Runaway Christmas Bride

by Cindi Madsen

  His heart sank. She’d decided to go back with that prick? Steve Mills wouldn’t appreciate her the way she deserved. Of course she’s leaving. You always knew she wouldn’t stay.

  Hope had crept in though, and he’d let it. For all his talk about not letting the season get to him, it’d added to it. The idea of having someone to celebrate with, and he wanted that someone to be Regina.

  “Excuse me,” he said, his voice tight, and Fern didn’t bother stopping him or arguing, so he could only imagine that he looked as stormy as he felt.

  He circulated. Tried the punch. Watched the door.

  An eternity later, Regina finally arrived. She exchanged smiles and greetings with the people near the entrance. One of the women took her coat, and Emmett’s lungs forgot how to take in oxygen. She had on a strappy floral dress with a flowy skirt.

  Her gaze met his across the room, and everything inside of him reached for her. Shut it down. She’s leaving.

  He arranged his features in a careful mask as she approached.

  “Do I look silly?” She smoothed her hands down her skirt. “It was the only dress I had, and obviously I packed it for the Caribbean.”

  “You don’t look silly.” He didn’t trust himself to say any more. “So, I hear you’re leaving.”

  She sucked in a deep breath. “I have to go take care of things back home.”

  “Have to?”

  “I should.” Her brow crinkled for a second before smoothing. “I mean, yes. I have to.”

  “Would one of those things be your ex? I ran into him earlier today.”

  “It’s …”

  “Let me guess. Complicated.” He crossed his arms. “Don’t worry. I pegged you as a complicated woman the moment we met.”

  Hurt flickered across her face. He didn’t want to hurt her, but everything inside of him ached, and he was doing a bad job of keeping the lid on his emotions.

  “It’s not about him,” she said. “We’ve intertwined our lives to the point that I have to go untangle everything so we can both move on.”

  But she’d be moving on somewhere else, eventually with someone else, and that left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew it wasn’t realistic for her to leave behind her job and her life and stay, but he wanted her to anyway. Stupid hope. Stupid me.

  Fern stepped up to them and nudged them toward the floor. “Get out there. Everyone’s standing around, and I need a couple to start dancing.”

  Emmett opened his mouth to say that they weren’t a couple, but then Regina placed her hands on his shoulders, and he wanted to hold her one last time.

  They moved to the center of the floor and swayed to the music. He soaked in her perfume, the tickle of her hair against his chin, and how she felt in his arms. Then she dropped her head on his chest, and he was sure she could hear his heart thundering away against her ear, saying all the things he wanted to but couldn’t.

  At the end of the song, Regina reluctantly pulled away, and Emmett dropped his hands. He looked so big and tall and handsome, and a tight band formed around her chest. How had he come to mean so much to her at such a messy time in her life? And after such a short period too?

  Somehow, he had. But things would only get messier the longer she stayed, and she had to return home and be the boring, uptight woman who got things done. And if she didn’t go now, she wasn’t sure she’d summon enough strength again, not if she spent Christmas here in this place she’d grown to love.

  A giant lump formed in her throat, and she had to force her words past it. “Living in the moment was fun, but I can’t stay in the now. I worry about the future. It’s my nature, and while it bit me in the butt a couple of weeks ago, it’s served me well in a lot of areas.”

  Emmett nodded. “Okay.”

  “I better go tell everyone good-bye.”

  He nodded again.

  She wanted to say good-bye, but the real problem was that she didn’t want to. She simply needed to.

  Since she was a wimp, she decided to save her good-bye to Emmett for last. She circled the room, thanking everyone for taking her in and trying to return items of winter wear they refused to take back.

  Tears clogged her throat as she hugged one person after another.

  She hugged Fern extra tightly. “I hope I’m not leaving you in the lurch. I’ll pay for an extra night or two if you need me to.”

  “You hush,” she said in a stern yet soothing way. Instead of releasing her, Fern leaned back to look her in the eye. “You’re welcome here anytime. The sheriff’s not the best at expressing his feelings, but he’s sad to see you go.”

  He’d seemed … distant. Even with her head on his chest, he was far away. He hadn’t said much, just nodded, and she started wondering if she cared more about him than he did about her, and wasn’t that just her luck? Maybe she was cursed.

