Bride on the Run

by Catherine Mann

  Because there was no denying the truth.

  He’d fallen hard for Valerie.

  Chapter Eleven

  ‡

  Root, root, root for the home team…, a stadium full of people sang as the seventh inning stretch got underway that night.

  Valerie tried to sing along, especially since her father brought the full force of his tenor to the tune, clearly having a great time from their seats just above the Stars’ dugout.

  Boone had gotten him tickets one row down from the players’ wives’ section, which hadn’t been completely necessary since the wives’ section wasn’t full and he could have simply sat with them, but Valerie’s dad had remarked how much nicer it was to have a man’s seat.

  She hadn’t even rolled her eyes – as he’d surely expected her to do – because she was distracted and heartsick over how things had fallen apart with Boone. She’d been upset with him back in Texas when she’d heard about his plan to delay falling in love. But now she’d gone on to hurt him more by drawing unwanted public attention to their relationship with her criminal ties and her ability to attract negative media.

  Plus, he’d looked so upset about the go-kit even though he hadn’t confronted her directly. He just… left.

  Which was no more than she deserved. It was just what she’d imagined should happen between them. But, as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” came to a close, she had to admit that a secret, wishful part of her heart had hoped for something more. That they’d talk, maybe. Find a way to see each other again that could build on what they had.

  Or that he’d realize she was a better woman than the Dimitri legacy suggested and that he didn’t want to wait until he was forty to be with her.

  Oh, God, she was such an idiot. A romantic, fluff-head idiot and Serena should kick her butt for doing this to herself. Except that even her smart, savvy Serena side liked him, too. No wait… newsflash, Serena loved him.

  Every damn part of Valerie loved Boone.

  “There’s the kiss-cam!” Valerie’s father pointed to the jumbo screen flashing images of couples around the ball park. “You see, Val? Baseball isn’t all about just hits and outs. At heart, we’re just big, sappy romantics, too.”

  He was trying to tease a smile out of her, she knew, so she let him. But when an old couple in matching Miami Suns t-shirts was caught on the kiss-cam, she found herself blinking back tears as the gray-haired gentleman doffed his cap and planted a wet one on his laughing wife.

  Why couldn’t she have that? She’d tried so hard, seeing love where it wasn’t with Erik and then, with Boone, she’d seen love with a man who wasn’t ready for it.

  Her heart would be too battered for marriage and a family if she ever found love again. Which she wouldn’t, since she only wanted to be with Boone.

  “Oh. My. God.” Melanie Webb Hollis’s hand clasped Valerie’s shoulder from her seat behind her. “Val, look.”

  Valerie looked up at her friend and followed her pointing finger toward the jumbo screen.

  A message scrolled across the digital board as red dancing hearts did a can-can in an animated scrawl.

  “Valerie Dimitri,” she read aloud, the white letters popping against a vibrant pink backdrop.

  Her father hooted and whistled. “That’s my girl!” he shouted to anyone who would listen, which seemed so strange after all the years they’d spent in hiding.

  “Will. You,” Melanie took over reading the words out loud.

  Valerie held her breath. What on earth?

  Her gaze fixed on that graphic as the words zipped around the digital screen in a crazy path.

  The other players’ wives and girlfriends who’d made the trip joined in the game as the next word appeared on screen.

  “Marry.” The women erupted in squeals as they waited for the next word and when it came, they screamed, “Me!” The whole stadium went nuts as an animated box with a wedding ring flashed on the screen.

  A photo of Valerie’s surprised face went onto the jumbo screen next, and somehow, it appeared with a big, red heart circled around it.

  Followed by Boone’s face down in the dugout below her. With a red heart drawn around it.

  “Marry Me!” flashed a few more times while even the Miami fans cheered for the visiting third baseman’s unlikely proposal.

  Boone had just put his heart on the line in the most public way possible, even after his heart, his pride, and his image had taken a beating just two months ago.

  Could he have made a declaration any clearer?

