Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) by Lyssa Kay Adams

            She kept walking. “I have to go. I have to do this. They might know where Jack is. Don’t you understand?”

            “I can’t let you.”

            “It is not your decision.”

            “Anna.” He grabbed her arm and whipped her around, tugging her close to his body. “Don’t do this to me. Please.”

            His eyes held hers before dipping to stare longingly at her lips. He lowered his mouth to hers in an almost punishing kiss. She clung to the front of his shirt and let him plunder her mouth, his thumbs digging into her jaw and his fingers pressed against the side of her head. He pulled back just enough to steal her gaze.

            She stared at the long road ahead before turning back to him. “Tony,” she whispered. “I have to go.”

            Anna backed away from him with shaky, stumbling steps. She walked away, taking with her the sun and the moon and the tides and the gravity that had become his life force.

            “Anna,” he pleaded.

            “Please, Tony. Don’t make this harder.”

            “Anna, I love you.”

            Her footsteps faltered.

            “I love you, and you don’t have to do this. Stay with me. Stay with me.”

            Suddenly, she was in his arms. “I love you too. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR





“Look, I know things are all hot and happy in your house these days, but you can’t end the book this way.”

            Vlad popped a gluten-free cracker in his mouth as he looked up from his notes the next afternoon at Colton’s. While he and the Bros plotted out the rest of the book, Elena was meeting the Loners at Alexis’s café to talk about cats and Russian tea cakes or something. Then they would join the guys to watch the next Stanley Cup game.

            Vlad had been feeling pretty good about life and the book so far, until now. “Why not?”

            Mack twisted off the top of a beer. “Because there’s no conflict. She just up and decides that she’s going to stay with Tony because he asks her to? It’s not very satisfying.”

            “They end up together. How is that not satisfying?”

            “Because they haven’t really earned their happy ever after,” Malcolm said.

            Mack pointed with his beer. “Thank you. Yes. You ever get to the end of a book where they end up together without having to overcome any significant obstacles? It sucks. You feel cheated.”

            Malcolm reached for the bag of crackers, tossed one in his mouth, and immediately spit it out. “This tastes like an Amazon box.”

            Vlad bristled. “They have faced a ton of obstacles. They’ve been nearly shot, and they were chased by the SS, and—”

            Del shook his head. “Those are external problems, man. External obstacles. You have to make them face their internal fears before they can truly have a happy ending.” He reached for the crackers. “Let me try one.”

            “It’s your taste buds,” Malcolm warned.

            Del took a bite and spit it out. “I’d rather shit my pants.”

            “No, you wouldn’t,” Vlad snapped. “It is not funny when it is your pants you are shitting.”

            “It’s not like I’d shit someone else’s pants.”

            Noah kicked his feet up on a leather ottoman in front of his chair. “I know I’m the newest member of the group and all and I still don’t know much, but I concur with everyone else. I want to see Tony and Anna have to dig deep one last time.”

            “Not every book has to have some big, dramatic all is lost moment,” Vlad pouted.

            Gavin piped in. “But every book needs a last push to the end that forces a character to have a final epiphany that helps themselves see clearly for the first time.”

            Vlad crossed his arms and scowled. “So you’re saying she shouldn’t stay with Tony? She should leave him and go find Jack?”