One Little Dare Read online

  Naomi laughed. “If anything, it’s the opposite.” She sipped her wine and sighed. “This is wonderful. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been out for drinks?”

  “Roughly fourteen months,” Chad said and pushed his glasses up onto his nose as he peered at the menu.

  “You have twins, right?” Tori asked, thanking the waiter for the Long Island iced tea he placed in front of her. “That must be something.”

  Naomi snorted. “‘Something’ is a great descriptor. I guess I’m lucky to have had twins in my first pregnancy. Any single baby pregnancies after this will feel like a walk in the park in comparison.”

  “Can we make it through the first year before we start talking about more kids?” Chad asked, mopping his brow.

  “I’ll have another,” Vince said loudly, pointing to his already-empty drink when the waiter passed by.

  Seth caught my gaze and I knew we’d both need to be on Vince watch this evening.

  Dinner passed quickly with the conversations and drinks flowing like we got together like this all the time. Inexplicably, it thrilled me that Tori got along so well with my friends’ significant others. At one point, we’d all shifted seats at the long rectangular table so the women were at one end while we were at the other. They talked a lot about Nicole’s impending wedding and Naomi’s experiences working as a farmer before she realized she wasn’t cut out for it. They both did a good job of getting Tori to talk about her life a bit. I tried to be engaged with Seth’s work-related travel stories, but I found myself listening more to the little bits Tori divulged, like the fact that she hadn’t been in a serious relationship since high school, because she usually attracted and pursued the wrong type of guy. I tucked that information away and listened in as she talked about her best friends back in Idaho, but how they were all moving on and settling down—something that Tori wasn’t eager to do herself.

  After the checks had been dropped off, the ladies decided to go to the restroom together, leaving the guys alone.

  Vince, on his sixth drink, frowned and waved a hand in the direction that the women had disappeared. “Why do girls go to bathrooms in packs? Are they worried about bears? Do women’s rooms have exciting things that men’s rooms don’t?”

  “Yeah, they do,” Seth said.

  “What?” Vince asked.

  “Women.”

  “Touché.” Vince tipped his glass toward Seth, causing it to slosh all over the table. “Fuck,” he said, slurping up the alcohol that had covered his hand. “Speaking of women, what’s the deal with you and Tori?”

  “Yeah.” Seth leaned back, stretching his legs. “You’ve been pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.”

  I thought of the conversation Tori and I had in the room. “There isn’t a whole thing,” I said. “There’s not much to say.”

  Seth laughed first, followed by Chad. “Yeah, okay,” Seth replied. He swallowed the last of his drink and rubbed his chest. “I’ve seen how you look at her. You like like her.”

  I couldn’t deny it to them. They wouldn’t believe me even if I wasted my breath. But I didn’t want them to hassle Tori, either. “We’re not serious. She lives in Idaho and I obviously don’t. She’ll go home in a few days and that’ll be the end of it.”

  “Bullshit,” Seth said, pinning me with a look. “That’s total bullshit.”

  “It’s not,” I said, glancing toward the bathrooms to make sure she wasn’t heading back already. It was obvious we had moved a bit too fast for her comfort. The last thing I wanted to do was make her want to run away. “Yeah, I like her. But it’s a fling.” I stared Seth right into the eyes as I borrowed Tori’s words. “Just a fling. It’ll be over before this week is.”

  “Bet you it isn’t,” Seth said.

  “Stop,” I said, firmly. I knew Seth meant well—and was teasing me—but Tori would be back any minute and I didn’t want her to hear the guys talking about our relationship, as if we even had one.

  “Is that why she’s not wearing the wedding ring, but you are?”

  I glanced at my hand, staring at the silver band. Tori had taken hers off? I hadn’t noticed. I wondered if she’d taken it off before leaving the hotel room that morning or after. Not that it mattered one way or another.

  “I had too much salt last night at dinner. Hand’s swollen.” I tried to pull the ring off and was grateful that it was actually a struggle. “The wedding, it was a joke. Really. Of course I like her; who wouldn’t? But I’m serious when I say that she and I are temporary.”