  “Go on, baby girl!” Her dad was shouting at her, shoving her to her feet. “Are you going to give that man a kiss or leave him waiting two more innings?”

  Wobbling as much as she was standing, Valerie looked down to the end of the dugout where Boone had found a ledge to step up so he could peer into the stands. He watched her as she made her way down toward him on jelly-knees, her heart so full of love she hardly knew what to do with it all.

  “I love you, Valerie,” he said as she neared, looking so incredibly handsome in his travel whites and his Stars cap. “I know I put you on the spot, but I wanted—”

  When she reached him, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed the words right out of his mouth. The crowd went wild. The Miami fans might not root for the Stars, but apparently they all rooted on happily-ever-afters. The Stars team members whistled and pounded their bats on the dugout roof, making an unholy racket as they made their approval known.

  “Meet me after the game,” Boone told her.

  “Yes. And I’m burning the go-kit,” she promised. “Unless you think I might need it for a honeymoon?”

  “Better keep it. I like your adventurous side.” He kissed her once more. “As long as you run with me, we’re going to be very happy.”

  He ducked back into the dugout since the game had to go on.

  Valerie’s life though, had changed forever.

  As she walked back up into the seats, Melanie and the other women she’d travelled with enveloped her in a group hug. Even Deborah, the cranky woman who’d made her sit down when her boyfriend was up to bat, shrieked her congratulations while adjusting the big scarf she wore to hide the spot on her head where the obsessive fan had torn out her hair.

  And even among the gaggle of squealy females, her father stuck by her side, his strong, silent presence waiting for his turn to congratulate her. She sensed it because she knew him well.

  “I like this one, Val,” he told her as they settled in to watch the rest of the game together. “This Boone is a keeper.”

  “You like him, Daddy?” She squeezed his arm, hardly believing what Boone had done.

  “I’m not going to lie. I like him best today for how he throws a punch.” Her father leaned over and kissed her temple. “But when you think about how much money the guy’s hand is worth in this game… well, I also really like that he put you first, and screw the money and the hand.”

  Her heart squeezed tight. Only a father would think that way. But she loved him for it.

  “I think he proposed because he knew I was scared he didn’t want a family.” She worried about that just a little, despite all the happiness of the moment. “What if he did it just to keep me?”

  “First of all, would that be such a bad thing?” Her father cupped her face. “I would have done anything your mother said to keep her by my side, baby. Anything. And I would do it all again.”

  Her eyes teared up. “I really love him,” she admitted.

  “The old man has a good feeling he’s gone on you too, sweetheart.”

  “You think so?” She swiped away happy tears.

  “I know so.” He propped his feet up on the empty seat in front of him. “And I’ll tell you what we really need is a wedding. A good, old-fashioned, knot-tying where no one runs and everyone lives happily ever after.”

  Her mind already churning with what her wedding could be like – a wedding she planned that wasn’t planned for her. Valerie daydreamed her way stra
ight through to the last out of the game. She floated through the congratulations of fans who’d been seated in her section. And then she walked on air all the way down to the wives’ room with Melanie to wait for Boone.

  When she spotted him, he motioned for her to follow him. He took her down a corridor and into an empty little office. With a wink at a janitor out in the hallway, he closed the door behind them, giving them privacy for a few minutes.

  “Was that a moment of temporary insanity?” she asked teasingly, “or did you truly propose to me in front of thirty-four thousand fans?”

  “I am completely in my right mind,” he assured her, his hands sliding around her waist and pulling her close. “I kept thinking you were spot-on about not being able to plan for love. And that it just happens. I knew it happened for me. With you. And I wanted some way so that you knew, beyond all doubt, I was serious about you.”

  She shook her head, dazed with what he’d just said. “Remind me never to question your level of commitment.”

  “I want the same things you want. A family. A real home. Hell, I want them so bad I was willing to put it off for half a lifetime to be sure I got it right.” He frowned. “But it turned out that what I really needed was for you to show me how I was going about it all wrong.”

