Runaway Bride and Prejudice (Appies, #5)

by Emma St. Clair

I sort of wish Drew were a deer and in my headlights. I’d happily mow him down. Actually, maybe I’d swerve to avoid him, let him live his stupid deer life. Because I realize in this moment, as one angle in a lopsided love triangle, that it’s not a huge loss.

it’s like his touch has some kind of direct line to my heart. The effect is not unlike jumper cables or those paddles they’re always using in medical dramas. Though I’m not sure if he’s shocking me to life or frying my engine.

“I don’t come close to being good enough for Amelia. But if she were mine? I would never let her go. I would spend every waking day and every single breath just hoping I could show her the love she deserves.”

I lift up on my toes and press my lips to his. It’s a tiny kiss. Short, soft, a little bit awkward and a whole lot hesitant, as though I’m fourteen and this is my first-ever kiss. And it feels that way to me—like this one brief touch erased any kiss before it. The press of his mouth to mine hits some kind of reset button in me, leaving me new and naive and innocent.

I am above my life, looking down on it. Two Amelias are perched on a teeter-totter. One side has Florida Amelia—who I might as well call Van Amelia—and the other has Normal Amelia. Solid and Stable Amelia. Boring Amelia. The two are engaged in a violent teeter-totter battle to the death. The prize and the cost of this war seems to be my sanity.

Van’s mouth is both familiar and new. He kisses me like he’s finally found his way back to me and has been simply starving in the meantime. He kisses me like he owns me, but also like I own him.

My body sways, like she has created a full-body magnetic current, tugging me toward her. Her panic has activated an auto response in me. The need to protect her is almost primal.

“You fell,” Lex says, sniffling again. “Like, in love?” “No, dummy. Into a pit of snakes. Yes, in love.”

Van closes his eyes like he’s searching his eyelids for some extra patience. He must find it because when he opens them, he meets my gaze again and gives me a little smile. It may be small, but I feel that grin all the way down to my pinky toes.

“I want more than the one night I had with you. I want all your days too. I want to come home knowing you’ll be here. I want to look up from the ice and see you there, wearing my jersey, shouting my name.”