An Exclusive First Look
The Almost Between Us
Quinn slipped the portfolio strap from her shoulder and shrugged out of her suit jacket.
Without the jacket, the cream dress felt less like the Quinn Rowan usually saw—sleeveless, fitted without being severe, the fabric moving around her legs when she turned.
Rowan’s gaze flickered from her face to the dress and back again, so briefly that anyone else might have missed it.
Quinn didn't.
She glanced around for somewhere to set the jacket, but before she could decide, Rowan stepped forward and took it from her.
Their fingers brushed, barely, and her body reacted anyway.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
She swallowed. “Thanks.”
He draped the jacket over the back of a nearby chair, then lingered with one hand resting against it, his attention still on her.
Long enough to matter. Not long enough to satisfy anything.
She turned back to the packet.
Static cracked overhead, and she startled as the ballroom speakers flickered to life.
A few slow piano notes drifted into the unfinished room, followed by the unmistakable beginning of some earnest love song that had absolutely no business finding them there.
Quinn froze.
Rowan stood across the empty ballroom, her jacket draped over a chair between them, and suddenly the space separating them felt charged with everything neither had said.
She looked at him. Rowan looked back, and neither moved.
For one ridiculous second, it felt as though the Fairway House itself had decided subtlety was overrated.
Quinn laughed.
Not one of the polished little work laughs she used when somebody needed reassuring, but a real one—startled and helpless and completely involuntary.
Rowan looked at her as though he'd forgotten, if only for a moment, all the reasons he was supposed to stay away. Something in his expression softened.
The music crackled once before stopping altogether, leaving a silence that somehow felt different than the one before.
Quinn shook her head, still smiling. “Well. That wasn’t subtle.”
A genuine smile tugged at the corner of Rowan’s mouth. “Fairway House seems to have a flair for timing.”
“It’s either that or the building is actively trying to ruin my life.”
His smile deepened. “You only laugh like that when you forget people are looking at you.”
Her smile slowly faded.
His words settled somewhere beneath her ribs. He had noticed. Not the version of Quinn she carefully presented to the world, but the part of her that slipped through when she forgot to keep it hidden.
Rowan seemed to realize he'd said more than he intended just as Quinn realized she had no idea what to do with it.
Quinn should have changed the subject.
Instead, she asked, “Do you regret kissing me?”
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