“Help get this off me!”
I grabbed the closest bunch of fabric I could get my hands on and pulled with all my might. The entire train tore off, leaving her in something that looked more like bridal lingerie than a wedding dress, and we both burst out laughing.
“Nice legs,” I winked.
“Come on, Jay. Let’s get out of here.”
Hand in hand, we raced away from the hall as Caleb and the rest of the guests spilled out behind us. I heard them shouting but neither of us stopped. We ran down the slope, past the gazebo to where my pickup truck was hiding in the shadows. It looked completely out of place in surroundings like this.
I held the driver’s side door open and Rachel leapt inside and slid across the bench seat as I hopped in beside her. Her fiancé was sprinting towards us as I twisted the key, threw the old horse into gear and gunned it.
Grass and dirt sprayed from the tires as I spun the truck into a spin. The springs squealed and thunked as I came up onto the driveway and blasted out onto the main road.
Rachel screamed and threw her hands into the air as we left the wedding behind us.
“Oh my god, that was amazing!” she shouted. “I can’t—I can’t even.”
I clasped her hand in mine and felt her warmth spread life through my soul. It had been five years—five long years since I’d seen her last, but her hold on me had never wavered. In fact, all the time apart had done was amplify my feelings for her.
It was like waking up from a dream to realize you weren’t dreaming in the first place. Rachel was here beside me, in my truck, clutching my hand while we sped away from her wedding.
It was perfect.
“So where the fuck have you been, asshole?” Rachel shouted. She slammed a fist into my thigh with such force that it caused my foot to press down harder on the gas and the truck to lurch forward.
“Whoa, whoa, easy!” I replied, fending off more of her half-hearted blows as I sped down the road.
“Don’t ‘whoa, whoa, easy,’ me, mister! I waited five years for you and now you show up on my wedding day?!”
“Would you rather I didn’t show up at all?” I asked, taking a quick turn. Rachel glared at me but sat back. She still had her hand in mine.
“I’d rather you never disappeared in the first place,” she replied. “Do you want to tell me where you’ve been the last five years?”
“I do,” I said, squeezing her hand firmly. “But not now. When we get home.”
“Home?” she asked.
“That’s right, duchess,” I smiled. “Home.”
My words pleased her and she sat back on the seat beside me and glared at me with the cutest expression I’d ever seen. We sat in silence for a bit before she finally replied.
“It’s Rachel, not duchess.”
Chapter Five
Rachel
We sat in silence for the remainder of the drive. I didn’t know what to say to him until he told me the story of why had been gone. I told myself that the future of our relationship would hinge on his explanation, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.
I thought he’d be taking me to the coast—back to Green Harbor maybe—but he turned inland and we ended up on a dirt road heading deep into the woods. The even sun slanted harsh beams through the canopy as the old truck clunked over the humps and divots until we reached a closed metal gate.
“Wait here,” he said as he stopped the truck and got out. It was strange seeing a man in a tuxedo deep in the woods like this, but he looked so good that it was almost like the woods didn’t belong around him, not the other way around.
He pulled a key from his pocket, undid the padlock and swung the gate aside. Then, he hopped back in the truck beside me and drove us through, then got out and locked it behind us again.
“Tight security,” I said. I was kidding ,of course, but the look he returned to me made me wonder if what I’d said actually wasn’t a joke.
We continued on another few minutes before our destination came into view.