"You kissed him?" Jen demanded from the other line. Then away from me, "Richard, she kissed Hudson, can you believe it?"

"Nothing like secrets between sisters," I teased as I ran my hair through a straightener. I was set to meet up with Hudson in an hour or so and I wanted to look my best. There was a part of me that told me to put in no effort at all, but I couldn't ignore the urge to look good for him.

"So are you guys dating now?" Jen grilled, almost hysterical with excitement. From her glee a normal person would've assumed I had just told her that I was engaged to a prince.

At the question my fingers stopped sectioning off pieces of my hair and I stared down at the cell phone that was blasting dead air at me. I could so easily remember the way that Hudson had said that we didn't need to date to kiss. And in the fuzzy state it hadn't mattered, but now it did.

"Not exactly," I replied, trying to sound strong and eve. "It's complicated."

"It always is with you," Jen sighed, sounding a little exasperated. "Don't let it be complicated. Tell him what you want and if he can't provide that for you then that's it, it's over."

And for people like Jen it was that easy. It always had been, too. She was the kind of person that the masses would flock to. She was drop dead gorgeous for starters, plus that smile, that laugh that sounded like it came from a goddess. She was always nice about it, but her dating life had been, essentially, to get into a relationship, and establish what needed changing. The men in her life either agreed and attempted or they were simply removed. It didn't matter, another better one would come take their place.

Until Richard. He challenged her, told her that relationships were two sided and though she was wonderful she wasn't perfect either. Then, together, they had worked on themselves and each other.

Regardless, I wasn't Jen and Hudson was certainly not Richard. I didn't have men competing over me and he didn't have a psychology background to help him waddle through my mess.

"We are meeting up today to talk," I said, resuming my work. "I can give you more information after but we were drunk and it was just a kiss."

Just a kiss. And a few words that made my heart race. No big deal.

"Not much talking can happen if you have your tongue in his mouth," Jen pointed out.

At that I had to roll my eyes. "We are meeting up at a dog park. Max is way too needy to let any kissing happen, I assure you."

"Ooooh, an outdoor date!" she squealed. "What are you wearing?"

Jen and I continued to talk as I prepped and, since the conversation was no longer centered around hard topics, I found glee in sharing ideas with her. She agreed that having my hair straightened would be a cute look since I was going to be wearing a toque. My makeup would have to be light so it wouldn't rub off on the high collar of my jacket. She helped me pick out a pair of boots that would be cute and warm while yelling at me for stealing them from her.

About twenty minutes after I said good bye to her I was pulling into the parking lot for the dog park, looking for Hudson's orange cross over. When I didn't see it I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was coming.

In that moment, I steeled myself, trying to go over the boundaries I would stand for. I hadn't come out here to be pushed around and taken advantage of, not again. I wouldn't be a foolish as I had been with Connor.

Firstly, we needed to address that Connor was still haunting me. I had no idea what would happen after my encounter with Dane, but I was certain that I made an already awful situation worse. I didn't want that hellfire raining down on Hudson. He might've punched Dane first, but he didn't need all of Connor's wrath to compensate for it. He had taken enough of a beating from Dane already.

Then, there was the fact that he was kind of my employer. He didn't sign my cheques, but having some kind of relationship might affect my ability to get paid. Especially if things ended badly or if someone like Shawna found out and wasn't particularly fond of the concept. I couldn't risk that, not yet at least.

Lastly, he had said that he didn't date. But I was an all-in kind of girl who needed security. Even just the thought of being without commit made my anxiety spike.

A thump on my car window jerked me out of my thoughts. When I snapped my head around I saw Hudson smiling at me, holding onto a leash. And just like that, all those dark thoughts vanished.

"Hey," I greeted, opening my door.

"How's going?" he asked, laughing a little when Max pulled at the leash to greet me.

"Good." I smiled at the big dog and patted in between his ears before gesturing to Hudson that we should walk. "It looks like you healed up pretty good."

"Yeah, the swelling went down pretty quickly. My mom freaked out a little when she saw it," he admitted as he opened the set of gates leading us to the dog park. Max yipped at the dogs in the distance who were racing through the snow, playing fetch.

"Yikes, did you tell her what happened?" For some reason I immediately became worried with this development. It was like I already cared about the opinion of a woman that I had never met.

"I told her that I fell on the mountain and wasn't wearing a helmet."

"She believed that? I've never seen you without a helmet and your goggles ever and we've been on the mountain a lot together."

"Yeah, I'm smart about my safety now, but she remembers me as the kid who almost gave her several heart attacks through not wearing any gear and really hurting myself all the time. Broken arms, messed up ankles and knees, and a mangled face," Hudson explained, releasing his poodle off the leash. Max hesitated for a moment, just staring at Hudson and panting. Then, without any warning, he turned away and darted towards the other dogs. "I know you didn't ask to see me just so we could talk about how other people handled my injuries. So why don't we just talk about our drunken kiss and get it over with?"