  “Don’t blame you,” Vince said and hiccupped. “Girls are trouble anyway.”

  “Is that why you’re always trying to get their numbers?” Seth asked, shifting his teasing to a new victim.

  “Damn straight.”

  The waiter returned with another beverage for Vince, much to our surprise, and he downed it before the waiter had finished clearing our plates from the table.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket.

  Seth: Can you help me get him to bed tonight?

  I thought of Tori and our unfinished business that I was eager to follow through with. With no small regret, I nodded at Seth across the table just as the women returned.

  * * *

  It turned out that getting Vince to bed had been a significantly more difficult event than the night Tori had helped me. He’d argued with us just inside the doors of the hotel about getting one more drink at the bar. Tori had lingered long after Nicole had disappeared behind the elevator doors, but after an unsuccessful attempt of leading Vince directly to the elevators, I’d kissed her and told her to head up to the room.

  “Sorry,” Seth said to me while Vince was in the bathroom of the hotel bar. “Hate to ruin your plans, but he pulled this shit last night, too.”

  “After dinner at Deb and Bob’s?”

  Seth nodded. “We didn’t make it past reception before he was whining about having a nightcap in the bar. Which turned into three drinks. Nicole fell asleep in her clothes waiting for me.” Seth sighed and let his head drop back against the wall outside the restrooms. “I thought if I had backup tonight, he’d go right up to his room. But no such luck.”

  “Well, you don’t need to apologize to me. I’m sorry you were flying solo last night. You could’ve called me.”

  “I almost did.” He gave me a grim smile. “We gotta do something about Vinny. He’s in bad shape. I think I’ve seen him consume his body weight in alcohol these last four days.”

  I ran a hand over my head. Seth wasn’t wrong; it was alarming seeing Vince get drunk every single night. The problem was, I didn’t know if this was a frequent thing or new since Will’s death. We all coped in our own ways and often those ways were unhealthy, but Vince’s wasn’t just unhealthy—it was dangerous.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said. “He doesn’t listen to me. He won’t.”

  “I worry what will happen to him after this week is over. Does he drink like this back home in Cali? Does he travel home safely after a night of drinking? God, it’s like we all just scattered across the country and the only thing that kept us sort of together was Will. Now that he’s gone, what will happen?”

  “I don’t know,” I said quietly. It was a worry of mine too. Being Vince’s babysitter was easy when we were all staying in the same building. But once we were back to our normal lives, what then?

  I glanced at my watch. It was well after one in the morning. I knew from Tori’s conversation with Naomi and Nicole that she had a class to teach in just a few hours, which meant she’d be out of bed before me again. Selfishly, I wanted to go upstairs and wake her up, finish where we left off before dinner. But I wouldn’t.

  Vince stumbled out of the bathroom and crashed into the wall beside Seth. “Whoops,” he said. “Ready to go to bed, guys?” His eyes were half-closed, and his mouth was slack.

  “Let’s go, big guy.” Seth wrapped his arm around Vince’s back and we half dragged, half carried him to the elevators.

&nbs
p; After we got him settled in his room, Seth and I parted ways. These late nights were catching up to me, so even though I’d had a brief, passing thought to wake Tori up for some more of what we’d started, I knew I was mere minutes away from falling into a deep sleep when I made it back to my room.

  As quietly as possible, I emptied my pockets, dropped my pants, and removed my shirt. Tori was back in the bed she’d slept in the night before, so I climbed into the empty bed beside hers and fell asleep.

  17

  I woke up a half hour before my alarm went off, but I’d fallen into such a deep and intense sleep that I was worried I’d overslept.

  The room was pitch black apart from the green light on Liam’s phone charger across the room.

  Liam.

  I dragged my arm across the other side of bed, but it was empty. Sitting up, I squinted in the dark and saw a Liam-shaped figure on the next bed over. I was surprised he hadn’t climbed into bed with me, but then again maybe my little speech earlier had prompted him to give me as much distance as possible.

