Page 78 of Just One Chance

I stretched the stiffness in my neck. "Why do you say that?"

He chuckled. "You've been staring at her all night. It was hard to miss."

I had to be more careful. " She's leaving soon. It's just temporary."

"Is it?" Callum asked, his brow raised.

"It's what it has to be. She's not from here, and she has a business to run. Part of that is traveling to different hotels across the country. Why would she give that up to stay here with me?"

"I bet she'd stay if you asked her."

I shook my head. "She hasn't said anything about anything serious. This was supposed to be temporary, a way to pass the time while she was here."

"But it's more, isn't it?"

I swallowed hard. "For me it is, but I don't know how she feels about it."

He raised a brow. "You won't know if you don't ask."

I groaned. "Now you sound like Beck."

He leaned his elbows on the table, giving me a look. "You confided in him?"

"Yeah, he's been in a similar situation." I drank my now-lukewarm brew, wishing I'd thought to ask for a new one when the girls went to the bar earlier.

"What did he say about it?"

"Same thing. Tell her how I feel. He reminded me that he changed his priorities when he realized he was in love with Clara. He stopped traveling. But in this situation, it's Kennedy that's traveling with her business. She's not going to give up her beach condo in Miami for this."

His brow furrowed. "Why not? A lot of people love Colorado."

"She's a city girl through and through. She worked hard to buy her beachfront condo, and I don't see her giving it up anytime soon." The condo was her definition of success.

His gaze drifted toward the dance floor where a faster song was playing and the crowd was growing. "Why would she need to? You could keep it and use it for vacations."

"You make it sound so easy. But it's not."

He raised a brow. "Why are you making it so complicated?"

"I don't know if she feels the same way. That's the main block. I know I need to talk to her, but at the same time, it feels like it's not fair to ask her to stay."

"Maybe you don't ask her to stay. You tell her how you feel and let her express her feelings. Then you go from there."

Why did it sound so easy when Callum was talking about it? But whenever I thought about broaching the subject with Kennedy, I was scared of her reaction. What if she called everything off? I couldn't handle that.

A slow song came on, and Clara looked over at Beck.

He stood and said to the table, "That's my cue."

Callum nudged me. "Go dance with Kennedy."

Mom and Dad weren't here, and even if they were, I'd just say that I was showing Kennedy a good time. No one would think anything of it. "Fine."

Kennedy was just walking away from the dance floor when I approached. "You want to dance?"

Her eyes widened. "Are you sure it's a good idea?"

I touched her elbow, turning her around. "I'm positive it's not."