Page 24 of The Runaway Bride of Blitzen Bay (Blitzen Bay)

Chapter Thirteen

NASH

December 22

Los Angeles, California

“What the hell were you thinking?” I say to myself as I drive slowly down the winding canyon road.

I’m just starting to realize what’s happening. Somehow, I let a strange woman convince me to smuggle her out of her wedding. And I’m driving through L.A. with her trapped in the back of my truck. I can hear my defense attorney telling me no one on the jury will believe she asked me to take her. And frankly, I would agree with them.

I’m not sure why I didn’t pull her out of my truck and drive away. Why have I made this my problem? I swear she hypnotized me. I’m not thinking clearly at all. There’s something about her that hit me deeply—like an overwhelming need to protect her. I want to wrap my arms around her and take away all of her stress. I need to snap out of it. That’s not going to happen. I have to get rid of her as quickly as possible. I see an empty parking lot and pull into it.

I walk around the back of the truck. It’s so quiet I think she might have slipped out somewhere along the way. That would solve all of my problems, but for some reason, it makes me start to panic.

“You still in there?” I say as I unclasp the pulleys holding the tarp on the truck bed. I pull it back to reveal a mound of wedding dress with Hank’s jacket in the center of it. I think for a second that she’s disappeared, but as I carefully lift the jacket, two eyes pop out of a mess of blonde hair.

“I’m so cold,” she says, sitting up suddenly. Her hair falls in disorganized clumps onto her bare shoulders. Her veil’s barely clinging to one side of her head. She looks like a little kid playing dress-up in her mom’s closet.

“I told you it would be cold back here,” I say, reaching for her hand. “C’mon. Let’s get you warmed up.”

She grabs the top of her strapless dress and shimmies a few times as she pulls it a little further back up. “Strapless dresses are a pain. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”

“I definitely won’t.”

She tries a few times to stand but keeps catching her feet in the dress. Then she tries to crawl over to me, but her dress is caught on something. She finally falls back into the layers of silk.

“Maybe I should just take it off.” She reaches around her back to start unzipping.

“No!” I move quickly around to the side of the truck. The last thing I need is to see more of her. What I’m seeing is already tempting enough. I add, “You’re not going to get warmer by taking clothes off. I think it’s going to be easier if I lift you out.”

I unhook the piece of material that’s snagged on the side of the truck and place my hand hesitantly on her bare back.

“You ready?” I say to warn her that I’m about to grab her.

When I get her into my arms, she looks up at me—her eyes wide and a sweet smile on her full lips. I want to kiss her so badly.

“Are you okay? Is my dress still caught?” She looks back at the truck bed long enough for me to snap out of my daydream.

“No, I think we’re all good.” I look away from her and toward the truck. “Hey, will you open the door?”

I place her down on the seat gently and hand her the jacket. She wraps it around her shoulders. Her dress is still spilling out of the truck. I start piling it on top of her.

“I think this dress probably weighs more than you do.”

She laughs as she gathers it onto her lap. “The train was my mom’s idea. I wanted something simple.”

I look up at her. She’s watching me. Her eyes are soft and inviting. I hand her the last of the dress. When her hand brushes over mine, a wave of electricity surges through me.

When I get around the back of the truck, I look at her again. It looks like she’s turned the heat on full blast. It’s blowing her veil all over the place. She’s struggling to detach it from her head. I think back to what Sam said about his wife bringing calm to his chaos. What did I tell him? That I was the calm one, so I needed to find ‘the female version of chaos.’ Her veil has wrapped around her head. She’s swatting at it. It looks like she’s fighting a flock of birds. Frankly, it looks like complete chaos.

* * *

---