Page 4 of Dare (Fighting Fate)

“She still refuses to move in with him, though,” Adam said, amusement clear in his voice.

I rolled my eyes. “Why? She’s practically living at his apartment anyway.”

Dad took a swig of his beer and shook his head. “I think it’s smart of her. There’s no need to rush. They’ll both be graduated by the summer, and then they’ll have jobs to pay the bills.”

“Unlike Micah.” Isaac laughed.

Micah was the middle child of the Murphy crew. Being an elementary school teacher, he was the first white-collar worker in the family. He made the decision to move out of home the minute he graduated college. The number of times he came home to beg, borrow, and steal had been a running joke there for a while. Of course, he had his shit together now, but he had yet to live it down.

Dad’s gaze swung to me before it fell on Brad and Jordan. “So, you boys ready for the bar exam?”

They both groaned loudly. “Why you gotta go putting a downer on the moment, Luke?” Jordan said, whining like a baby.

He was right, though. It was a downer. A massive one. But Dad knew the influence Noah’s sacrifice had on my drive to succeed. The finish line was within sight now. We had four months of law school to go, then a summer to do our bar review. Then it was D Day. There was nothing I wanted more.

Except maybe . . .

I glanced across the room at a picture of Noah with a group of his friends, my gaze zeroing in on a head full of tight, red curls.

Okay, there was no maybe about it. There was definitely one thing I wanted more. But, besides the fact that I’d sworn off dating until I’d passed the bar exam, she wasn’t mine to have.

I sighed. Jess was the biggest inconvenience in my life. At five foot ten, with fair skin and vibrant green eyes, she was ridiculously attractive and insanely sexy. The first time I’d seen her, she was with Kaeli, dripping wet and wearing nothing but a shimmery green bikini. That image was burned into my memory, and I can tell you, it had taken a great amount of restraint to ignore the need she invoked in me back then, and concentrate enough to graduate college.

Unfortunately for me, though, it hadn’t been enough to avoid Brad’s keen awareness. My sad, unrequited love was his daily amusement, and he liked to remind me of it whenever he could.

Following my gaze, he half rolled his eyes while stifling a laugh. “I wonder what she sees in him,” he mused as he stared at the picture. He knew how much I hated that her boyfriend was in it.

Choosing not to engage, I turned back to the bike. Jess had been seeing Wyatt for a little over six months now. She seemed happy, but I just didn’t get it. He was a law student like me, but he was completely full of himself. I honestly couldn’t figure out why she was with him. And I didn’t know what depressed me more. The fact that she was dating the one person I considered my archenemy, or the fact that she was attracted to someone I considered the exact opposite of me.

If I could just continue to ignore my interest in her, I might stand a chance of making it to the all-elusive finish line I’d been striving for these past three years. I just hoped fate was on my side.

Chapter 3

Jess

Smoothing down my dress, I gave myself a quick once-over in the mirror before grabbing my handbag and heading down the stairs. Tonight, Wyatt was belatedly taking me out for our six-month anniversary, and if I was to be honest with myself, the night was long overdue. Between exams and parties, we hadn’t had anywhere near enough alone time lately, and I’d been dying to have him all to myself for a while.

Moving into the living room, I found my roomy, Emily, perched on the couch. “Ooh, someone looks gorgeous,” she said, her eyebrows wiggling up and down. “Where are you guys heading?”

Strangely, Emmy and I had only met this year, but we’d formed the kind of friendship that made it feel as though we’d known each other forever. The fact that she was dating one of my closest friends from high school helped. Knowing just how happy she made Aiden had given her an instant tick of approval.

Drawing in a deep breath, I let it out slowly. “I honestly don’t know. Wyatt’s keeping it a surprise.”

She gazed at me, her head cocked to the side a little. “Are you okay? You seem a little off.”

I rubbed my fingers over my eyebrow and sighed. “I don’t know.” I chewed on my bottom lip as I tried to work out how to put my thoughts into words. “Is it bad to feel like something’s missing?”

Emmy’s brow creased. “What do you mean? With Wyatt?”

I groaned, slumping into the armchair. “It’s just this feeling I have in my gut.” Looking up to the ceiling, I let out a huff. “I just feel like we should be a little more in sync or something, you know? Like we should be more connected.”

She narrowed her eyes with contemplation. “Maybe you both just need more time together. I mean, you’ve been pretty busy with exams and stuff lately,” she said cautiously.

Lifting my face to the ceiling, I sighed. “That’s just the thing, though. We might not get as much time together as most couples, but when we do, he’s perfect. He’s attentive, he’s sweet, and I know it’s not just about sex, because half the time when we sleep together, we seriously just sleep together. He really is amazing, Emmy. So I just don’t get why I feel this way.”

She smiled, the corners of her eyes softening. “Sometimes the problem isn’t always obvious, hon. But you know I’m a big believer in listening to your gut.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know, but how the hell do I work out what my gut is trying to say when it’s being so goddamn obtuse?”

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