Free That Touch of Magic by Lucy March

the night. Now swear to me on Julia Child that you didn’t load that thing up with Roto-Rooter.”
    Addie sighed. “I’m putting my hand on Mastering the Art of French Cooking right now. I swear.”
    “Great. See you there.” I hung up and got out of the car, in no mood to deal with whatever crisis my brother was having.
    “Nick, I’m telling you, if you’ve got cold feet, you came to the wrong girl,” I said as I reached into the back of my car and grabbed for my dress bag, which was the size of three women. Peach and her damn crinoline. In the other arm, I balanced my shoe box and the matching clutch, wrapped in plastic by a fastidious and paranoid Eleanor Cotton. “I’ve got eighteen things to do and three seconds in which to do them, brother, so there’s no time for sensitive hand-holding. You’re going through with this wedding if I have to hog-tie you to—”
    And then I straightened up and saw Leo stepping out of Nick’s truck. My throat constricted in surprise, and regret. Since the Anwei Xing only lasted twelve hours and I didn’t want to be Cinderella on the clock, I’d planned on taking it right before the ceremony. It didn’t even occur to me that Leo might show up at my house first.
    Jerk.
    “Is Nick okay?” I said, my voice cracking. Damnit, damnit, damnit. He was—had been, I mean—an almost-priest. Didn’t he realize how unkind it was to ambush a person?
    “Nick’s great,” he said, tentatively stepping closer, his eyes locked on mine. “I’ve never seen him so happy.”
    “Great.” I broke the eye contact and started toward my front door. “Then whatever it is can wait until the wedding’s over.”
    “My plane takes off tonight, after the reception.”
    I worked hard not to look back at him, although I felt his pull on me, and I moved slower than I should have.
    “Stacy…” I could hear his footsteps as he came up behind me. I had my hand on the screen door handle, my keys were out … but I still stopped.
    Why did I stop?
    “I love you,” he said quietly, and I wanted to cry. Instead, I leaned forward and banged my head lightly on the side of the ’Bago. So close. If I had just taken the stupid drops … if I had just gotten inside faster … if I had just …
    But it didn’t matter, because I hadn’t and now the emotion was roiling inside, making me woozy. By the time I turned around to look at him, it was already too late. I was laid open, and getting more and more pissed about it as the seconds ticked by.
    “Did you hear me?” he asked.
    “Yeah,” I said, injecting as much steel into my tone as I could, hoping it would cut him. “I heard you.”
    “Stacy, I mean it. I still love you. I never stopped.”
    I narrowed my eyes. “Do you have a death wish or something?”
    His Adam’s apple shifted as he swallowed, but other than that, there was no sign of fear or weakness in him. He was ready to take whatever I gave him, and even though I wanted to kill him, part of me respected that.
    “No,” he said simply.
    “You left me,” I said, advancing down the steps. He didn’t move, so I had to move around him, and then I was looking up at him, but it didn’t matter. I had the fury. I had the power. “You left me.”
    “I know. I’m sorry.”
    “You’re sorry ? Are you kidding?”
    “No.” He stood calmly, feet braced, ready to face the storm he’d created.
    “You slept with someone else, then left me to become a priest, you son of a bitch!”
    “I remember,” he said. “I was there.”
    I advanced on him, my hands shaking. “No, you weren’t. You ran away like a coward and hid behind the skirts of the church. You knew what we had, what we were, and you threw it away.”
    He met my eyes solidly. “I did. I know.”
    “And now, you’re back for … what? Forgiveness?”
    He shook his head. “I’m back for whatever you’ll give me. You can hate me if you want, and I won’t hold it against you, but I’m here now, and I have to tell you