More Than Rivals (8 page)

“Ah!’ He chuckled. “Well, George has out maneuvered her. He’s now saying if the county doesn’t let him build his studio, he’s going to scale down the project to just a couple of acres and instead use the land to build fifty low-income housing units.”

Lily snorted, and Jack enjoyed seeing what appeared to be a genuine grin cross her face. She tilted her head. “Really? That’s hilarious. So now she’s against poor people? George Jones is brilliant.”

“Isn’t he though? And Ethel deserves it.”

“She really does. So is she going to be at every meeting?”

“Not every meeting, but most of them.”

“Just my luck.” She giggled.

With her pretty smile and the connection building between them, Jack had no desire to return to the auditorium. All he could think of was how he could maintain this feeling with her. A smooth line would only backfire, but if he said a friendly goodbye and walked away, he didn’t know if he’d ever catch her in a similar moment. He opted for honesty.

“Listen, Lily. If you and I hadn’t had that blow-up where you chewed me out, I would’ve helped you in there. I can’t stand Ethel.”

“Oh, yeah?” Her smile faded. “What would you have done?”

“Cracked a joke or something.”

“That would just make you look good.”

“Maybe.” He lifted up his hands as if he was helpless. “But it would also get you out of a hole and move things along. I’d have done it for anyone, but you told me to treat you differently so I did.”

“What’s your point?”
 

“My point is this is stupid. We should be friends.”

“Friends?” she said, arching a brow.
 

He didn’t know if the remark was based on their initial encounter when he’d told her how much he liked her or if it was because they were now rivals. Regardless, his answer was the same. “Come on.” He shook his head with a defeated smile. “Let’s be real. What are the odds of Charles Kingsley winning this race and us keeping our current jobs?”

She twitched her nose as if he’d said something she didn’t like. After a few seconds, she said reluctantly, “High.”

“See. There you go. We should be friends.”
 

When she held his gaze, Jack felt he was getting somewhere. Her lips curled into a small smile, and she extended her hand. “Friends.”

Shaking her hand, he nodded. “Friends.” He took his hand away and placed it in his pocket, not sure what to do next. With any other woman, if he had the same feelings, he’d ask her out immediately, but he couldn’t do that. Yet he also didn’t want to simply let her leave. He softly kicked the ground for a moment and then was inspired. “We should go for a run some time.”

She laughed and looked at the sky. “You’re crazy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” she said sarcastically.
 

“You know, I play tennis with Charles all the time. We go way back.”

“Charles plays tennis?” Her brow furrowed. She appeared to be trying to imagine chubby Charles on the tennis court.

“Yeah. He’s not bad. A little slow.”

Lily’s eyes darted to his legs, and she shrugged. “Well, I’m sure you’d think I was slow if we ran together.”

“Doubtful.”

“You have a longer stride than I do.”

“I’ll find the right pace. We can talk.”

“I don’t like to talk when I run,” she said with a chuckle like she knew she was playing him.

“Good. I don’t actually like to either.”

“Okay then…” she said with a shy grin. “When are you next up in Sonoma?”

“I’m in Santa Rosa all day on Wednesday. I was planning on going up the night before.”

“Then let’s go for a run Tuesday night.”

“Sounds great. We can figure out the details later.” He smirked as he asked a necessary, but loaded question. “Can I have your number?”

Her mouth dropped open, but her eyes were knowing. She smiled mischievously, turned around, and headed toward a row of cars. With some sass in her walk, she called over her shoulder, “You can get it from your staff.”

On Tuesday, the October night air was brisk as Lily tightened the laces on her running shoes. She glanced at the wrought iron leg of the bench and remembered the last time she sat on that seat—it had been the first time she met Jack. For a moment, she regretted suggesting they meet in front of the coffee shop. When she got his text message asking for a meeting place, it had seemed like a smart suggestion. It was a place he knew, so it required no explanation.
 

