King Hunt (Boys of Brisley 1)

My bartender laughed. “Rex is the bull. What’s your name?”

I had a moment where I almost lied just to see how it would feel to do it, but I talked myself out of that in seconds. This bar was nice, and I knew I might be coming back there more often than I’d ever admit to Ky. “Zeppelin. You?”

“Kapri. You’re new in town, huh?”

“That obvious?”

Kapri shook her head. “No, I was guessing. First drink is on the house for having a cool name.”

“Everyone calls me Zepp. My dad was a huge fan... though I think that’s obvious enough.” I drank a little more as we spoke about the town and how long she’d been there, but the second a man approached me to offer a drink, I realized I wasn’t in a place to take him up on it. It was nice to talk to Kapri — knowing she was working and just being friendly made it easy, and that was really all I was looking for that night. Breaking my dry spell could wait a little longer.

After breakfast the next morning, I thanked Last Night Me for not getting drunk enough to merit a hangover and began applying for jobs within a fifty-mile radius of my hotel. I imagined myself working in that bar with Kapri with matching nose rings and laughed out loud for the first time in a while. Even when I was eighteen, I knew I couldn’t be one of those effortlessly cool, edgy girls, and now at twenty-eight there was absolutely no way I could pull it off.

I realized then I didn’t want to anymore, anyway. I loved who I was. I was passionate about the things I cared about and brave when I needed to be. I didn’t need to change everything about me just because I was starting over in a new place. I just needed to find where I fit in... even if that prospect was terrifying.