Then her lips quirked up at the corners in the sweetest little smile I’d ever seen.
I let out a sigh as I kissed her again, and this time she was far less hesitant, her arms twining around my neck as mine wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. My heart was thudding against my ribcage as I lost myself in that kiss. Everything else seemed to fade away, and all that was left was her. Kate. In my arms.
Nothing in my life had ever felt so good. So right.
She fit against me like we’d been made for this. The smell of her shampoo, so familiar but so novel, because now it was mine. It would be forever locked away in my memory along with this kiss. It was the same with the sound of her voice—so familiar, and yet so new when she sighed and moaned as my lips moved from her lips to her jaw and down to her neck.
She tasted like honey…she felt like heaven. This side of her was totally new and so perfect. Like after years of fighting, we finally figured out how to be around each other in a way that worked.
And oh, how it worked.
She was on fire in my arms, and I had never felt more alive. For the first time, I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be. I wasn’t trying to be something I wasn’t. I was me. And she was Kate.
And together we were perfect.
Somebody cranked up the volume of the music outside by the pool, and the jarring sound of a booming bass line had Kate jerking away from me with a start. She blinked rapidly, her chest rising and falling quickly as she stumbled a few steps back.
I felt it too. Reality crashing down around us, ruining this kiss which had felt like a moment 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. “I don’t know what to say.”
Unbelievable. This girl who was so fierce in the face of…well, everything, was scared. I honestly never thought I’d see the day. My heart did a weird leap in my chest like it was trying to get to her. I wanted to comfort her, tell her it would all be okay—but that wasn’t what she needed.
“Come on, Kate, don’t run away just because you’re scared,” I said.
That stopped her like I knew it would. Nothing made Kate stronger than an outright challenge. Her hand dropped from the handle like it had burnt her, and she fixed me with a glare. “I’m not scared.”
I arched my brows in disbelief which only made her scowl intensify. “I’m not.”
“Okay, then prove it.”
She cocked her head to the side with a huff. “How?”
I grinned. “Stay with me.”
She blinked a few times, obviously thrown. “You want me to stay,” she repeated. “At this party?”
I shrugged. “Why not?”
She opened her mouth like she was going to speak but then clammed up just as quickly.
“Come on,” I said, my tone cajoling. “Just stick around. See what it feels like to have fun for once.”
That was the wrong thing to say. Her brows shot down like she was troubled. “I didn’t come here to have fun. I’m here because you and I are competing in an election, and we’re giving our speeches on Monday. I’m here because I need to win.”
I took a deep breath and rocked back on my heels. Maybe it was the sexy clothes, but I’d somehow managed to forget who I was dealing with here.
No kiss—no matter how mind-blowing—would distract this girl from her end goal. She straightened, her chin tilting up. “Nothing has changed here, Miller. You and I are still rivals. You are still standing in the way of a role I need to help me get a scholarship to college.”
Her voice sounded robotic, and for the life of me, I couldn’t read what was going on in that head of hers. Her normally expressive eyes were closed off to me, and her body language screamed for me to keep my distance.
Frustration had me exhaling loudly as I backed away. “What do you want me to do, Kate?” I held my hands out, palms up. “Do you honestly want me to back down? Do you want me to concede the election?”
“Yes.” She answered so quickly I found myself blinking in disbelief.
“You don’t mean that,” I said.
Her expression hardened.
She did. She meant it. I blinked again, trying not to show how her simple yes had thrown my world for a loop. Disappointment had my insides deflating like a balloon. All this time, I’d thought we both thrived on the challenge the other presented. That we pushed each other. But she didn’t want it.
She just wanted to win.
I nodded, swallowing down a wave of hurt that was ridiculous. I was overreacting. “Yeah, okay,” I said, my gaze fixed somewhere on the floor beside her. “If that’s what you want.”
“That’s what I want,” she said.
I wasn’t sure how she’d fled so quickly in those heels, but she was out the door by the time I managed to lift my gaze off the floor. Kate Andrews was gone.
11
Kate
By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was a train wreck.
A literal train wreck.
Okay, fine, not literally. I hated when people misused the word literally, and now here I was, literally doing the very thing I hated.
Why?
Because I was a mess! Literally. My hair wouldn’t stay back in my usual ponytail because I’d grabbed one where the elastic was shot, and it kept slipping. And the wispy bangs I despised? They wouldn’t stop falling into my face.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror behind the trophy case and cringed. There were circles beneath my eyes after two restless nights with little sleep. I swore I could still smell fryer grease even though I’d showered twice since my shift at Hot and Wild yesterday afternoon. But to top it all off, the button of my skirt had snapped off as I’d walked in this morning so I was currently scrounging around in my purse for a safety pin.
“Hey, Kate. You okay?”
Oh, wonderful. Mia Jackson stood before me with a sweet smile that put me on edge. I had no beef with Mia, but the girl was always on the lookout for a scoop, and I refused to give her one.
“Fine,” I said. “Just looking for a safety pin.”
She pursed her lips. “Hmm, I don’t have one, but I bet you could find one in the office.”
I nodded. I probably could. Pauline always had a stash of random essentials like that in the supply closet. But going to the main office meant running into Mr. Gentry, and I wasn’t in the mood to smile and feign enthusiasm for this morning’s assembly.
We were supposed to give our speeches in a few minutes, and I had no idea what I was going to do.
I mean, I did, but…I didn’t.
Ugh, I was such a mess.
And it was all Miller Hardwell’s fault. I scowled down into my safety pin-less bag at the thought of the guy who’d been tormenting me for the last forty-eight hours. Not in person, but the memory of him.
