Page 33 of One Night to Fall
I’ve always considered her comments to be interfering and overbearing, but are they? Would finding someone to spend my life with be so bad?
Looking up at my brother and his wife, I realize the only one losing out on happiness isme. I’ve been too stubborn to shed the childish outlook I’d been holding on to like a chip on my shoulder.
“I need to go,” I tell them, jumping up and grabbing two cookies off the plate. “I need to make sure I didn’t just lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
23
ADRIAN
The Range Bar and Grill is packed, and it doesn’t escape me that there’s karaoke tonight—something Jesse would absolutely hate.
I cannot think about him right now.
“Right this way,” the hostess says as she leads Kyle and me through the bar to a quieter booth in the back. We thank her as she hands each of us a menu before promising someone will be with us soon.
“I have to admit,” Kyle starts as he places the beer menu down, “I’m definitely happy but also surprised you came.”
Me too.
I’m not sure what I expected from Jesse but I guess I’d wantedsomething.I wanted to know that I mattered.I didn’t want to change him, but deep down I thought he’d want to change.
For me.
That I’d be worth it.
So ridiculous.
I ignored the calls and texts that had come in after he left—even went so far as to stay on the couch of a coworker so I wouldn’t be home if he suddenly had a change of heart.
Because seeing him would have broken me.
I’d fallen for him and I would have let him into my bed even if it was only a goodbye fuck. He would have walked away and I’d be left a shell of the man I’d been before I met Jesse Sterling.
He hadn’t just been a hookup. He’d been sweet and thoughtful and so much more than justfriends.
Did he even know half the things he did?
“I am too,” I admit, finally giving Kyle an answer.
“Uh-oh,” he teases, pulling a halfhearted smile from me. “That sounds like heartbreak.”
“It’s…something.”
“Well, there’s no pressure, Adrian. I told you there are far worse ways to spend an evening.” Reaching his hand across the table, he places it over mine and squeezes. “Relax. Let’s just have a good time tonight and we’ll see where it goes.”
I almost believe him, my mouth opening to say as much, when I catch sight of someone moving quickly through the bar.
But they’re not coming toward us. They’re headed right for the stage, where the DJ is making an announcement about the karaoke lineup.
Where Jesse Sterling is nodding as he accepts the microphone, his knuckles white as he grips it and those magnetic eyes land on mine.
And then the music starts to play and Jesse opens his mouth.
To sing.
And he’s not looking away.
Holy shit.
