Page 127 of Elf-ish

“You are the angel.”

“No angel,” I whisper.

“Yes. An angel who begged me not to leave her.” He pauses as his brows lift.

I dig harder at my lip.

“You brought me back.”

“Back from what?”

Jude watches me for a long moment before he laughs. The sound abrupt and sharp. Then he laughs harder.

“Oh my God, it’s been you all along.” His hands cup my jaw. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His expression returns to a pensive gaze. The same vulnerable one he gave me when he asked me not to leave ever again.

“Transference, like I told you. I didn’t want you to think you’d fallen for me under a false pretense. Or some sense of obligation.”

He chuckles while shaking his head, then presses his forehead against mine. “Angelica.” He exhales my name again. The sound once more like relief. “No obligation. No false pretense. Only love.”

Then, he kisses me, and as our lips meet, I melt beneath him. The warmth of his mouth. The tenderness of his hands. The desire in his taste.

“Because I’ve fallen. Fallen hard and fast and so deeply in love with you, angel,” Jude whispers against my mouth.

The wind knocks out of me. “Really?” I whisper, emotion clogging my throat.

“Really,” Jude says, his twitch of a smile no longer present. Only a blinding grin, emphasizing that apostrophe at the corner of his mouth.

“I love you, too.”

Jude’s smile grows even wider before his mouth is on mine again. We kiss like we have all day. A snow day. A holiday.

Suddenly, Jude’s front door flies open behind him.

“Gertrude,” I hear Christmas groan.

“Just capturing a moment,” Gertie says.

“I want every moment with you,” Jude mutters against my lips, ignoring my great aunt behind him. “Strings attached. No . . . ribbons. And bows. I want to wrap you up and unwrap you and keep you all the same.”

I chuckle against his mouth, giddy with the thought of him tying me up, but even more ecstatic that he wants to keep me like I want to keep him.

“Aunt Angelica is making out in the hallway,” a small boy’s voice announces behind Jude, but we don’t stop smiling at one another.

“Bunch of horn dogs, Maggie,” Gertie tsks, but I can hear the approval in her voice.

“Want to meet my family?” Jude asks me.

“Your family is here?”

Jude nods. “They’re staging an intervention.”

“I’m so sorry. We can go. I can round up my clan and—”

Jude covers my lips with one single finger. “Why are you here?”

“I didn’t want you to be alone. I don’t want you to ever feel alone again.” I will be here for him. Me, and my family, and apparently, his.

“You gave me an angel for my pocket, but I want the real Angelica by my side.”