  I sighed regretfully. I’d meant what I said about liking him. I did. More than I ought to, given how temporary our situation was. But after dinner with him and his friends, I found myself lamenting my decision. It was a weird thing, to be both excited and afraid. I wasn’t used to sticking around any man, and I was even less used to being around a man like Liam. Romantic, thoughtful, pensive. Those were things most women would find endearing. And I did. But they also made me confused and scared. There wasn’t a future for us. I’d go back to the shitshow that awaited me in Idaho and he’d stay here.

  After only a moment of debate, I climbed out of my bed and climbed into Liam’s. As if he sensed me in his sleep, he rolled to his side and exhaled as he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I snuggled in, my back to his front, and fell back asleep for another thirty minutes.

  * * *

  My classes that Tuesday morning dragged. Maybe I hadn’t gotten the quality of sleep I thought I had. Or maybe I was just impatient to get back to the room, to Liam. We had plans to go out to a lake east of the city for fishing, something I loved to do growing up. Liam had promised he had enough fishing gear for me and since he needed to run home anyway, he would pick it up before our lunch fishing date.

  By the time I made it back to the hotel room, Liam was still gone so I climbed into his bed, laying directly on his pillow and inhaling his cologne. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was opening my eyes to Liam leaning over me.

  “Hey, sleepyhead.” He brushed my hair away from my face. “Still up to go fishing?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, stretching and yawning.

  “I see you’re in my bed.” He took my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “Sleep well?”

  “Yep. So well that I think we need to upgrade your bed to our bed.” I winked and sat up. “What do you think? Has a nice ring to it.”

  “Very nice.” He cocked his head toward where a cooler waited. “I grabbed you a pole and lures, but they’re in the truck. We’ve also got a cooler and snacks, so we should be set. You’ll want to wear your hat and bring sunglasses if you have them.”

  “Aye-aye, captain,” I said with a salute. “I’ll be ready in just a few. Meet you downstairs?”

  “Sure.” He popped a kiss on my nose and left me to get ready.

  When I joined him, he wrapped an arm around me. “Valet is bringing my truck around.”

  “Where’s everyone else?”

  “They’re on their way to the lake. But don’t worry, they can’t get out on the water without us.”

  I was about to ask why when it became very clear why no one would be going out on the water without us. Because a truck towing a pontoon boat pulled up to the curb and a young valet handed the keys to Liam.

  “This is yours?” I asked, marveling at the boat even as he opened the passenger door for me to climb in.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s huge.”

  “It hardly ever gets used,” he explained and climbed into the driver’s side after closing the passenger door. “I was going to sell it a few months ago, but now I’m glad I didn’t. Boat rentals aren’t cheap.”

  “Have you been out on this lake a bunch?”

  “Oh yeah.” He pulled out of the hotel and began to head out of the city. “Probably a hundred times. It was our favorite spot growing up. Deb and Bob had a pontoon boat too and we’d go out on it every weekend in the summer. A bunch of their friends would bring boats too, and we’d have barbecues out in the middle of the lake and the kids would take turns riding inner tubes on the back of the speed boats.” He turned down the radio. “My mom didn’t have a lot of money, as you probably guessed, when I was a kid. We were happy, but she couldn’t afford the vacations she deserved. So, I’m grateful that Deb and Bob always took her out on the lake when she had a day off.” He gave me a smile. “Did you spend a lot of time out on water growing up?”

  “You know, the small town I’m from in Idaho is named after its lake?”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  I nodded. “It’s not huge—but where we live, you only need to drive about a half hour before you end up at another lake. So it’s nice to have a lot to choose from. My parents had a house on the lake when I was in high school and we spent every summer out there on the water.”

  “Have you done much fishing?”

  I tucked my answering smile away. “A bit,” I said coyly.

