Staci Stallings – Romantic Excerpt – Part 3 of 3

Shannon here: Contemporary romance author, Staci Stallings shares an excerpt from her book: Lucky. Comment on any post dated May 9th – 13th for a chance to win your choice of three of Staci’s books, including Lucky. Deadline: May 13th, 11:59 PM central time. Here’s Staci:

Excerpt from Lucky by Staci Stallings

The noise at Kalin’s feet yanked his attention from his thoughts.  However, with his gaze still turned back to the reception hall, he nearly tripped over the sobbing figure huddled in the darkness next to the car.
“Oh, m…!” He stopped short, nearly losing his balance. In the next heartbeat fear and concern overtook him. “What happened? Are you all right?” He stood for a moment, assessing, then bent down to see what was wrong. When he pieced enough images together, he realized who it was and his problems slammed to a stop. “Good grief! What happened? Are you all right? Did you fall?”
He touched her arms to make sure she was still alive. “Good grief, you’re freezing.” With that, he ripped off his jacket and put it around her. One second longer and he said, “Come on. Let’s go inside.”
“No!” The word cut the night air. Her gaze drilled into his, pleading and wild. “I’m not going back.”
The panic in her voice did nothing to help. Dear God, I need your help! “Okay. At least tell me if you’re all right.”
It was the most absurd question Danae had ever heard, but in it she heard his concern and distress.
“If I said, ‘Yes,’ would you believe me?” she asked, tilting her head as if it weighed a million pounds.
“No,” he said, not seeing the humor. “Why you’re sitting out here alone in the mud?”
Her smile was forced when she wiped her nose with her hand. “Oh, lots of reasons.”
His features fell in understanding. “You’re drunk,” he said with no humor in his voice.
She only snorted. “I wish. Maybe then I wouldn’t remember my boyfriend making out with the maid of honor.”
That statement crashed into him. After a second, he slowly spun around to sit on the ground beside her, his back on the cold car door. “So, have you been out here long?”
Her head was swimming from the tears and the pain. “Long enough. You?”
“Just got here.” He looked  over at her. “But I should’ve come sooner.”
She pulled her head down nodding. “I’ll tell you, it was quite a show.”
“I can imagine. So, you found them out here then?”
She sniffed that image away and wiped her nose with her wrist. “No, over in the house. This is how far I got before I stopped.” She sniffed again.  The sounds of someone walking to their car halted the conversation.
Her golden-headed savior, who at the moment could’ve been an angel, held up his index finger to keep her quiet. She didn’t talk and hardly took a breath until the car left. When it was gone, he looked back at her.
“I’m Kalin by the way. Kalin Lane.” He extended a hand to her.
With the last of her strength she reached from the warmth of his jacket to his hand. “Danae Scott.” She sniffed again. She knew she looked a fright but she didn’t care. It was too much work to care.
“So, Danae Scott, were you planning to sit out here in the mud all night or did you have other arrangements?” he asked, not grasping the whole situation.
Her shrug barely moved the jacket. “Hadn’t thought about it.” She exhaled slowly, hoping she wouldn’t start crying. “I don’t really have much of a way to go anywhere.”
He looked at her. “Why not?”
“I came with him this morning, so, unless I hijack his car, I’m on my own.” The words ‘On my own’ crushed her heart. She looked down fighting not to cry. However, that didn’t work. Tears and pain ripped through her as she fought to forget. All that was there was new, raw emotion.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Hey.” His arm came around her shoulders. She didn’t have the energy to keep from collapsing into him.
“I was so stupid.” She shook her head, saying the words through her tears. “I was just so stupid.”
“Shh,” he whispered. “No, he’s the stupid one. Don’t do that to yourself.”
She sniffed again. “I should’ve just gone…”
Confusion slipped over Kalin’s features. “Gone where?”
Her anger now turned inward. “He asked me to go… to the house with him, but I didn’t.”
Fury crashed through Kalin. He looked at her in his arms and knew that this boy was too stupid to appreciate what he had. “No, you shouldn’t have to give up your values for someone to love you. Real love doesn’t work like that.”
For a second her gaze grabbed his, but she let her head fall again after a second.
“Don’t do that to yourself, Danae. Don’t give up yourself to make him happy. All you’ll do is make yourself miserable.”
About the book: Kalin Lane had his dream in hand. Then, on the cusp of mega-stardom, Kalin’s world crashed down around him in a hail of stupid choices. Five years later, Kalin is back, reaching for his dream once again; however, time hasn’t erased his past. Will the lessons of the past be enough to save him from himself this time around? Danae Scott thought she was headed toward the future every girl wants. However, in one night that belief is ripped into unrecognizable shreads. Devastated and confused, Danae is an anguished mess when an angel trips over her. Does this angel have the answers she didn’t even know she needed?One man,One woman,One night that changes everything.
About Staci: A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from.  Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again.  Every title is a new adventure!  That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading.  Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe every week with her various Internet endeavors including: Books In Print, Kindle, & free on Spirit Light Works http://stacistallings.wordpress.com/, Spirit Light Books–The Blog http://spiritlightbooks.wordpress.com/, and
http://www.stacistallings.com.
Come back May 16th for Historical Romance novelist, Melanie Dickerson.