Love Over Matter
Page 18
The idea that this isn’t real nudges the back of my mind, but I push it away.
“It’s been so long,” I say, my breath uneven from the dancing. “I’ve missed you.”
Again, he smiles in a way that can only be described as heavenly.
“Are you okay?” I ask, a stab of pain seizing my chest.
His smile drops slightly; he nods.
We’re close now, swaying softly in the spotlight of a moonbeam. “I’m sorry,” I say, even though it’s silly, “about the fight.”
He holds me tighter, nuzzles his neck to my cheek, rubs gentle circles around my back.
I feel two things at once: the sensation that this moment—me in George’s arms, the way it was always meant to be—is the truest, most profound I will ever experience, but also that our love exists in another realm, a state of being incompatible with life.
Which leaves me no choice but to let him go. “I love you,” I tell him, my heart swelling with happiness, my lips stinging as they ache for him.
He doesn’t speak, but still I hear: I’ve always loved you, Cass. And I always will.
My mouth is two parts hydrogen, his one part oxygen. And we must be standing on a frayed electrical cord. Our lips meet in a flash of pleasure and pain. Atoms accelerating and colliding. A luminous rearrangement of matter. I hold on as long as I can, until my cells vibrate to the brink of explosion. Goodbye, I tell him silently. And one last time: I love you.
As easily as it dissolved, the Maddens’ yard blossoms back into being, Aleks’s lips wet from coming off mine. “Wow,” is all he says.
He’s right; the kiss was exhilarating. But it wasn’t his.
I give him a shy, thankful smile, my arms still wrapped around his waist, something scratchy poking at my wrist. The map, I think, remembering I’ve given him directions to George’s grave.
He moves in for another kiss, and I let him have it. It’s the least I can do to repay the gift he’s given me. His mouth melds with mine, the map continuing to jab my arm. I unclasp my hands and try tucking it back where it belongs, but it won’t go.
And it’s not the map.
My heart flutters, the slick, crinkly object jumping into my hand as if possessed by a will of its own. With Aleks’s lips still working on mine, I pry an eye open and squint past his ear at the item now dangling from my fingers. Even in that compact bowtie knot, it’s immediately recognizable as a Funyuns wrapper.
I swallow a laugh. Nice one, I tell George, sneaking the wrapper back into Aleks’s pants. You got me.
Then we finish that kiss.
ALSO BY MAGGIE BLOOM . . .
Any Red-Blooded Girl
by
Maggie Bloom
The last thing fifteen-year-old Flora Fontain wants to do is spend her summer vacation stuck in a tent with her overprotective parents and angst-ridden brother, especially when she should be in Europe with her best friend Jessie—sipping espresso, posing for cutesy tourist pics, and hunting for hot Italian (or French, or maybe even English) stud-muffins.
But since her parents trust her about as much as they trust a cat burglar at the moment, Flora has no choice but to suffer through the boyfriend-less summer of her discontent from the back of a rented SUV, until . . .
Fate tosses a sexy, sophisticated gypsy boy into her path, making Flora wonder if destiny might know best after all. That is until destiny screws up, big time. Because just as Flora falls head over heels, an unexpected turn of events threatens to land her in the slammer—or worse, separate her from the man of her dreams.
Film at Eleven
by
Maggie Bloom
Life sucks and then you die, at least as far as sixteen-year-old Flora Fontain is concerned anyway. Because at the moment, everything in her averagely pathetic universe has taken a gigantic leap into the Pit of Doom: She’s been separated from the love of her life, gotten assigned the junior year schedule from hell, gained like fifteen pounds in Twinkies alone and, oh, the hot new foreign exchange student has a thing for her, which wouldn’t be such a problem if Flora’s best friend didn’t have a mad crush on the guy.
And just when things couldn’t possibly get any more complicated, of course, they do. Because the moment Flora starts to fall for the new hottie, her long-distance love-muffin rolls into town, grinding her universe to a heart-stopping, brain-wrenching halt.
If something doesn’t change, and pronto, Flora just might end up six feet under—or, at the very least, eating up valuable space in a rubber room. Either way.
Good Luck, Fatty?!
by
Maggie Bloom
Spunky North Carolina teen Bobbi-Jo Cotton is overweight, oversexed, underloved and misunderstood. When Dr. Harvey Lassiter—her former high school principal turned bicycle shop owner—sponsors a charity bike race, Bobbi sees an opportunity to test her Schwinn and her fortitude. And when Tom Cantwell, her best (and only) friend, reveals he’s crushing on her, Bobbi figures it’s time to quit passing out screws like they’re dentists’ office suckers.
What Bobbi is having a harder time letting go of is the resentment she feels toward her missionary parents who, after abandoning her in the night, have flitted back into her life with a surprise: she’s about to be a big sister.
Will Bobbi win the race (and maybe even lose the weight)? Can she overcome her promiscuous past and earn the trust of the boy she just may love? Will her parents care enough about her—or her new baby brother—to stick around (and if they don’t, will she be tough enough to survive another of their betrayals)?
The only way to find out is to come along for the ride. The way Bobbi sees it, all of life’s questions can be answered from the seat of a bicycle. And if they can’t, at least your hair will look great fluttering in the breeze.
A NOTE TO READERS:
If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to write a review and/or share with a friend. Reviews and word-of-mouth are the lifeblood of authors and are greatly appreciated. Thank you!
MAGGIE BLOOM grew up in the ’80s, under the influence of acid-washed jeans, hair bands, leg warmers, and John Hughes films. She currently resides in coastal Maine with her family (and the world’s smartest cat, Twinkle).
Table of Contents
chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
chapter 10
chapter 11
chapter 12
chapter 13
chapter 14
chapter 15
chapter 16
chapter 17
chapter 18
chapter 19
chapter 20