you can come in together sometime. I miss chatting with him.”

“I’ll let him know,” she said as she picked up the bag with their dinner. “And thanks, you guys. For everything.”

She had a little extra pep in her step as she walked back out to the car and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t run into anyone.

The smell of the food was making her mouth water, and when she pulled out of the parking lot, she was sorely tempted to reach into the bag and dig into the fries. They were definitely her weakness and the thought of having an entire order of them to herself was almost worth pulling over and making Ryker wait.

“No…” she whined and was saved from temptation when her phone rang. Her sister’s name showed up on the screen on her dashboard, making her smile. “Hey, Ari!”

“Hey, yourself! Do you have time to talk? I’ve got some crazy gossip that I’ve been dying to share with you, but I didn’t want to bug you during your weekend away with Ryker.”

“And I really appreciate that. I’m actually on my way to his place now, so I don’t have a whole lot of time. Can you give me the condensed version?”

Her sister sighed loudly. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”

“What about that dinner we were talking about? Why don’t you come over tomorrow night and I’ll make dinner for us?”

“And Tessa?”

“Of course! Hell, bring Liam and Will if you want!”

“Will Ryker be there?” she teased.

“I think he’s seen more than enough Donovan craziness. No need to traumatize him even more.”

“Fine, then we’ll make it a girls’ night.”

“Perfect! Now quick! Give me at least a few details!”

“We were just going there to discuss the fundraiser. I have nothing to do with it, but I’m trying to get to know Tessa and it seemed like the perfect way for us to hang out without Liam hovering.”

“And he really does hover.”

“I know, right? So…anyway, we’re eating lunch and Mom’s sitting with us and everything was fine. Like there was no reason for the conversation to veer in the direction of your fight, but it did. And when I defended you—I literally told her she needed to stop fixing you up with guys because she clearly doesn’t even know you judging by the guys she keeps picking—and she just like…exploded! She told me I was ungrateful and she never should have given her blessing to me and Will! It was crazy!”

“Holy crap! And what about Tessa?”

“Once I stormed out—and I felt bad about leaving Tessa there—Mom sort of was like, ‘You agree with me, don’t you?’ and poor Tessa told her the truth. She didn’t.”

“And then what happened?”

“Mom pulled her support from the fundraiser.”

“NO!”

“True story. I’m telling you, Ry, it was insane.”

“Sounds like it.”

“So naturally, Liam was pissed and he called Pat, who totally sided with him, and then they both bullied Jamie into joining the cause. So…no Sunday dinner.”

“I was actually just at the pub and Uncle Ronan told me about it.”

Unfortunately, she was pulling into Ryker’s driveway and needed to hang up.

“Listen, I just pulled up to Ryker’s and I want to hear more about this tomorrow over dinner. Will you call Tessa?”

“Definitely. How does 6:30 sound?”

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