Christine Rimmer - Garrett Bravo's Runaway Bride

He prompted, “And then?”

“And then I just grabbed my purse off the vanity table and sprinted out the back door. The door opened on the parking lot and I’d made my dad drive me in my car for the ride to the church.” A low, sad chuckle escaped her. “Okay. I confess, I may have done a little planning, after all. Because I had a spare set of keys in my purse. I jumped in my BMW and took off with no plan after that whatsoever and nowhere in particular to go.” She paused for another sip of beer.

When she settled back again, she continued. “Eventually I got out on the highway. I took an off-ramp. I saw the sign to Moosejaw Mountain. I took that turn. It’s one twisty road getting up here, Garrett, but my 750i handled like a dream. I would still have that car if some idiot in a green pickup hadn’t come barreling down as I was going up. Ran me right over the side of the road and into a very steep ravine.”

“My God.” Had she been knocked out, then? He probably shouldn’t have given her that beer.

She raised the beer in question toward the distant moon and took another swallow. “I admit, it was scary while it was happening.”

“Were you knocked unconscious?”

“No. But the airbags deployed and somehow, I got smacked in the eye. When the car finally stopped rolling, I couldn’t get the door open. And that, along with everything else—how messed up my life had gotten, the way I’d run out on my wedding that never should have been happening in the first place—well, it all just made me tired. So I took a nap.”

“A nap,” he echoed disbelievingly. “In a wrecked car at the bottom of a ravine?”

“That’s right.” She was defiant. “I closed my eyes and went to sleep—and you should see the way you’re looking at me. Same way my parents do. Like you wonder how much brain damage I’ve sustained. And you don’t even know about the coma.”

He gulped. “There’s a coma?”

She waved a dismissing hand. “That was six years ago. Yeah, there are scars. But I’m fully recovered—well, I mean, as much as anyone can recover from an experience like that. Anyhoo, back to the ravine. Whoever was driving that green pickup didn’t bother to stop or call for help, so when I finally decided I really had to make the effort to get out of the car and get back up to the road, I was on my own.”

“That driver should be arrested. Did you get a plate number?”

She gave him a look of great patience. “Sorry, Garrett. I was kind of busy trying to keep from rolling off the side of the road. And then I did roll off the road. And then I just gave up for a while and took a nap. When I decided to get moving again, it took me a long time to get the car door open. And scrambling up out of there? That’s where most of these scratches and bruises came from. It was not the most fun I ever had, believe me. But I finally got back up to the road. I stood there and thought, down or up? I’d already been down, so I started climbing. I just kept walking until I got here.”

“We should be calling the police on that guy in the pickup. Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime.”

“Too bad your phone doesn’t work.” She didn’t sound the least regretful.

He tried one more time to get through to her. “If you’d just get in the Jeep, we could—”

“Uh-uh. I really am okay, Garrett. And I like it here. I’m free at last and I’m not going anywhere until I’m ready to go. No one runs my life but me. Not ever again.” She offered another toast with her beer can. “From this day forward, I decide where I go and when I’m leaving. Okay, I didn’t handle my escape very well. Yes, I ran away like I always do. I left Charles at the altar and I’m sorry about that.”

“Charles is your fiancé?”

“Was my fiancé. Charles and I grew up together. His parents and my parents are good friends. He and I are both vice presidents at my family’s company, WellWay Naturals.”

Garrett had heard of WellWay. Their products were in all the big grocery stores. “The vitamin company?”

She nodded. “Vitamins, supplements and skin care products. Charles has been after me for years to marry him. I kept telling him no. Eventually, though, he wore me down. I messed up, I know it. I handled the whole thing really badly, but at least I didn’t marry him, and someday he’ll thank me.” She blew out a weary breath. “And yes, I ran away again. But this time, I own it. This time, I’m laying claim to my future. I’m going forward now, not back.”

“Forward to...?”

“When I figure that out, you’ll be the first to know.” She drank, plunked the empty can on the cooler between them and granted him another gorgeous smile. “So then.” She grabbed the ice again and reapplied it to her eye. “You know my story. What brings you to this beautiful neck of the woods, Garrett?”

Is she actually out of her mind? he wondered. Could be. But for some reason, he liked her. He went ahead and told her the embarrassing truth. “I’m kind of hiding out.”

“I can relate. Who are you hiding from?”

“My mother.”

“What did she do to you?”

“It’s what she’s trying to do. The past few years, she’s been obsessed with seeing me and my sisters and brothers happily married. Nell and I are the only ones still single. Even my mother knows better than to try to tell Nellie what to do. So lately Ma’s been pestering me.”

“Pestering you, how?”

“Demanding I come see her and then browbeating me when I get there about how it’s time I found love and happiness at last. Introducing me to very nice women I don’t want to go out with. Lecturing me about ‘trying again’ every chance she gets.”

“Again?”

“I was married. Years ago. It didn’t work out. I suck at relationships.” Cami chuckled. He shot her a frown. “That’s funny?”

“It’s just the way you said it...”

“What way?”

“Really fast, like you wanted to get it over with and you didn’t want me to ask you any questions about it.”

“I did. And I don’t.”

“Duly noted.” She poked at her black eye, wincing a little, and then iced it some more. Her ring finger was bare.

“You lost your ring.”

She shook her head. “Before I left the church parking lot, I took it off and stuck it in the glove box. I’m guessing it’s still there. Go on, about your mother and your needing to get away?”

He shrugged. “Long story short, I’m kind of a workaholic and I needed a break from everything, my mother most of all. So I’m here where my mother would not be caught dead—roughing it in a one-room cabin on top of a mountain. And she can’t even call me because there’s no cell service.”

Cami clucked her tongue, chiding him. “You seem way too pleased with yourself when you say that.”

“I kind of am. Unfortunately, to appease her, I did promise her I’d have dinner with her the night I get back to town. But I’ll deal with that when it happens. For now, Ma’s off my back and I’m up here in the great wide-open, taking a breather, trying to figure out what to change up to get more out of life.”

“Well, Garrett. What do you know? We have stuff in common.”

For the first time since she’d materialized out of nowhere, he allowed himself to laugh. “I guess we do.”

“And I sure am glad you were here.” Cami was picking bits of crushed, dried leaves out of her hair with her free hand.

“You look tired.” At his softly spoken words, she made a cute humming sound that might have been agreement. He asked in a coaxing tone, “You ever gonna let me patch you up a little?”

Cami worked another leaf free of her tangled hair. He accepted that she wouldn’t answer. But then she did. “I would kill for a bath about now.”