But as she sat on the wooden bench, she remembered how she felt flirting with him that night in August. She hoped he didn’t read anything into her offering that same location. Dwelling on the matter, she chided herself.
You are thinking about this too much. This is just a friendly run.
She redid her ponytail and patted down her stray hair. When she realized what she was doing, she had to question herself.
Then why does it feel like a date?

As she watched Jack walk toward her wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, she took a deep breath. He may have been wearing the appropriate attire for a run with a colleague, but for Lily it felt provocative. Jack was a politician. He was supposed to be permanently clad in a suit and tie, or at a minimum, a button-down and khakis. In shorts and a t-shirt, he showed off the lean, sculpted body of a soccer player—the kind of body she and Jordan would ogle. She decided it was best to avoid looking too far below his neck, or she might be caught checking him out. She told herself one more time.
This is not a date.

“Hey,” he said with a smile. He nodded to the door of the coffee shop. “We’re back at the scene of the crime.”

“What crime?” she asked, kicking herself again for her choice of locations.

“I suppose I should say crimes, since we both told some white lies that night.”

“Haven’t we both reformed our ways?” She smiled.

“We have.” He chuckled and looked around the empty street. “So where are you taking me?”

“How far do you want to run?”

“How about five miles? Any more and I’ll be embarrassed when you leave me in the dust.”

“Ha! I sincerely doubt that.”

“That I’ll be embarrassed or that you’ll leave me in the dust?”

“Both.” She smiled and stood up. “Let’s get going then. We’ll run along the river and then head out down the railroad tracks.”

“Cool. You lead the way.”

As the two jogged along, the silence began to bother Lily. She didn’t like talking when she ran, but she felt like they needed to have
some
conversation. Otherwise, it could turn into an awkward night. She hopped over a stray branch and said, “So where do you run in San Francisco?”

“I thought you didn’t like to talk when you ran.”
 

“I normally don’t, but I was curious.”

“I live in the Marina, so if I’m just going for a regular jog I run along the water and into the Presidio. If I’m at my parents, I run in Golden Gate Park.”

“Those are some great runs. You’re really lucky. Where do your parents live?”

“Sea Cliff.”

“Nice.” She wondered if there was anything else to say when someone declared they were from the ritziest zip code in San Francisco.

“Where did you grow up?” he asked.

“San Diego.”

“And you came up here for school and never left?”

“Pretty much.”

Lily waited for the next logical question, the question everyone always asked. Why did she move to Petaluma? Normally she didn’t mind answering it at all, but that night she felt awkward about it. She was happy when he was said, “Okay. You don’t have to talk to me anymore if you don’t want.”

“This conversation isn’t bad.” She smiled. “It’s not like we’re debating policy. The talking could get difficult then. Too detailed of a conversation.”

“Why would we debate policy? I bet we agree on most things.”

“Oh yeah? Let’s talk about bringing more mass transit to Marin.”

“Well, that’s something that needs to be studied.” He twitched his mouth after he said it and smiled as if he knew he was skirting an issue.

“Studied? It’s been studied to death. There needs to be a train of some kind.” She laughed and shook her head. “You are totally doing Ethel Nathan’s bidding on this one. I bet she’s against allowing all that ‘riff-raff’ who take trains riding into her county.”

“She is,” he said with a grin.

“You grew up in San Francisco. How can you be against mass transit?”

“Can we go back to not talking now?”
 

“No problem.”

“We can talk again after I figure out an issue I can nail you on.”

“Yeah, right.” She said with a playful huff. “You think about that.”

As they went along the well-worn path alongside the railroad tracks, they continued to have short bursts of conversation and then silence. Midway through the run, she stole a look at his legs and confirmed a suspicion. He was taking shorter steps so she could keep up with him.

She turned to him and said, “Your legs are almost twice as long as mine. It’s okay if you want to run ahead.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can tell you’re shortening your stride for my sake. Go on ahead.”

“But even if I go ahead, you’ll still catch-up and outpace me.”

“Why?”

“Women have more endurance.”

“Really?”

“They can go longer. That’s been my experience.”

“In your experience women have more stamina?” she said with a wry look.

