“Kins here?” I ask, not bothering with small talk and fake smiles. I’ve never been the jealous type, so I don’t know what has come over me. This girl has me wound up tight and I feel like I could snap at any moment.

We both turn heads as she walks down from her bedroom. How can a girl look this sexy in just sweats? Her hair is still damp from her shower and the scent of her shampoo lingers throughout the apartment. She glances between us both before smiling sweetly at me.

Jesse chuckles and squeezes Kinsley’s shoulder as he walks past her and towards the door. “If you’re all good, I’ll catch up with you later, yeah?”

She nods at him, her eyes continuously drifting back to me. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

I move out of the doorway and towards Kinsley, but as I go to reach out and pull her towards me she places her hand on my chest, keeping a distance between us.

“Jess, wait!”

Looking up I see him hovering in the doorway. Kinsley moves around me, walking right up to wrap her arms around Jesse’s waist. Breathe Tanner, you don’t know how much last night may have shaken her up. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I think Jesse is actually a good guy.

I hear a muffled ‘Thank you, for everything’ before she pulls away and the door closes behind him.

I let my eyes drift from her to the couch. Sitting down, I reach for her and pull her into my lap. “You didn’t call me.” The thought slips through my lips before I have the chance to reign it in, not at all the way I wanted to lead this conversation but, we are in it now.

“This is still so new, I didn’t know if I should.” She looks down at her hands, picking at her fingernails; an anxious habit. “And to be honest, it has only been Jesse in my corner for so long, he was the first person I thought of.”

With a deep breath I take her hand, pressing the tips of her fingers to my lips, kissing them one by one. “I’m going to spend the rest of the day showing you who you belong to, but first I need to know what happened last night.”

Kinsley bristles at my words before she straightens her shoulders and begins to speak, “I was in the office waiting for a taxi when someone broke into the bar and started smashing glasses.” I can feel her tensing up as she speaks, so I trail my hands up and down her back encouraging her to keep going. “The taxi scared them off when it arrived and I just left. I was panicking so I texted Jesse on the way home and once I was back here I called the police station.”