  “Boone.” She stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “We can have a long engagement if you want. Give it time—”

  “I don’t need time.” He stopped himself. “Okay. Well, other than the fact that we can’t get married until the off-season, because—”

  She waved away his concern. “Melanie already made me insert the possible months in my calendar. She started a Pinterest page for my wedding plan during the ninth inning.”

  “Oh she did?” Boone grinned.

  “And your ex-girlfriend already texted her congratulations and invited us to share our nuptials on an episode of her family’s reality show.”

  “Did you tell her no, no, and hell no?” He threaded his fingers through her hair at the base of her scalp, igniting shivery sensations all up and down her spine.

  “Not yet. I was having too much fun reading her ideas for episode titles.” She smoothed her palms up his chest, thinking now she had the right to touch him like this whenever she wanted. For the rest of her life. “What do you think of ‘A Bride for Keeps’?” She kissed him. “Or ‘Finally a Bride’?”

  “We’re so not getting married on a TV show.” He kissed her back. Slowly. Thoroughly. “But if we did, we’d call it, ‘My One and Only Bride.’”

  She opened her eyes, expecting to see a teasing smile. But he looked down on her with so much love in his gaze, she knew she’d found her home. Her future.

  Her forever.

  Epilogue

  ‡

  Eight months later

  Valerie Dimitri walked down a sandy aisle in flip flops.

  They were bridal flip flops, with high platform soles and big white crystals decorating the straps, perfect for her beach wedding on Tybee Island, just off the Savannah coast. The February breeze was warm, helping her to decide to have the ceremony outdoors even though they’d had a chapel all ready.

  But spur of the moment decisions had never bothered her, and as she met the gaze of her groom, under a makeshift driftwood arbor decorated with white roses, Valerie knew he was learning to love spur of the moment decisions, too. She followed the path left by her flower girls, Boone’s young cousins, who’d outlined an aisle with shells at sunrise.

  “She’s such a beautiful bride,” Emilie Jane Burgess, the owner of If Wishes Were Dresses who had helped Valerie obtain her one-of-a-kind gown, whispered.

  “And the dress is perfect for her,” agreed the seamstress who’d converted the French lace slip into a breathtaking gown.

  “If only it was televised,” Annamae Jessup was whispering to her friend Lindsey Ballard, who’d done Valerie’s hair and makeup for her. “All of America would be sighing with happiness!”

  Valerie loved the whispers of her friends as she walked down the aisle. Annamae had insisted on paying for the hair and makeup treatment as a way to be a part of Boone’s happily-ever-after. She truly was happy for her ex-boyfriend, and her soon-to-be husband Wynn seemed plenty comfortable in his own skin that he didn’t mind. Desiree and Meg waved at her from one side of the shell aisle, both of them thrilled with the check they’d each received from the sale of their radio show and hotline business. Someone else played Serena these days, but Valerie knew she’d always have a little piece of the Sex Talk maven inside her.

  Serena had brought her to this moment, after all.

  “Dearly beloved,” her father intoned when she arrived at the driftwood arch to stand next to Boone.

  Anton Dimitri had surprised her by informing her that he’d become ordained in case she wanted him to officiate the ceremony. It was unconventional, which didn’t surprise her a bit, but apparently her father wanted to be a part of her big day while still making this wedding much, much different from that other wedding that had gone awry.

  Boone had jumped on the idea, appreciating her father’s unique way with words and warm, generous heart. Just one more reason she adored the man at her side.

  “When love is right, you can feel it to your toes,” her father was saying, his own deep sentiments for Valerie’s mother apparent in every word.

  But he was happy for Valerie, too. She knew it in the way he took his time to deliver his speech, a piece he must have carefully rehearsed.

  Truly, her heart was so full of love for everyone who’d made this journey with her that she knew she’d never make it to the “I Dos” without a few tears. Grady and Melanie Hollis stood on either side of Valerie and Boone, and from the expressions on their faces, Valerie guessed they were thinking about their own vow renewal they’d had at Christmastime back in Atlanta.

