Page 55 of One Night With You

“We know I’m not good at that shit. Seriously though, is he taking good care of you? Do I need to kick his ass?”

“You don’t get to kick my boyfriend’s ass.”

“So he’s your boyfriend now.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe? Someone called me his girlfriend in front of him and he agreed with it.” Hudson just rolled his eyes even as my stomach tightened. “It’s good to know that hasn’t changed over the years.”

“I like the Montgomerys, Claire. I do. And I like Kingston. But I know you’ve had a crush on him for a while.”

I blushed, frowning at him. “How did you know?”

“Like I said. I’m your brother. It’s what we do. Does he know?”

“That I had a crush on him when he didn’t even see me? Yes. It was awkward as hell, and I sort of just blurted it out.”

He snorted. “That sounds about right.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing, other than I think I’m happy. Which is scary.”

“It’s scary to be happy?” he asked softly.

“I think you of all people know better than to be confused about asking that.”

“You’re right. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Why do you think I would get hurt?”

“I’m not saying you will. I’m just saying that I don’t know, I just don’t like the idea of me working with the family of the guy that you’re seeing, and you being friends with a lot of them. All of our webs are a little too tangled.”

I rolled my eyes, even though he was hitting on a point I tried not to think about. “Stop worrying. Worrying is for me to do.”

He reached out and tapped the side of my face, and I frowned, putting my hand up to his.

“What is it?”

“I see the dark circles your concealer’s not hiding. Don’t you have that color corrective shit?”

I pulled away, embarrassed. “Trust the tattoo artist to know about that. And thank you for making me feel like crap.”

“Nightmares?”

I couldn’t lie to him, not when he could see the evidence stamped on my face. “Yes, a nightmare. But I’m getting better. And I’m talking to my therapist.”

“I’m glad to hear about the therapist, not so glad about the nightmares. And I’m sorry for making you frown and think too hard about Kingston. I am not good about this whole overprotective brother shit.”

“I’m not good at the annoying baby sister who tries to feed you too much shit.”

“You’re pretty good at being annoying though.”

I shoved at him, but he didn’t move, damn muscled man.

“As for me and Kingston, we’re just taking it slow. We’re friends first. We always have been. That’s not going to change.”

Hudson held me tightly, sighing into my hair. “Good. I just hope that remains true.”

And with that ominous thought, I kissed his cheek, and then headed back out to girls’ night. I didn’t want to think about what would happen when Kingston and I broke up. Whatever did happen though, we had to just remain friends. Phoebe was with Kane, so that meant Kingston would always be in my life, even if things turned out horribly. But I didn’t want to dwell on things that hadn’t even happened yet, so I was going to push it out of my mind, and only think about time with the girls.

Of course, nothing was ever like I wanted it.

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