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“It’s fine.” She waved at the air like she was shooing away a fly. “I’m fine. My dress is just…tight.”
Cole’s eyes flared, but his jaw clenched tight, like he was physically trying to keep words inside his mouth. Then, as they both noticed Paul staring at them, Cole flashed his phone at her and said, “I’ll take some pictures while you”—his gaze flicked over her body like the tip of a tongue—“cool off. Dance with me later?”
Already feeling the heat of his hand on her back, the press of his hips as he swayed her side to side, she chirped, “Yep. You bet.”
After watching him walk away, she threaded through the crowd, resisting the urge to fan her neck while she made a break for the deck. She pushed through the door, then crossed to the railing while the brisk evening air prickled her skin. Looking up to the dimming sky, still feeling Cole’s lips on her skin, she thought,Why am I like this?
She wasn’t an idiot. She knew she had something a lot of people probably only dreamed of—a no-strings, no-expectations, nothing-but-fun night with Cole Sanderson. So why wasn’t she letting herself enjoy it? Why was she holding herself back? Because she was scared? Because she was worried about what people might think? Or about making Paul feel uncomfortable?
Staring up at some oblivious star twinkling above the mountain, she said, “Well, fuck that.” And a split second before she took the first deep breath she’d taken all night, someone asked, “Fuck what?”
My life, that’s what, she thought, closing her eyes.
Stepping up to stand beside her, Paul swept his bangs to the side, then slid his fingers over the railing. “Nice night,” he said, looking out over the mountain.
It wasn’t quiet on the deck, not with the music and the laughter spilling out through the windows, but it had at least felt calm. “Yep,” she replied, already missing her calm.
“The cake turned out great.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you really serious about him?”
Wheeling around like he’d grabbed her shoulders and spun, she spluttered, “W-what?”
“Cole? Are you serious about him?”
It was like he’d hurled a flash-bang at her, leaving her dazed and blinking. “I…I don’t know. Maybe. Why?”
“He’s a drummer, Mira.”
Drummers really did get a bad rap. “He’s a good guy,” she said, because he was. She might not actually know Cole very well, but she knew that much.
“I’m sure he’s fantastic.” Despite the sarcasm dripping acidly off each word, under the moonlight, his pale skin almost blue, Paul’s expression was unreadable.
“Why are you suddenly acting like a jealous boyfriend?” Where was this concern when he’d left her with barely a backward glance? “Why do you care who I date?”
When he looked down at her and said, “I just want you to be happy, believe it or not,” she almost laughed.
“Happy? You wantmeto be happy?”
“Yes,” he ground out, his jaw clenched. “And a long-distance relationship seems like it would be difficult. Even with a ‘good guy’ like Cole.”
Nothing about this interaction made sense. Paul caring about how difficult her relationships may or may not be while he was happily married and living the literal dream in Bozeman didn’t make any fucking sense. “You know how busy I am,” she said, giving him an explanation he didn’t deserve.
“Yeah, I know. Believe me.”
She rubbed at her arms, less from the chill in the air than from the ice in his tone. “Well, thank you for your concern, but I’m great. Everything is—”
“Great, yeah. So you keep saying.”
Frustration boiling over into outright anger, she threw her hands up. “What the hell do you want from me, Paul? Did you think I’d stay single forever? Is that what you wanted while you got to move on with whoever you wanted to? That’s completely unfair. You were the one who decided we were over, not me.”
His unfairly smooth forehead pinched tight. “I… What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? You left. Things got hard, and you left. Mom moved in, and you took off.”
He looked lost, like he’d never seen her before. “Mira, I didn’t… Ineverwanted—” He cut himself off with a humorless laugh, scrubbing a hand over his face. “This was a mistake. Coming out here was a mistake.”
