now!”

“Bitch!” the one girl mumbled on her way past me. I could not believe she actually had the audacity to call me a name!

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “Step foot in my bar again and I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.” I slammed the door behind them. I turned to walk

back to the bar, still fueled by the encounter.

“Who’s next?” I said to Marie, but loud enough for the rest of the lingering women to hear. I was so mad I could have thrown them all out.

“I need to get a lock,” I muttered, standing in front of my stairwell door. But what good would that do? Just one more key and one more speed

bump to getting Ryan upstairs unnoticed. I walked into the kitchen and stared at the wall behind the useless counter. I tapped on the drywall, thinking

about how I could move the entrance to my apartment. I hoped to one day have a simple home in the woods with my prince; no longer did I think

about living above the bar for the rest of my life. If I ever wanted to rent the apartment out, the tenant would be bound to enter and exit during bar

business hours.

I flipped open my cell phone and called Pete. Home renovation was what he did for a living and I knew he would have some suggestions. I

unlocked my apartment door just as Pete answered. Ryan was relaxing on the couch, blue papers in one hand, television remote in the other,

stripped down to comfy sweats and a T-shirt.

I sat down next to him and he put his arm around my shoulders when I finished my phone call. I leaned my head on his chest.

“Taryn, this obviously isn’t a good idea. Maybe I should just stay at the hotel.”

I felt my happiness drain right out of my heart. “NO. Absolutely unacceptable.”

“I knew this was gonna happen but I let it happen anyway. Me being here is causing a lot of trouble for you and your pub.”

He was feeling remorseful. I could hear it.

“Ryan, it doesn’t matter where you are. Like you said, this stuff follows.” I sat up and looked him in the eyes. “I want a life with you, if you truly

want a life with me. Your fans caught me off-guard today, but I can tell you it won’t happen again. I’ll be better prepared next time. I want you here

with me, where I can protect you from the nonsense.”

“Who’s going to protect you? Isn’t that my job?” He glared at me.

“And what? Your solution is to stay away from me to protect me?” It wasn’t meant to be a question.

“I brought all of this to your fucking doorstep, Taryn! I did this!” Ryan argued, stabbing himself in the chest with his finger.

“So what? You think I didn’t know that stuff like this could happen? I’m not some naïve, little girl who’s star struck and oblivious, Ryan! There is

no way I’m going to allow you to feel guilty about shit you have no control over! I have to learn how to deal with your fame too! And I will!”

Ryan slumped back, defeated.

“Do you really love me, or was that something that accidentally slipped out?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “I meant every word, every time I’ve said it. I love you.”

“Then it’s you and me against the world, and we don’t deviate from that course. That’s our story, remember?”

He tossed his blue papers onto the coffee table and reached for me, hugging me tightly.

Pete and Tammy arrived fifteen minutes later. Pete had his toolbox in one hand and was wearing his tape measure as an attachment to his belt.

Ryan greeted them when he slipped into the kitchen. We talked about how we could seal off the original door that opened into the pub and

relocate the door to open into the kitchen. It was the quickest fix.

“But that means if I ever try to rent the apartment out, the tenant would have to still come through the kitchen to get in. Ahh, I’m not so sure I like

this. What would keep them from going right out into the bar?” I said, pushing the kitchen swing door with my fingers.

“That certainly is a problem,” Pete added. “These old buildings were never meant to be businesses; they were all homes. And if we seal off the

kitchen then you’ll have safety violations for not having an emergency exit.”

I looked around the kitchen. There was just no good way of relocating the stairwell. Pete and Ryan ran back upstairs to deliberate. I could hear

them tapping on the inside of the stairwell wall.

“I spoke to my brother,” Tammy whispered. “Does Ryan know about the restraining order?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’d like to keep it that way for now.” I didn’t want to add any more stress to Ryan’s life. “What did you find out?”

“He said you could get one if you feel she is stalking you. But you’d have to go to the police and then file papers at the courthouse. You’d also

have to appear in court. It didn’t sound simple.”

“Nothing’s ever simple. But I did get her name today though,” I said proudly. “She came into the bar earlier and I carded her.”

“No way!” Tammy said in surprise.

“On Monday she slipped a card for him through my mail slot and she signed it ‘Angel’ but when I carded her, her license said her name was

Angelica. Angelica Staunton, all the way from Brooklyn.”

“Write her name down for me. I’ll see if Tony can run a background check on her.”

I had just slipped the paper with her name on it to Tammy when Pete and Ryan came back into the kitchen.

“Tar, I think we’ve solved your problem,” Pete boomed happily. “Here, look at this.”

Pete was smiling at Ryan, like they just solved world hunger.

“What’s this line?” I asked, looking at their drawing.

“That’s a new wall. Ryan, let’s measure it. What you got?”

“Thirty two and a half,” Ryan said.

“That’s going to be a long-ass wall! It’s going to go straight to the back wall there.” Pete pointed. “You’ll have a separate outside entrance from

the alley and then we can cut a door here in the middle so you don’t have to go outside to get up to your apartment. One day if you decide you want

to block it off, it’s an easy fix.”

Pete tapped his finger on the drawing. “The stairs would stop there and then I’ll put in two steps to reach the floor. You’ll only end up losing four

feet. That counter there would have to go.

“Ryan, hold the tape measure again. See, you were right. We wouldn’t even have to move the back door; it’s fine where it is. The new wall will

come here – six inches away from the frame.”

Pete’s metal tape measure snapped back in the casing. “Taking out the brick wall will be a pain, but it’s doable. You’ll need a new steel door…

and a construction permit.”

“This is brilliant!” I was quite excited. “Pete, you’re so freaking smart!”

“Don’t look at me - it’s his design.” He pointed a thumb at Ryan.

“At least my two years at Pitt weren’t a total waste,” Ryan said confidently, twitching his head like it was no big deal.

I secretly added one more trait that I loved about him to my list.

“Ryan, can I get you to re-draw this rough sketch? Then I can attach it to the construction permit application,” Pete asked.

“Yeah, sure. No problem. Tammy, how big of an oven would you need back here? I guess this stove has to go too; it looks like a fire hazard.”

“Ryan, I can’t get a permit for that until I update the fire suppression system for over the stoves,” I muttered privately. “All the water lines need to

be replaced. That alone was over twenty grand.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and whispered in my ear. “Let’s figure out what it will cost and we’ll talk about it.”

It sort of bothered me that he was so willing to part with his money. He reminded me of some kid who had twenty dollars burning a hole in his

pocket.

Pete and Tammy left shortly after Ryan gave him a new sketch of the construction, and Cory and Marie were well in control of the bar, so I stayed