Page 46 of Alpha & Omega

“I never intended to take your bar, Kingston. I just had a random idea. I simply thought it was cool. The idea had been so fleeting that I hadn’t thought about it again. But when we talked that night, I wanted to put the idea out to you. I would never take your bar from you. When you told me you were struggling, I stupidly assumed that you might like the idea. But you were right. I shouldn’t have gone behind your back to check your credit reports. Granted, they’re public information, but it wasn’t my business. That’s on me. I’d been more business-oriented than relationship-oriented. This is all new to me, and I’ve blown things between us. But I want to fix this. If you want help, you have it. If you don’t, I won’t get involved. You’re all that matters.”

He stewed on my words, looking anywhere but at me. “It hurt, you know. I trusted you and really liked you.”

My body unwound, filled with even more guilt. “I realize that, and again, I’m so sorry.”

“After I stopped being angry for five minutes, I realized you weren’t trying to hurt me.”

“If so, why wouldn’t you talk to me?”

He finally looked at me with those pretty blue eyes filled with hurt. “Because you went behind my back. Because you barely knew me and still looked into my business. I lost a bit of trust, Harley. Maybe if you’d been anyone else, it wouldn’t have mattered as much, but I really liked you. I thought I finally found that one person for me. And honestly…”

“What? Tell me.”

“I… get these fears that if I fall for someone, they’ll leave or stop wanting me. This whole thing kind of kicked up those fears a notch.”

It was my turn to be unable to look at him. “I’m… so fucking sorry about everything. I understand now that Alpha’s isn’t only a business for you. It’s home.”

“Then you get it.”

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Kingston sat in silence for so long that I figured it was over. I almost stood to leave before he spoke.

“Yeah, I can forgive.”

I looked up at him with a tinge of hope. “Butwillyou?”

“Yeah, I will. Let’s start fresh. Just no more messing with my business.”

“You got it.”

I stood, pulled out the tickets from my pocket, and waved them in the air.

Kingston raised a brow. “What are those?”

“You’ll have to come over here to find out.”

He smirked, stood, and walked around his desk to stand in front of me, where I handed him the tickets. He read them and smiled with bright eyes. “José González?”

I shrugged. “A little bird told me he was coming to town at the end of August and that you might like him since you played his music when I was at your place.”

“Bribing me, are we?”

“Think of it as ‘Plan B.’”

“Consider me bribed. I love him.”

When he wrapped his arms around me, I held him back and rested my head on his shoulder, completely melting into him and inhaling his intoxicating scent. I instantly felt at home again.God, I’d missed him, and it hadn’t even been that long.

“Thank you, King.”

His response was to hold me tighter, and I took it.

Foronce,Icouldadmit I was stubborn. I’d been right to be angry with Harley, but I could’ve listened, too. Now my crew didn’t trust him because I hadn’t.

Harley left the bar with a huge smile on his face, and I probably mirrored him. He’d been right. If I just stopped and listened for a minute, we could fix the shit between us. It hadn’t taken much for me to forgive him once he explained himself.

I stepped out of my office and walked back to help Pippin serve drinks whenAjax stopped me.

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