  She should probably wish on a Christmas-tree star. Or an angel since it topped the tree in the community center.

  Through the open doorway, she spotted Gabe, the man who’d—in a roundabout way—led her here. She turned to gather some Christmas goodies to take to him, but then she spotted Emmett, already approaching him with a plate. He gestured toward the building, inviting him inside, but Gabe shook his head. But his “thank you for this”, was loud enough to hear.

  He glanced over at her, and she gave a little wave. Cold air nipped at her skin, yet she remained in place, watching as Emmett walked back toward her. He hesitated in the doorway next to her.

  “Kiss, kiss!” came from the crowd, and Regina glanced at them, thinking they were being far too bold, even if they were shouting the overpowering thought that was already on her mind. But then several fingers pointed at a sprig of mistletoe hung in the doorway that she swore wasn’t there a moment ago.

  Emmett peered up at it as well, but his posture, as well as his face, remained closed off, making it impossible to read him.

  Regina worried kissing him would make the longing wrapping itself around her heart worse.

  But didn’t they deserve a kiss good-bye?

  More people joined the “kiss, kiss,” chant.

  “You don’t have to kiss me,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to kiss me because you feel obligated.”

  His eyebrows arched, emotion finally bleeding through, passion and affection and a hint of surprise. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since you asked if I was going to arrest you, so it’d hardly be an obligation.”

  The ground whooshed out from under her feet as he slipped his hand behind her neck. He drew her to him as his mouth crashed down on hers, and the combination of soft lips and scruff sent a shock wave through her body. She moved her lips against his, wrapping her arms around his waist so she wouldn’t melt right onto the floor.

  Happiness like she’d never felt before washed over her, leaving her breathless and dizzy. And did she mention the happiness?

  Then he slowly pulled back, his brown eyes boring into hers. “Good-bye, Regina,” he said, and reality came screeching back to her. It’d been an amazing kiss, but it was edged in finality.

  She glanced toward the onlookers, croaked out a good-bye, and rushed out of the building. She just needed to make it inside her car before she burst into tears.

  As she drove past the now familiar shops on Main Street, the scenery blurred, and she had to blink to clear her vision.

  She’d left home crying, and now she was crying on her way back.

  There was something tragically poetic about it all, but she was too busy feeling sad to sort it out now.

  Chapter Ten

  Emmett stood numbly in the doorway as Regina’s car drove away, her taillights two flashes of red in the dark. Most everyone else in town was here at the dance.

  Staring at him.

  “Show’s over,” he barked, wanting everyone to stop looking at him with a mixture of frustration and pity.

  Callie stepped forward, and he focused on her, needing a friendly face right now. “You’re just going to let her go?”
she asked, which wasn’t the comforting he’d expected, or wanted.

  “She made up her mind.”

  “But you didn’t fight for her. You’re as bad as her groom!” Fern voiced it, but there was a lot of nodding in agreement.

  Below the belt, but Emmett had thought the guy was a fool to let her go.

  Mom stepped forward—he hadn’t even realized she and Dad were here. “Well, don’t just stand there. Hurry up and go get her!”

  Regina had only been on the highway for a handful of minutes when she caught sight of red and blue lights in her rear-view mirror.

  Emmett was at the dance, so it was probably a deputy—or worse, state police—and she’d probably been speeding in an attempt to outrace the heartbreak before it hit.

  As she maneuvered onto the side of the road, the ache that’d overtaken her chest deepened. It felt like she’d left her heart in Friendship with a certain sheriff.

  Here she was, getting in trouble with another cop, in another inappropriate dress. At least this one was slightly less mortifying than her bridal gown.

  The dark figure approached her car, and she reached over to get her registration and proof of insurance out of the glove box.

  The cop pulled on her door handle, and she jumped. Her mind must be playing tricks on her, because she swore it was Emmett’s face in the window. She leaned closer to the fogged-over glass, and her heart rate kicked into high gear.

  The second she hit the unlock button, Emmett threw open the door, reached over her and unbuckled her seat belt, and then hauled her out of the car and into his arms. “I forgot to tell you something. A whole lot of things, actually.”

  “Yeah? And this was the best way you came up with to do it?”

