Page 20 of Versions Of Us

I hesitate, a frown pulling my features down. I’ve never had someone put all of their faith in me before. Steve’s bar is his livelihood. It’s everything he’s worked so hard for and I’m afraid I’ll fuck it up like everything else I’ve ever touched.

Then again, maybe this is the change I need. An opportunity to force me to get my shit together. To build a stable life with direction.

I run my hand over my head nervously. “You really believe I won’t run it into the ground?”

“I think you’re gonna do just fine.”

His confidence in me is evident in the way his voice never wanes, in the way his eyes don’t leave mine. And just like that, he’s instilled in me a sense of self-worth. This is my chance to be successful at something.

To be the person Kristen needs me to be.

I blow out a long breath. “Okay,” I say. “I’m in.”

“That’s my boy,” he says. He pats me on the back as we re-enter the tavern. “Now go find that girl of yours before she gives me grief for keeping you away for too long.”

I find Kristen on the dancefloor with Liv and my heart jolts at the sight of her. This is the woman I want to spend my life with.

I’m sure of it now.

Her eyes find mine across the crowded room and she beams, baring a flash of perfect white teeth. In seconds she’s sidling up to me.

“Hey, you,” she says flirtatiously.

“Hey, yourself,” I smile down at her, and she traces the tattoos up and down my arm. When she sways in place, it becomes obvious that she’s downed a couple of drinks while I was outside with Steve. Kristen has my heart on any given day, but tipsy Kristen is irresistible, a force to be reckoned with. “You having fun?”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “But is it bad that I just wanna get out of here and go to your place?”

Her hands come up to smooth over my chest, her arms snaking their way around the back of my neck. I feel her body sag into mine as I pull her close, my fingertips tracing circles on her lower back.

“Sounds like the perfect plan, if you ask me.” I lean into her, and she hums as I scatter light kisses along her jawline. She drives me crazy in the very best way.

“Okay. Take me home,” she murmurs.

Kristen has her own apartment, but I know when she says ‘home’ she’s referring to my house, and I love it. It fills me with a sense of pride that she feels that she belongs there.

That she belongs with me.

We mingle through the crowd, saying our goodbyes to everyone. Then we begin the short walk home to my place.

The house I rent isn’t far from the esplanade that runs the length of town. I’ve lived there for almost three years now.

It’s funny how even when I first moved in, still an idiot kid barely out of my teens, I always pictured Kristen living in it with me one day.

“Let’s walk by the water,” Kristen suggests, a flirtatious smirk forming on her lips. “You know I love the river at night.”

“Oh, I’m very well aware. Just promise you won’t drag me into it naked this time. It’s too cold tonight,” I tease, as we make our way down the sandy path through the trees until we reach the bank.

She giggles. “You loved it.”

“I did. Until I realised we were being eaten alive by sandflies.” I swing an arm around her as a laugh bursts from her, echoing across the canal. “It’s not funny. I was itchy in weird places for a week.”

She lets out another chuckle. “There’s a story for us to tell our grandchildren.”

In the past, this sentence would have freaked me the fuck out. It’s no secret that I’ve never been big on commitment. My parents had fought for most of my life before they finally did what would have been best for everyone all along and called it quits.

But as those hazel eyes gaze up at me in the moonlight melting holes into my soul, I’m the complete opposite of freaked out.

I’ve never been less freaked out.

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