Page 1 of One Night With You

PROLOGUE

CLAIRE

Dear Diary,

I used to write about my hopes and dreams. About the crush I had on a friend of a friend. I used to write about the man I wanted to be mine—if he could only see me.

I used to write about so many things.

But now I only see the darkness.

And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.

I don’t want to write anymore. I just want to live and find a way to be free.

So that’s why I walked away from the man I loved.

Because it wasn’t his faulthe didn’t see me.

I want to find my own happiness.

I want to find my own forever.

I just want to be safe.

Only I don’t know how I can.

Not anymore.

~Claire

1

KINGSTON

There were some days where it felt as if you were on top of the world. Where nothing you could do would be wrong. You hit every green light. You were always the first one at a four-way stop. If you needed to go by train or light rail, you would never miss a stop, and would always find the best place to sit. You would get the most perfectly ripe pineapple at the grocery store. The ones that were perfectly sweet, and yet not too soft. And then you could also get the avocado that was a little firm when you first got it that morning, but as soon as you needed it that evening, it was perfectly ripened.

There were some days where your life just made sense. And nothing could go wrong.

And then there were days where you were knee-deep in what had to be some form of dog excrement, looking up at the gutters you had slightly fallen from, wondering exactly where life had gone wrong.

“You okay down there, Kingston?”

I glared up at my cousin Kane and wondered exactly when my life had taken just such a drastic turn.

He was still safely on the ladder, while I knew I’d be covered in mud—and whatever else—for the rest of my life. There was no way I was going to get it out of every crevice it had seemed to sink into.

Because it wasn’t that I had just fallen off the ladder. No. I had beenpushed. Not by my cousin—by the German shepherd that had been the previous security for this tenant.

Apparently, he didn’t like the fact that I was taking over his job.

I owned Montgomery Security with my family. We did numerous types of jobs around the city. Whether it was bodyguard services, potential layouts for large corporations in security, or planning for those security systems. We did a little bit of everything—including adding security systems to homes. Like this home, which had used a German shepherd as its security for so long that apparently this four-legged adorable doofus who could bite me at any minute didn’t appreciate the change.

Today however this lovely German shepherd namedBosley had decided my ladder needed to be taken down a peg. Or rather I did. So now I was knee-deep in this mud pit after the lovely Colorado rain, staring at Bosley.

“Should I be looking him in the eyes? He is not a golden retriever. He’s a German shepherd. He could bite my face off.”

“He’s not going to bite your face off,” Kane answered while clearly holding back a laugh, as he slowly made his way down his ladder.

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