“Yeah.”

She couldn’t resist the innuendo, and the words flew out of her mouth before she considered them. “So this happens often?
 
You have to work to hold yourself back because women outlast you?”

Jack looked at her. “Outlast me?” His eyes widened, and a charming smile appeared. “Are we talking about running?”

“I am.” She soon succumbed to his sexy grin and returned the smile. “Why? Are you talking about something else?”
 

“No. Absolutely not.”
 

“Of course not…” She laughed.
 

“I’m glad we got that straight.”

She was so tempted to flirt more. It was fun talking to him,
and Lord knows the attention is nice
. Remembering her place, she simply smiled and said, “Keep your eyes on the road.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a wink.

For the rest of the run, they went through spurts of talking and then silence as they caught their breath. When they arrived back at the coffee shop, they chatted for a few minutes standing by his car. He opened the car door, grabbed a water bottle, and offered it to her. “Here, you go.”

“Oh, thanks.” After she took a drink, she handed it back, saying, “So are you going to Santa Rosa now?”

“Yep, and you’re just going to run off into the night again?” He raised his eyebrows afterward as if to taunt her.

She held his gaze, thinking he looked damn fine all sweaty, but then she remembered she most certainly did not. She self-consciously touched her wet brow. “That’s me. So mysterious.”

“You were that night.”

“Not now.”

“No,” he said with a warm smile. “Not now.” He looked around the street. “So you ran here? Do you live far away?”

“Just up the hill over there.”

“There are a lot of pretty homes here.”

“Yeah, ours is a Victorian. It’s beautiful, but it can be a pain to keep-up.”

He nodded without a word, and she felt as if he was studying her. She was just about to break the silence when he said, “How about we do this again?”

“Sure.” Her response was simple considering the jolt of anticipation that struck her.
 

“Maybe we can run in the city.”

“That would be a nice change for me.” Her voice was hesitant. “I don’t know if this would work for you because it’s the middle of the day, but I’ll be at the hospital on Friday. My shift ends at three.”

“Friday at three? Let me see if I can make it work.” He smiled. “We can meet near the hospital and run in the Presidio.”

“Great. There will be more hills than I’m used to, but that’s good.” She smirked. “It will test my endurance.”

His mouth gaped, though he still smiled. “To repeat for the record,
I
was talking about running. I have no idea what
you
were referencing.”

“Of course,” she said with a giggle. She stared at him, feeling heated from both the run and the rush of flirting with a hot guy who was definitely flirting back. She pointed down the street. “I’m going to head home. Thanks for the run. Let me know about Friday.”

“I will. Can I take you home?”
 

She blinked a few times, thinking of a different life. It would be a life where she could hop in his car, be taken home, and then, if she was lucky, get a kiss from this manly man in relatively little clothing. The glint in his eye told her he wouldn’t mind it at all.

But that would be a date, and she wasn’t on a date. She shook her head. “I should just go.” With a final smile and turn of her heel, she was off.
 

***

The following day she knew she had to come clean with Jordan. She might’ve been able to avoid telling him about one outing with Jack, but two in almost a week was impossible. As a devoted staffer and close friend, he deserved to hear what was going on. He also needed to know in case things turned south with Jack.

As their morning meeting wound down, Jordan stood up, still reading the to-do list he’d just written out. “It’s a busy day. Let me get cracking on some of this.” He pointed to her closed office door. “As soon as I walk out, I’ll get Chase started on that letter ASAP.”

“Wait,” Lily said, holding her hand up to stop him. “I need to tell you about something.”

“About the letter?”

“No. And you should probably sit down again.”

“Uh oh…” he said, reclaiming his seat. “What’s going on now?”

A guilty smile crossed her face. “I went for a run last night with John Bengston.”

“You what?” he asked with no emotion.

“I just told you. I went for a run last night with Jack.”

Jordan was silent for a moment before a smirk crossed his face. He settled into the sofa and put his feet up on the coffee table. “So now he’s ‘Jack’ again. Last I heard you’d quit speaking to the guy.”