  But she didn’t want to cry on this perfect, perfect day, even for the best of reasons. So she stared up into Boone’s eyes and remembered how excited he’d been to give her a wedding gift – pink, customized go-kit with everything she needed for their trip to Turks and Caicos Islands. It had her plane tickets and ridiculously tiny bikini. Sunglasses, sunscreen, a new snorkel, and a heart-shaped necklace with his number engraved on the back.

  By the time her father wound up his speech, the beach had a few locals gathered around to take pictures and join in the fun. Or maybe just wish them well. There would be dancing outdoors until the sun went down and it got too cool. But by then, Valerie and Boone would be jetting off for a week-long honeymoon before he had to report to spring training.

  “And now, you may kiss your one and only bride,” her dad announced, making some of the wedding guests whisper and making Valerie laugh.

  “You told him about that?” Valerie whispered just as her new husband’s lips hovered over hers.

  “If anyone posts videos online, I wanted this episode to have the right title,” he informed her.

  She kissed him with all the love in her heart, until Boone twirled her around and around in a kaleidoscope of lace, roses and happiness. Her friends cheered. Cameras flashed and she knew the moment was being captured on phones, too.

  She didn’t need any pictures. She’d tucked away every tender, precious second to store in her memory forever.

  “I love you, Mrs. Sullivan,” Boone told her, setting her on her feet again. “You’re the best wife I could ever ask for.”

  “You came to that conclusion pretty fast.” She beamed at him.

  “I have no problem trusting my instincts these days.” He lifted her hand to his lips kissed the back of it, his lips a warm stamp on her skin.

  “What are your instincts saying about this honeymoon trip?” She had to ask since they’d spent the night before the wedding in separate bedrooms. Her friends had wanted a decadent spa night since she didn’t have a real bachelorette party.

  Behind them, someone had turned on the speaker system on the deck of the hotel that had been their alternate location f
or the wedding if it had been too cool. A country tune drifted on the breeze and couples danced on the sand and took pictures of each other. Casual. Easy. Fun.

  “My instincts say it’s never too soon to start working on that family we both want.” He leaned to speak those words into her ear, making her happiness complete by fulfilling her one last wish.

  “Oh, Boone.” The tears she’d managed to hold off earlier now slid down her cheeks. “I can’t wait.”

  He kissed away those tears, silently understanding her so well, and she fell a little deeper in love with him.

  If you enjoyed Bride on the Run, you’ll love the next Runaway Bride stories!

  The Runaway Bride Series

  How to Lose a Groom in 10 days

  Free – Get Now!

  Book 1: The Wedding Audition

  Get Now!

  Book 2: There Goes the Bride

  Get Now!

  Book 3: Bride on the Run

  About the Authors

  USA Today bestseller and RITA Award winner, Catherine Mann writes contemporary romance for Berkley, Harlequin, Sourcebooks and Tule. With over sixty books in released in more than twenty countries, she has also celebrated six RITA finals, an RT Reviewer’s Award finalist, three Maggie Award of Excellence finals and a Bookseller’s Best win. A former theater school director and university instructor, she holds a Master’s degree in Theater from UNC-Greensboro and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts: Theater (with minors in both English and Education) from the College of Charleston. Catherine and her flyboy husband live on the Florida coast where they brought up their 4 children – and still have 5 four-legged, furry “children” (aka pets). Visit Catherine’s website at www.CatherineMann.com.

  Joanne Rock writes romance of all shapes and sizes from sexy contemporary to medieval historical and an occasional Young Adult story. She’s penned over seventy books, appearing most often in the Harlequin Blaze series. Joanne taught English at the college level before becoming a full-time writer, and she returns to the classroom as often as possible to share her love of stories. A quiet and unassuming Virgo, Joanne married a fiery and boisterous Aries man in true opposites-attract fashion. Visit her website at www.JoanneRock.com.