Truth or Dare: A Sweet Romantic Comedy Collection by Laura Burton (free ebook reader for ipad txt) 📗

“Sicily?” Katia says, incredulous. “But that must have been last year when you were traveling…” She pauses, and her thick lashes flutter at me. Her response has my stomach in knots. I take a large gulp of my drink, hoping it might give me the courage to finally tell the truth. Then I look at Katia again, resolved.

“I saw it through the window. The sun’s rays settled on that very band and your face sprang to mind,” I admit. The chatter that erupts from the ladies does nothing to calm my nerves. Katia drops her knife and fork and just stares at me in shock.

I go on and explain that I had been carrying that ring around with me in my pocket ever since.

“Excuse me,” Katia says in a breathy voice and rises from her seat. She avoids my eyes as she marches away, her dress swishing.

“You two make a beautiful couple. So… Have you settled on a date yet?” Nonna smiles at me expectantly. I look at the door Katia just walked out of and swallow. “Sorry,” I say abruptly, then I stumble to my feet. “I just need to…” I can’t collect the words to finish the sentence, but Nonna nods along anyway.

“Sure, sure. Go. We’ll talk later.”

Debbie reaches me before I get to the door. “Whatever you did, fix it,” she hisses at me. I give her a nod and do my best impression of a casual smirk. But I’m not Mark. I can’t do a real casual smirk, let alone a fake one. So, I imagine I look like I’m being sarcastic instead. Debbie’s eyes narrow at me before she swivels on the spot and returns to the party.

“What the heck was that?” Katia says pacing the lobby and shooting daggers at me. My heartrate picks up at the sight of her so flustered. But I can’t read her. Is she angry? Upset? Shocked? All of the above?

I stand still, wondering how to make this better.

“Tell me,” she says, coming to a halt. “Did you make all that up on the spot, or is any of it true?”

I bite my lip, trying to gather my thoughts, but under the heat of her stare, my mind comes undone. “I––technically, it’s true,” I say, averting my gaze.

Katia remains frozen on the spot and silent. But even though her lips aren’t moving, I can sense the tirade of words being thrown at me. A flood of color rises to her temples and she looks at me like I’m the biggest traitor on the planet.

She opens her mouth and I brace for impact, but instead, she changes her mind and stomps outside.

“Ma’am… I wouldn’t go out there. The storm is picking up real bad.” The man on the front desk shouts after her. I give him a fake smile and point in her direction. “I’ll go get her.”

Once outside, a huge gust of wind blasts me, nearly knocking me off my feet. I brace against it and strain my eyes to trace where Katia went. A streetlamp illuminates the silhouette of a woman in a dress walking toward the beach. I pick up a run and jog to catch up.

“Katia, we can’t be out here. The storm…”

“I don’t care,” she shouts back. I swallow hard and just as we reach the sand, I take her arm. She jumps at the touch. “Get away from me.”

“Please, can we talk inside?” I shout over the raging winds. Lashings of rain plummet to the ground and hit me like tiny needles. Katia wrenches her arm away from me and glares at me. The anger palpating from her is so intense, it's as if her mood is summoning the storm.

“You cut me off!” she shouts, her words echoing in the wind. A car alarm wails in the distance and the two of us blink at each other, sopping wet. “Do you even remember what you said to me that day?”

I clench my jaw.

How can I forget? The day I broke up with her.

I knew that we needed to focus on our studies. Four years of college on opposite ends of the country… No relationship can last that. I wanted her to be free to live her life. Experience the world. Maybe even fall in love.

But I couldn’t just stand by and watch.

“You said, ‘it would be prudent to break up now before anyone gets hurt down the line.’ But don’t you see? I got hurt, Ryder. You hurt me. And then you stopped taking my calls. Heck, you’ve been back six months and we’ve been to all these parties… And you never even thought to talk to me!” The icy sea wind whips against my face, but it doesn’t sting half as much as hearing my own words being used against me.

“Please Katia! Come back to the hotel. We can talk about this.”

“Oh!” Katia throws her hands in the air. “Now you want to talk?”

A rogue umbrella flies past, narrowly missing Katia’s beautiful face. The conditions out here are not suitable for this conversation, but Katia is stubborn. She looks at me with fury. When another object flies past us, I make up my mind.

“What are you––put me down!” Katia screeches as I lift her up and carry her like a new wife. “I’m getting you somewhere safe so we can talk about this and live to tell the tale.”

Katia crosses her arms but grips my shoulders when a bike crashes into a tree. My stomach tenses at the crunching sound, magnified by the wind.

We re-enter the hotel lobby to find Mark and Jonah standing by the doors.

“Look at you two. A couple of drowned rats,” Mark says with a chuckle. Jonah frowns at him.

“You should stay inside. We’ve just been talking to the staff, and they expect the storm to really mess up our plans.”

I set Katia down, the two of us panting and dripping on the tile floor. “What does that mean? Is the wedding off?”

“No way,” Mark says with a laugh. “You think