Page 111 of Runaway Bride's Guide to Love

“Mommy? Tella?”

We laugh as a clearly confused Jack looks on. “What’s up, Bubbs?”

“You okay?”

Maddie nods. “Yeah, we’re great.”

We share one more smile as I feel familiar lips kissing my cheek. “Hey, Tiger.”

Emmett puts a plate of food down for me—God, I love this man—and has barely sat down next to me before Jack’s little yell takes us all by surprise.

“Uncle Met! No!”

What the heck?

“Jack, that wasn’t very nice,” Maddie says.

“No kiss Tella.”

It’s three seconds of shock, and a whole lot of seconds of trying to stifle our laughter.

“But she’s my girl,” Emmett says.

“No.Mygirl.”

My eyes double in size, and I’m doing my best to not start cracking up. Or to pull Jack on my lap and tell him that he’s my favorite and I’m getting him a pony for Christmas.

“All right,” Maddie says as she grabs Jack’s plate. “How about we go get more veggies and dip?”

Jack stands up, but not before coming around the table to give me a hug. And I don’t know if I’m making it up, but I think he mean mugged Emmett before walking away.

“What the fuck?” he asks. “Did my nephew just try and lay claim to you?”

“He did,” I say with a smile, leaning back to rest against Emmett’s chest as he sits behind me at the table. “But don’t worry. I like my men older.”

“Damn right you do,” he says as he starts kissing my neck.

“That’s enough!” Simon bellows. “I might be okay with this, and keeping up my wedding officiant certification so I can one day marry you two, but that doesn’t mean I need to see that.”

“Oh shush,” Charlie says as they join us at the table. “Just think, it could be the other guy.”

I flinch a little at her words, which I hate that I still do. Because I don’t want Duncan to have any effect on me, good or bad. I just want to be indifferent to his name and know that my life truly began when I walked in on him on his hands and knees.

“Shit. I’m sorry,” Charlie says. “I didn’t know if he was off-limits topic wise. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

I shake my head. “You’re fine. It’s just that sometimes it still stings, thinking of what I could be doing right now. Hell, what I almost did.”

“What did you almost do?” Maeve asks as she and Ainsley take a seat around the table with us.

“Almost married a douche,” Simon says. “Which, since we’re on the subject, have you heard from him?”

Emmett holds me a little tighter, which I appreciate. “Actually, I haven’t. Which kind of has me worried.”

“Worried?” Ainsley asks. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“On the surface, yes. That means he finally got it through his head that we’re not getting back together.”

“That doesn’t sound like the douche,” Simon says. “He filed a lawsuit against you. He was calling you weekly to get you back. He tried to threaten me and dad for information. And suddenly he just stopped? Doesn’t track.”

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