The things he’d said, the look in his eyes as he’d said it…the way he’d kissed me.
All of it. Every single second of our interaction had been parsed and dissected by my obsessive little brain, and I couldn’t stand another second of it.
“So,” Mia said in a tone that was way too cheerful for my current frame of mind. “Want to give a girl a hint about what you’re going to say?”
My head shot up, and for a second, I thought the wannabe reporter had been reading my mind.
What was I going to say to Miller? I couldn’t avoid him forever, and when I saw him, I needed to know what to say to make things right, to put things back to how they once were. I might’ve had an enemy, but I was used to that.
An arch-nemesis I could handle. A guy who told me I was sexy and likeable, and who kissed me like I was the most cherished girl on the planet?
No idea what to do with any of that.
Mia was waiting for an answer, and my brain started to freeze in a panic. But then she tilted her head to the side. “You do have a speech ready, right?”
The speech. Right. Of course. “I do,” I said, and with a smile I added, “And you’ll have to wait to hear it along with the rest of the school.”
She groaned good-naturedly. “Come on. Just a hint. Why do you want the role?”
“Sorry, Mia. No scoop today.” I laughed as I shook my head, but the anxiety I’d been battling all morning—all weekend—was back in full force with that stupid question.
The first morning bell wouldn’t ring for a little while, and I couldn’t get there early and see Miller. He’d take one look at me and know.
He’d know I was a wreck. He’d know it was his fault. He’d know…
Oh crap. He’d know that he’d gotten to me.
I sank down onto the bench seat outside of the office and closed my eyes.
Focus.
Nothing had changed. Everything was the same. I’d give my speech and answer any questions. Questions like why do you want the role?
I took a deep breath as a queasy sensation made my stomach roil. That was the super basic question Mia had asked that I’d been totally incapable of answering. Not even to myself. The thing was, I had an answer written down somewhere. On the application I’d had to answer that question, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I’d said.
Probably because it had been a bunch of bull.
I wasn’t a liar, but I could spin a tale with the best of them, and when it came to brown-nosing on applications, resumes, and essays—I was in a class of my own. I knew logically that I had a well-thought-out response to that simple question, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of it.
All I could think about was what Miller had said. What if you were here to have fun? With me?
I closed my eyes. There would be time for fun in college.
Right?
But would there be a guy like Miller at college?
I swallowed a thick lump at the thought of a life without my rival. Would it be easier without him challenging me every step of the way?
Undoubtedly.
So why did I feel like my chest was about to cave in?
Maybe because easy had never been what I was looking for in life. Easy was overrated. Easy never made anyone smarter or stronger or braver.
Easy never made someone step outside of her comfort zone and take a risk.
I touched my lips automatically, and I could have sworn I still felt the tingle that had followed his kiss. The sting of the cold when I’d pulled away.
Maybe the question shouldn’t be why I wanted this position, but what was I trying to prove?
He’d admitted that all this time he’d been trying to earn my respect…and he had.
And everything I’d done had been to get into a good school, and earn a scholarship. But at what cost?
I’d never been kissed up until Friday night. I’d never spent time with my classmates outside of school or school-sanctioned activities. I’d seen friendly faces by Miller’s pool, but none who seemed familiar to me outside of school.
I dropped my head back against the wall as my perspective shifted, and my whole life seemed to come into focus with unbearable clarity. I was going to graduate with no real friends, no boyfriend, no stories to tell my grandkids, and no…fun.
I mean, I knew life wasn’t all about fun, but surely there was a time and place for it, right?
My breathing grew shallow as I thought about next year and the year after that…and the year after that. I’d always told myself that life would begin in college. But what if it didn’t? What if my college career was spent chasing the perfect internship and straight A’s so I could follow Daphne to graduate school? And then grad school would be spent chasing the perfect job, and then…and then…and then…
It all stretched before me. A never-ending, exhausting stretch of striving, and working, and achieving, and…lonelin
ess.
I swallowed another unexpected and completely unwanted wave of emotions.
What was happening to me?
I mean, seriously. It was the morning of the assembly. It was senior year. The home stretch. Now was not the time to be losing my focus. Why did this existential crisis have to happen now, of all times?
But I knew why.
Miller.
A bell rang, and the hallways started to fill with students who were heading toward the auditorium. Would Miller give his speech, or would he back out…like I’d asked him too?
For the millionth time since Saturday night, my gut churned with something horrifyingly close to shame. Regret, even.
I found myself watching the throng of students, waiting to see him. Hoping to find him with cue cards in hand and a smirk of challenge on his face.
I hoped beyond belief that he didn’t listen to me. I hoped he knew me better than that, and I hoped that he knew that had been a moment of weakness when I’d said yes to him backing out.
Did I want to win the president seat? Yes.
Maybe.
Maybe not?
I gave my head a shake. I didn’t know. But one thing I did know was that I didn’t want it like this… I didn’t want to win by default. I didn’t want to get anything from Miller out of some act of charity or because he was taking it easy on me.
That wasn’t me, and it definitely wasn’t us.
Bella smiled and waved as she walked past me, giving me two thumbs up for good luck. Some other people I was friendly with said hello as they headed in to snag a seat for the assembly. Still no sign of Miller.
I jumped up to my feet, no longer able to just sit and look for him.
That was also not me.
I needed to see him. I had to talk to him. My heart started racing in my chest as I heard the principle, Mrs. Gentry, welcoming the students and telling them the assembly was about to start.
I raced around the corner and—oof!
Miller’s hands steadied me, holding onto my upper arms as I stumbled back after the impact. “Kate?” He frowned down at me. “Are you okay?”
My Know-It-All Nemesis: Sweet Mountain High Page 9