Page 1 of Ice Me Out

Chapter1

Runaway Bride

Bex

All eyes are on me.

I guess if I was hoping to fly under the radar, I should have probably stopped somewhere to change out of my wedding dress.

When the door of the bar closes behind me, every single person inside turns to look at me.

There’s music in the bar, but all I can hear is the deafening noise of my heartbeat in my ears.

I don’t even blame everyone for looking at me that way. I look like a giant meringue in the over the top, puffy white dress. Thank fuck I had the sense to rip the veil off of my tiara when I snuck out of the church and boarded a cab from Bridgeport to Star Cove.

The good thing with bar goers is that their attention span tends to get shorter with every drink they have.

I let myself exhale, willing to calm my frayed nerves, when that attention returns to their glasses and bottles, their friends, and their conversations.

My eyes sweep the long room. There’s no sign of him. I ignore the way my mouth waters at the scent of fried food that hit me the second I came through the door, and walk to the long wooden bar on the opposite end of the room.

A brunette woman in a pink and blue checkered flannel shirt that's open over a white tank top is filling a glass with draft beer behind the bar. “Can I help you?” she smiles.

There are a few people waiting to be served, but I guess curiosity has the best of her. None of the people waiting for a drink complain anyway, so I relax just a fraction.

“Uh, I’m looking for Luke Harper.” I say, looking around the bar again.

The bartender smiles. “I saw him earlier. He’s outside with his teammates. If you go out from there, they should be on the pier.”

“Thank you.” I’m so grateful I could hug her.

The sprawling establishment’s back door leads directly out to the busiest section of Star Cove’s pier.

A cordoned area with high top tables clearly belongs to the bar, but the punters are partying all over the place.

I spot several stands lined all the way to the end where a tall Ferris Wheel dominates the view at the end of the pier.

Jeez, it’s crowded tonight. Finding Luke isn’t going to be easy.

But there’s a bright side to the fact that I stick out like a sore thumb in the monstrosity I’m wearing.

My brother spots me immediately. “Hey Bex,” he waves from a table at the end of the cordoned area. “Over here.”

I run toward him—well, I move as fast as humanly possible in this huge dress—I haven’t seen Luke for over three years. I’m surprised he actually even answered my text.

“Hey.” I say softly when I reach his table.

My first instinct would be to throw myself into his arms, but I don’t do it.

Luke’s green eyes take me in for a long second. If I had been in his shoes, I would have ignored my text.

But besides being the extrovert between us, Luke is also the smart twin.

“Come here.” He opens his arms, and this time I don’t resist the urge to walk into his embrace.

He holds me against his wide, muscular chest. I can hear his heart beating as fast as mine as he squeezes me tight.

“I thought I would never see you again, Bexie-Boo.”