  “Well, Vince is the big fisherman in our group. He’s gone to tournaments all over the world. It’s one his favorite things, so don’t be surprised if he tries to show you what to do.”

  Since Liam had brought him up, I decided to ask him about Vince. “Is he okay? He seems to need a lot of support from you guys.”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “He’s obviously going through some shit right now. I know we’re going to need to talk to him about it, but this is kind of shitty timing.”

  I nodded, agreeing. “Does he live here?”

  “I live the closest. Chad lives in Utah, Seth lives in Maine, and Vince lives in San Diego.”

  “And Will lived here?”

  He nodded.

  “He was your best friend,” I said remembering. “I’m guessing they all are your best friends, but Will was different, wasn’t he?” I thought about what Deb had said about Liam, about how she worried about him.

  “He was different.” He looked sideways at me. “Spontaneous, like you. Happy. You know, it’s cliché when people are talking about someone and they say there was no one like them. But really, there isn’t anyone like Will. You remind me of him.” He said it softly, almost as if he’d meant to say it only to himself but the words had found their way out of his mouth instead.

  “Well, considering how much everyone talks fondly of him, I’m honored to be compared to him in even a small way.” When my dad’s sister died unexpectedly, I remembered how much everyone tiptoed around her, afraid to say her name—as if saying her name had the power to cut us in half; as if we were already dealing with grief that felt too heavy to carry alone. Late into the night, Dad and I had stayed up late chatting about her. I distinctly remembered the way it lit up his face to reminisce, and since Liam seemed to enjoy talking about Will I thought it was a good idea to get him talking. “When was the last time you saw him?”

  Liam blew out a breath and pulled his sunglasses off his shirt collar in order to put them on his face. “Six months or so ago. We had a falling out.”

  Oh. Maybe I had been wrong to want to talk about this. Before I could come up with a subject change, Liam continued.

  “After my mom died, Will was there for me like no one else. He stood by me through everything I was dealing with—anger at her, for not telling me how sick she was. Anger with my dad, for putting her through years and years of hell. I blamed him a lot, even though he’d been in prison for over a decade
before she died. And Will knew exactly what to do—when to give me space and when to give me support. I didn’t have to ask him to be there for me. He just was.” He paused and shook his head. “Have you ever had a friend like that?”

  I nodded, thinking of Hollis and Keane. Listening to Liam talk about Will made me ache to talk to Hollis and tell her what had happened. For the first time over the course of our friendship, I hadn’t called her after something big happened to me. It was if I wanted to keep Liam and everything about him to myself for a little longer. The outside world didn’t exist between us until we invited it in. And I was eager to stay in our little bubble a little longer. “I do.”

  Liam sighed and flipped his visor down as the sun blasted his face. “Like I said, Will was spontaneous. He probably thought himself invincible. So we took these trips with him twice a year—saved all of our vacation time to chase him around the world. We trekked to Machu Picchu and hiked in Patagonia the year we all graduated college. The following year, we toured temple ruins in Cambodia. We’ve been to Petra, Hanoi, Budapest and countless other cities. We’ve bungee jumped off heights that made Chad vomit, we’ve snorkeled reefs and got so sunburnt that Seth ended up hospitalized. We’ve climbed mountains that grew from the ground defiantly steep, daring humans to navigate their rock face—Vince broke his arm after getting it wrapped in his ropes on that trip. And I once got into a bar fight in Boston completely on accident.” He tapped on his nose. “Broke this bad boy and got a fat lip.”

  “How does one accidentally get into a bar fight?”

  “When your buddy—Vince—decides to hit on the hottest girl in the bar, not paying attention to the fact that she’s wearing a wedding ring. I pulled Vince away, and the husband socked me good.” He scrunched his nose and winced. “But nothing ever happened to Will. Not one freaking scratch. So hiking and rock climbing wasn’t enough—he started surfing waves that only pros would, diving into underwater caves that had claimed the lives of too many and convincing himself that he could handle any angry rapids that crossed him and his kayak.”