out of time. Something too perfect to last for long.
“I—I—” She placed her fingers to her lips, her eyes wide as they met mine. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
I tried to smile through my disappointment. What had I expected? One kiss, and suddenly Kate would look at me like…
Like what?
What did I even want from her?
Her gaze clashed with mine, and while I couldn’t say for sure what I did want—I knew one thing for sure. I didn’t want her looking at me like this. All wary and nervous. Maybe even horrified.
“Relax, Kate.” I aimed for my laid-back smile, the one that put most people at ease. Not Kate, though. I should have remembered that.
She stiffened in response, her gaze flitting around the room before she snatched up her purse. “I should go.”
“No!” We were both clearly shocked by my outburst. There went cool, laid-back Miller. Maybe that was for the best, because Kate eyed me with more curiosity than horror, so…that was something.
“Don’t go,” I said, my tone less frantic this time.
She turned to face me, and I caught a flicker of panic in her eyes. Confusion had her drawing her brows together. “I can’t…” She started and stopped with a lick of her lips, glancing down at herself like she was seeing the sexy black dress and heels for the first time. “I don’t know what I’m even doing here.” She shook her head, her voice soft—I got the feeling she was talking more to herself than to me. “I just came for the election.”
I took a step toward her. “What if you didn’t?”
Her head shot up. “What?”
I walked toward her slowly, giving her room so she didn’t spook again. “What if you came to hang out with me? Have fun with me,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Would that be so bad?”
Her brows drew together in such confusion, it was almost comical. “Have fun with you?”
I shrugged. “It’s not unheard of to have fun at parties.”
Her lips hitched to the side in an expression of irritation that I knew well. The sight of that familiar look had me fighting another grin. This girl had always been too much fun to tease, and that hadn’t changed just because she felt like heaven on earth in my arms.
“We’re not…I mean, I’m not…” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “We’re enemies.”
“We’re rivals,” I corrected. “That doesn’t automatically mean we have to be enemies.”
Her brows drew down, and her lips pursed like they did when she was deep in thought. Her gaze dropped down to my bow tie as she took a deep breath, still adorably confused by the idea that maybe we didn’t have to be on opposite sides of this great divide. “If we’re not enemies, then…what are we?”
My mind raced with things to say, but she wasn’t ready to hear any of them. I opted for a joke. “Friends?”
Her gaze shot up to mine, and I held my breath as I waited for her reaction. I let it out in a rush of relief as she burst out laughing as I’d hoped she would. I grinned at her, loving the sound of it. Her laughter was something I definitely wasn’t familiar with, and that was something I wanted to change.
I wanted to be the one who saw her genuine smiles and heard her laughter. I was tired of being her enemy, but she knew as well as I did that we had never been friends and likely never would be.
What we had between us was something different.
Something better.
When her laughter died off, she shook her head in amusement. “We’re definitely not friends.”
“No,” I agreed, risking another step in her direction. I was close enough I could touch her, and she didn’t back away. “But maybe we could be something else to each other.”
There was a question in her eyes, but I didn’t have the answer. I mean, I was still reeling too. I wasn’t even sure what I meant by that or what it was exactly that I wanted with her. So I told her what I did know. “I don’t know what we are or what we could be,” I said simply, shoving my hands in the pockets of my ridiculous suit to keep from reaching out for her. “But I’d like to find out.”
She stared at me unblinking for several, long, seemingly endless seconds. “I…I…”
She panicked.
Backing away from me quickly, she reached for the door handle with wide eyes.