  He grinned, full-out, teeth and all, and her stomach raised up, up, up to kiss her rib cage. “I was desperate. And I just so happened to have a cop car at my disposal.”

  “How convenient,” she said, and his grin widened even more.

  “Regina, I didn’t know quite what to make of you when you stormed into my life, and I still don’t, but I know you’re far from boring, you make me smile, and I’d be an idiot if I let you go without a fight.” He brushed his lips across hers. “I want you to stay. I know it’s fast and there are a lot of things we need to figure out, but I’ve never felt a connection so strong in my life. Stay till Christmas at least, so I convince you to stay even longer.”

  Before she could answer, he kissed her again, backing her up against the car and kissing her until her bones turned into liquid fire. “Okay, I’ll stay,” she said, her voice breathy. “I’ll still have to go home in the near future and take care of some things, but I’m not ready to let you go either.”

  Emmett dropped his forehead against hers. “Thank goodness. I’m pretty sure that they’ll throw me out of office if I return to town without you.”

  “Oh, so this is for the town?”

  He took off his coat and draped it around her. “It’s definitely for me. But we’ll let them think it’s for them too. Then maybe they’ll give us a moment’s peace as we figure everything out.”

  At the same time, they both said, “Probably not,” and laughed.

  Then kissed some more.

  Fat flakes of snow drifted down around them, making her cuddle tighter into his embrace. Regina basked in the feel of his warm lips against hers as the snow dusted their heads and the ground around them.

  Two weeks ago, she didn’t think there was such a thing as Christmas miracles, but as she made her way back to town with a guy she was crazy about, she thought maybe it was like one of those snow globes she loved. You had to shake your life up a bit before you got to be one of the blissfully happy people in the perfect scene with all that magical snow swirling around you.

  Epilogue

  One year later …

  “I’m so nervous,” Regina said to Callie, who was walking around the train of Regina’s wedding dress, fluffing and arranging. “What if he doesn’t show? Or what if I get up there and he says he can’t marry me?”

  Getting married one year to the day they’d met seemed romantic when Emmett proposed it—after he’d proposed to her. These days she did her financial directing from home, which was now in Friendship, occasionally having to travel to consult when businesses wanted more than virtual support.

  In a lot of ways, it felt like she and Emmett had fast-forwarded through the beginning parts of a relationship during her first two weeks in town, so they’d gone back and taken their time dating and getting to know each other. She was now part of the town, and they were always in her business and either thanking her for the sheriff being in a good mood—or asking her if she could do something when he was in a bad one—and she loved it.

  Loved the town, loved her life, loved Emmett Haywood. She used to think she knew what she wanted and what the ideal family and life looked like, but now she did know, and she couldn’t wait to take that next big step.

  “I’ve never seen any dude as excited to get married as my brother,” Callie said. “Trust me, he’s going to say ‘I do’ as fast as humanly possible.”

  Regina blew out a shaky breath. She believed her almost sister-in-law, she did, but she’d been in this position before. With the wrong guy, she realized that now, but it didn’t stop her nerves from going haywire on her.

  But before she could overthink it too much, they were lining up and then marching down the aisle of the church.

  Regina’s parents hadn’t fallen in love with Friendship quite the way she had, but they were supportive and planning to stay through the holidays to experience all the traditions, from the tree lighting ceremony to the gingerbread contest, to the party with the dance.

  As her father neared the end of the aisle, he lifted her veil off her face.

  Regina slowly turned toward Emmett, and in that moment, she was sure of everything. His expression spoke of unconditional love. Of shared laughter, the many conversations they’d had, and the countless kisses they’d exchanged over this past year.

  He was also giving her the full smile, with teeth.

  She returned it, excitement zipping through her on a high-speed, high-voltage circuit.

  Then Emmett extended his hand, and she happily placed her palm in his. They walked the last few steps to the pulpit together.

  Reverend Jones read some lovely words, and as he repeated the vows to Emmett, Regina held her breath.

  “I do,” Emmett said, loud and clear, without any hesitation.

  And of course she did too.

  Pronounced husband and wife, the only thing left to do was seal it with a kiss.

  Naturally, Emmett went for broke, adding a dip to the kiss as their family, friends, and the entire town cheered for the start of their forever future.