~Kate~
I couldn’t stop smiling. And that was the problem.
I hadn’t smiled like that in so long, it felt foreign—like something fragile was growing in my chest, something that scared me because it wasn’t supposed to be there anymore. Happiness? Flirtation? God forbid… hope?
The boutique bag handles left faint red lines on my palms as I climbed the stairs to my apartment. Cole—no, Mr. Harrington had insisted on carrying most of them to the car, but I’d stubbornly grabbed a few myself. Maybe it made me feel a little more in control, or maybe I just wanted to feel like something was still mine.
The heels he picked. The velvet dress. The way his eyes traveled slowly over me in the mirror…not lustfully, not professionally, but like I was something worth looking at. Like I had never been brok
