One Last Kiss

RIAN

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Rian Kerry, and I’m in huge trouble.

This is how it happened: I had a crush. You know those teenage crushes, which I’m sure you’ve all experienced, too. It was that kind of crush that makes your knees tremble, that makes you blush violently and stammer when you’re with that person. One of those crushes that you assume you’ll just grow out of, the way the seasons change.

The problem is that my crush didn’t go anywhere. Actually, it only got worse, transforming into something absurd and unbearable, which no one could seem to understand.

Especially not him.

Because he’s off-limits. He’s barricaded himself within his walls, from a sense of fear and guilt. He’s locked up his heart forever, and seems to have no intention of letting anyone in ever again.

My friends, Jordan, Anya, and Holly, say that he just needs a little push. They say that he needs to learn to believe again.

But I don’t think he’ll ever be ready, because he simply doesn’t want to be.

He doesn’t want to believe.

Not in something like us.


PARKER

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Parker Hayes, and I’m an idiot.

Yep, you heard me right. I’m a real idiot. And, I swear, that’s putting it lightly.

But I’m a lot of other things, too. I’m a fireman, and a single father to two cheeky, hyperactive six-year-old twins. I’m a brother to Tyler, another fireman – and another idiot – who always seems to stick his nose into my business. I’m a kind-of friend to Niall, yet another idiot with nothing to do but barge into my life, uninvited.

Let’s get back to the point, here: the reason I’m an idiot.

Well, it’s pretty simple. I’ve lost my mind. Literally. It happened again. I fell for it. With my head, with my body, and with the heart I was sure I’d never be able to piece back together after another inevitable disaster.

The problem is that she’s not like the others.

She bakes cakes with my daughters, laughs with them, and shows them her magic bag. They’re crazy about her.

And so am I.

And now she knows it, and I know it, and everyone around us knows it. But I can’t take that step. I can’t let everything go to start over.

I can’t live through this again – because this time, I won’t be left standing.

Not if she’s the one to break my heart.


Each book in the Love At Last Series is standalone:


- Last Call

- About Last Night

- One Last Kiss

- The Last One