Page 152 of Go Luck Yourself
“No, this isromantic as fuck.” She takes my face in her hands. “What did you used to write about when you were in love with me?”
All the blood in my body drains into my legs. “Wha—Coal told you about that shit?” I’m going to kill him.
“That’s beside the point. What did you write about?”
My jaw sets. She pinches my cheeks together.
“Romantic crap, okay?”
“Romantic crap likethis,hm?” She lets me go. “Make your own story. You deserve this sort of ending, Kris.”
Her words quiver through me like electricity, crackling life into my limbs.
She points at me. “Go get your guy in a sweeping, event-crashing declaration of how much you want to fuck his brains out.”
“God, Iris.” But it yanks a laugh out of me.
She smiles. “Go.I’ll be right behind you. Definitely not recording the whole thing.”
“Oh, don’t record it.”
“Should’ve gotten me to sign an NDA. Nowgo.”
I head off, heart lodged in my throat. My eyes snap to every face I pass, certain Loch will be here, and the whole thing will happen in the foyer—or the hall—or I’ll run into Finn and she’ll get into some argument with me and Loch will overhear andthat’sromantic, his sister screaming at me—
But I get to the door of the ballroom, across from the dining room. Its doors were always shut before; they’re thrown open now, showing a wide space with rich mahogany wood in every corner, a roaring fireplace at the long end, a band on the opposite side. People spin through the room in varying shades of green, so at least I don’t stand out.
And there.
Near the fireplace.
Talking with a group, a glass in one hand, looking so goddamn good in a dark hunter green suit that I come to a shaking stop inside the room, drinking up the sight of him. His hair is back in that red wave, his face a little flushed from the warmth of the room, and he smiles at someone, a flash of white teeth that jerks the air out of my lungs.
What am I going to say to him?
“Kris!”
Siobhán’s shout rips across the ballroom, barreling over the music, the chatter of conversation.
Loch’s head whips towards her.
He clocks where she’s looking.
And he sees me.
I intended to walk up to him. I intended to move, at all, but the moment his eyes hit me, any intention vanishes from my body andI am helpless but to stand there, in the crowded room, the music wailing around us, people dancing and Iris slowly pulling back from me with a wide grin.
Loch’s eyes stay on mine as he cuts away from the group around him. He doesn’t even say anything to them in explanation, not that I can tell. He puts his glass on a server’s tray in passing, looking at me, only at me, and I try to pull in a breath but get a single trembling gulp.
Then he’s in front of me.
The music is so loud. People spin and dance and it’s making me dizzy, all that motion passing by, and him, the fixed pole around which everything revolves.
My lips part. “I—”
He grabs the collar of my jacket and kisses me.
And it’s so much better than anything I could have said.
