Runaway Bride

‘Kiss me first while I think about it.’ Bella had loved Damon’s kisses, hadn’t been able to get enough of them. Already she’d unbuckled her seat belt and was edging closer, and his lips were soft and sexy and warm.

He was the most amazing kisser. The instant their lips met, the world had become theirs. Their kiss … their mouths touching, their lips pressing, exploring, parting …

The kiss grew hotter and hotter and it took the honking of a horn from a passing truck to drag them apart.

Bella was smiling and more than a little breathless. ‘Okay, you’re on. Let’s hit the road.’

Taking risks had been so easy. Back then.

The memory caused a bittersweet pang to tighten like a lasso around her heart. Without warning, she was swamped by a dark wave of depression.

She told herself it was aftershock, a reaction to the snowballing weirdness of her morning. For the past few weeks she’d been focused on her wedding, on gowns and flowers and reception menus, and she’d known exactly what was happening with the rest of her life. She was going to marry her oldest friend and neighbour, Kent Rigby. She would be a farmer’s wife, living on Willara Downs next door to her father’s farm.

Bella had been so certain of this—okay, yes, so resigned to this—that she’d abandoned her career in Brisbane.

This morning, after the decision to call the wedding off, she’d felt instant relief. Now, however, the relief was fading and she was facing the blankness of her future. No job, no plans. Just a gaping black hole. She felt as if she’d been sleepwalking and had woken to find herself directionless and alone, in the middle of a vast, empty desert.

Seeing Damon again made everything worse, stirring all kinds of dangerous memories. He reminded her of all the exciting things she’d once planned for her life, none of which had eventuated.

She’d played it safe. And where had that left her?

Jobless, partnerless, with no plans and nothing to do.

Even the task of calling off the wedding had been taken on by Kent. He’d insisted on ringing their guests, and he was asking Zoe, her bridesmaid, to help with the caterers and the hire people.

Now, her grandfather was off having some crazy, reckless adventure with Violet, and Damon was chasing after him.

And Bella would be left at home feeling flat and empty, overcome by a sense of anticlimax. Or she would be dealing with endless questions and sympathetic and curious glances from every busybody in the district.

The news of the wedding cancellation would spread like a bushfire. Country towns were notorious gossip machines.

Damon turned off the main road onto the dirt track that led to her father’s dilapidated farmhouse, and Bella sat up straighter, suddenly struck by a dazzlingly brilliant idea. ‘I think I should go, too,’ she said.

Damon frowned. ‘What do you mean? Go where?’

‘I should go to look for Paddy and Violet, as well as you. You can’t stop in every town. I can check out the places you miss. I can get another hire car.’ She pointed towards the sky. ‘With a roof.’

It was the ideal diversion, exactly what she needed. Apart from her genuine concern for their grandparents, the trip offered a perfect excuse to get out of Willara for the next few days.

There was, however, a longish pause before Damon responded. ‘Brilliant idea,’ he said at last. ‘I’m sure your fiancé won’t mind in the least if you go dashing up the highway.’ He sent her a strange, mirthless smile. ‘As long as you’re back in time to marry him on Saturday.’

Bella gulped, remembering the downside to her brilliant idea. She could no longer wriggle out of confessing the truth about the wedding to Damon. ‘You’re right,’ she said nervously. ‘Kent won’t mind.’

‘Bella, don’t be an idiot. Of course he’ll mind. He’ll be frantic. You don’t have time to chase all over Queensland. You’re a bride about to be married.’

‘Actually …’ Deep breath. ‘I’m not.’

To her dismay, Damon slammed on the brakes. They weren’t at the homestead yet, but clearly this news took priority. He turned to her, trapping her in an angry silver glare. ‘I’m sorry.’ Now he spoke very quietly. ‘You’re not making sense.’

Oh, help. It shouldn’t be so hard to tell Damon. He was nothing to her now. He’d been gone for ten years and in that time they’d both changed. So much. Bella couldn’t begin to imagine all the things he must have seen and done since he’d left Australia. They were light-years from the high-school kids who’d fooled around together.

So why did talking to him feel so very different from talking to any of her other old schoolfriends?

‘The wedding,’ she began, and then to her horror a small sound like a hiccup erupted from her throat. ‘It—it’s not happening.’

Damon’s eyes pierced her. ‘What’s going on, Bella?’

She gulped to swallow the huge lump in her throat. ‘Kent and I decided this morning. We’re not getting married.’

Several geological eras seemed to pass before Damon finally reacted. Then he rubbed at his temple as if he had a headache. ‘Did you—ah—say this was a mutual decision?’

‘Yes.’ Bella’s voice was choked. ‘But if you want explanations, I’m not really in the mood to give them right now.’ There was no way she could explain to this man about her and Kent’s lack of sparks.

‘No, of course you don’t have to explain,’ he said. ‘I’m not asking you to.’

That was a relief. She’d been dreading his probing questions—he’d had so much practice as an investigative journalist.

Damon frowned. ‘The last thing you need is this extra worry about your grandfather.’ He was apparently over his shock and back to normal. ‘It’s lousy timing.’

‘You’re not wrong.’ Bella forced a laugh to lighten the tension inside her. ‘You’d think our elders could be more considerate.’

At this, Damon actually smiled, and Bella decided to capitalise on his good humour.

‘So you can see why I’d welcome a project like trying to find Paddy.’

Almost immediately, he was shaking his head.

‘I’m as personally involved as you are, Damon. I’m worried about Paddy, and … to be honest, I’d like a few days’ escape from Willara. You know what the gossip in this town is like.’

‘But it’s such an overkill. Two cars, two lots of petrol and accommodation …’ Damon’s voice trailed off and he drew a sharp breath, as if he’d realised the implications of his words.

Bella had realised it, too.

It might have been unintentional, but he’d more or less suggested that it made sense for them to travel together.

Despite the warm summer’s morning, she shivered. She’d had no intention of joining Damon on a road trip. For all kinds of reasons.

‘It actually makes a crazy kind of sense, doesn’t it?’ he said quietly.

‘What does?’ she asked, playing dumb.

‘That we should travel together.’

Her heart leapt like a wild creature unexpectedly caught in a trap. ‘In this?’

‘You’ve seen for yourself, it’s a perfectly comfortable car.’

‘But I can’t come with you.’