Page 32 of Dare to Love
“After you came home from Ian’s?” she asked.
He laughed hard. “Are you kidding? Why the hell would I go there? He screwed you—literally.”
She cringed. “You’re wasted.”
“You could be too if you’d come party with us,” he said.
She closed her eyes and groaned. For a man who stepped up when she needed him, he could also be such an overgrown child. The result of his big contract and the fact that his parents hadn’t been all that strict.
“You waited years for an opening with your half brother,” she said, trying to reason with Alex. “Why wouldn’t you meet him halfway?”
“Be right back!” he called out to his friends.
She assumed he was going somewhere quiet, because the noise level surrounding him died down.
“Because I don’t trust his motives. I don’t trust him with you. What if he’s using you to piss me off?”
She winced at the implication. “Flattering. very flattering.”
“You know what I mean! He doesn’t deserve you. And the fact is, I don’t fucking trust him, period.”
Riley glanced heavenward. “You can’t begin to know whether you can trust him until you get to know him. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me.”
Heavy silence followed, which meant, at the very least, he was listening.
“Don’t know if I can do it, Ri.”
Pain twisted her heart.
Although she hadn’t known Ian long, she wasn’t finished getting to know him. She didn’t want to be. But she didn’t want to lose Alex either. She couldn’t imagine her life without him in it.
“How did the night go for your siblings?” she asked, hoping that at least Ian had made progress with someone on Alex’s side of the family.
His answer sounded muffled.
“Say that again?” she asked, hoping she’d misheard.
“She didn’t go to Ian’s either,” Alex said, sounding more subdued than earlier. Maybe because he’d heard in her voice how much this subject meant to her.
Riley shook her head, her throat full. She couldn’t bring herself to ask Alex if he’d told his sister not to go to Ian’s either. She didn’t want to know, didn’t need another reason to be disappointed in him.
“Call me in the morning when you’re sober,” she said, unable to stay on the phone any longer.
“Riley, come on. Don’t put him between us.”
She shook her head. “You’re the one doing that. Not me. ’Night, Alex.”
She hung up, her emotions veering all over the map. From anger and disappointment at her best friend to genuine worry about how Ian had handled their rejection. She’d promised herself she’d keep her distance, but knowing he’d extended himself to hisotherfamily, in a sense for her, she had to see him. To know if he was okay.
***
Riley drove to Ian’s and left her car with the valet and then approached the man sitting behind the desk to give her name. She wished she could go right up, but if she wanted to see Ian, she had no choice but to let him call ahead and get Ian’s permission.
“Riley Taylor to see Ian Dare,” she said to the older, uniformed man.
He typed in her name. “You’re on his list, Ms. Taylor. Go right up.”
She narrowed her gaze, taken off guard, until she realized Ian had probably added her because he’d invited her to his family gathering. And she hadn’t shown up either. Of course, she’d counted on Alex and his attitude to provide the explanation for her—never thinking he wouldn’t show up and would convince his siblings not to go too.