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the flavors played over her tongue, but at the moment, it was hard to

concentrate on that. In fact, she tasted almost nothing.

“Really?” Shane arched a brow. “But I thought you were as much of a

commitment-phobe as I was.”

“I am. I’m taking a chance. I decided that I wanted to do something

different.”

Shane whistled. “She must be something. Seriously. To make you change

your mind, just like that…”

“She is.”

“It’s like she flipped a switch and you’ve finally seen the light.”

“Maybe I have.” Kiera hoped that the sour churning going on in her belly

didn’t show on her face.

She was afraid of giving her heart to someone and having them shatter it.

Her own parents were still in love, but she didn’t believe it was possible for

most people. She knew she had to be careful. She knew that it was easy to

use a person and walk away from it, and that more often than not, shit just

went to…shit. But this was different. This was Romi.

“No, I definitely have,” she amended after some thought. “I don’t know.

It wasn’t a conscious shift in my thinking. I didn’t decide one day that I was

afraid of being used and the next day that all relationships would work and

that love was foolproof. It wasn’t like that at all. I’m still scared. Super

scared. I still have a lot of anxiety about how this is going to go over with

my family, my friends, the people at the store, everyone. I have no idea how

it’s going to affect my life and yes, that terrifies me. I can’t tell you that I’ve

changed my mind about most of the things I thought before about

commitment, but I have changed my mind about this. They say that death

and taxes are the only sure things in life, but they’re wrong. Regret is

always a sure thing. I don’t know much, but I do know that if I don’t do this

now and take a chance on this relationship, I will have to live with a lot of

regrets for a very long time. I didn’t want to live my life like that.”