Page 44 of Dare to Love

But he could never be angry with her. The little brats he called his sisters were another story.

“Who is she?” his mother asked.

“Her name is Riley Taylor.” He went on to bring his mother up to date on how he’d met Riley and her entanglement with Alex.

“Well, that hits right where you hurt,” she said bluntly, as only a mother could.

“Yeah.” And he still didn’t understand Alex and Riley’s connection.

Yes, they’d grown up as neighbors, but Riley and Alex had an unbreakable bond. Maybe if Ian understood what lay behind it, it would be easier for him to accept.

“Yet she’s worth dealing with them? I mean, you’ve avoided doing so for all these years.” Her eyes lit with questions.

Ian nodded. If there was one person he could confide in, it was his mother. “Yes. She is. And right now she’s ignoring my calls.” And texts.

Emma laughed at his obvious distress.

“Umm... What did you do?”

He raised his eyebrows. Normally with that look, his employees would go running.

His mother merely laughed again.

“What makes you think I did something?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Why would she suddenly ignore you unless you upset her?”

He rolled his shoulders, the tension there painful. “I sent flowers to her hotel room.” And told her to miss him because he sure as fuck missed her.

“And?”

He didn’t want to admit to the next part and let out a frustrated groan. “I might have called and warned her boss to keep his hands to himself on their business trip.”

She’d left him a message while he was in a meeting telling him in no uncertain terms that she was pissed and he’d gone too far. And she wasn’t answering his return calls.

“Ian Carlton Dare, how could you!” his mother asked, wagging her finger in his face as if he were a child.

“You should hear the things he’s said to Olivia! I was just making sure he understood that Riley was mine.”

She shook her head, her blue eyes dancing with undisguised laughter. “Oh my God. You are impossible. First, Olivia and Dylan have history, not that it’s any of your business.”

Ian nearly fell off his stool. “How the hell would I know that?”

“You wouldn’t! Your sisters don’t want you to know anything about their love lives because you scare men away.”

He narrowed his gaze but didn’t touch that remark, mostly because it was true.

“You can’t go around staking your claim like some caveman!” His mother’s shoulders shook from trying to suppress laughter.

“Now you sound like Olivia,” he muttered.

“Because she’s right. I’m sure your Riley would be flattered by your attention if you didn’t insert yourself into her work and diminish her in the eyes of her boss!”

“I didn’t—”

“You did.” A few seconds of silence passed before his mother continued. “Ian, honey, you can’t ensure the people you love won’t leave you. You just have to learn to trust.”

And wasn’t that the crux of all his problems in life, Ian thought wryly.