Runaway Groom (13 page)

“Gimme the letter, Carnie.”

“You didn’t wear panties? You daredevil you! And…oh, that is the nicest thing…”

“Would you give me the damn letter, Carnie?” Abigail practically shrieked the last, and her best friend finally looked at her.

“He loves you. Did you talk to him since you read these?”

Thumping back on the couch and closing her eyes, Abigail nodded.

“And what happened?”

“We had really amazing sex out by Watkin’s pond.”

“Oh, I am so telling Manda on you.”

“Would you focus here?”

Carnie shifted in her bathrobe and tried to look serious. After a moment, she gave up. “Where are the rest of the letters?”

“You’re not reading them.”

“Wanna bet?”

After a short chase, Abigail found herself locked out of her own bedroom. Pounding on the door, she yelled, “Open up, Carnie.”

“Found ‘em!”

“I’m sure you did. Would you open the damn door?”

“No. Oh my…he proposed at prom? That is kind of romantic.”

“No, actually, it kind of sucked.” Abigail felt sort of stupid talking to her bedroom door. “If I agree to let you read the damn letters, will you let me in?”

Silence answered her.

After a minute, Carnie opened the door. Her eyes, formerly red, now leaked and she crumpled into Abigail’s arms. “Tell me you have tissues.”

“I have tissues. Which letter?”

“He-He…wrote you all these letters because once you said that letters were the most romantic—” Her sob broke off on a hiccup.

“Oh yeah, that one.”

“How are you not bawling?” howled Carnie.

Abigail strode into her room, grabbed the tissues and shoved them at her.

“Well, here’s the deal. He’s gonna leave again. Right now, he’s stuck on the idea of his old flame from high school. I’m not her anymore. When I was a kid, I thought I could change the world…now, well, I’m a boring adult who takes care of her mother. I’m not exciting and he will figure that out, get bored and go on with his life. So, no matter how romantic the letters, no matter how mind bogglingly good the sex was—”

Carnie held up a hand. “He writes letters like this, looks like he does and the sex was mind boggling?”

“Yes, regardless of all that, he’s going to leave. If I let myself get wrapped up in it—”

“What?” Carnie interrupted again. “You might have memories to last a lifetime? You might look back on your life and think, wow, that fucking kicked ass? So, if I understand your skewed logic correctly, you are not having the most amazing sex with the man you love who loves you because…it might end at some point.”

Put that way…

“Fuck.”

Carnie smacked her in the head.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“My momma called them knowledge bumps. You needed one. Abby, you’re an idiot.”

Now Abigail wanted to cry. “Shit. I left him. Ditched him at the lake. He hasn’t called since. What the fuck do I do?”

Carnie sat, silent for a moment, fingering one of the letters.

Then a slow smile curled her lips.

“I think you should write him a letter.”

Chapter Twenty

Knobby Knees,

I’ve been writing these for a week now. I’ve also been leaving little things in the cab of your truck. Since meddling mailmen and grandmothers aren’t in your way, there’s a chance you’re actually getting yours.

I don’t know if you’re reading them. Guess that’s fair. You spent a decade not knowing if I heard you or not. A week in comparison is less than a drop in the bucket.

So, you’ve heard about the years in between. You’ve heard about my fears and how things have sucked.

I guess I’ve been avoiding writing the hard stuff though.

Something I haven’t said is, I’m sorry, Brax.

I’m sorry I believed you would actually walk out on me and not say a thing.

I would like to blame it on the town, your dad, my age…

But really, that would be bullshit and as you’ve said, we don’t lie to one another. That is a good foundation to build a future on, so I’ll stay as we began and not lie to you now.

It was easier to believe you didn’t want me than to dare believe in you.

If I believed in you, it meant that I should do something. Chase after you. Hunt you down when you came to town. Find you. Dare to do something.

I was too chickenshit to do any of that.

Plus, to be honest, I never really felt like I deserved you.

Shit, this is going to be a long letter.

Let me start at the beginning. Remember that summer? The one where you finally kissed me for the first time in the pond? Well, I liked you before that. I used to dress up my Barbies and marry them and call them Braxton and Abby. You were so cute. And then we hit high school and HEL-LO…you were the football jock, the golden boy…you had everything going for you.

Me? I was plain. I was the daughter of the town quack. I was ordinary, sometimes less than ordinary.

When you kissed me…I felt special.

I never really felt like I deserved it.

That isn’t your fault. That was me.

When I looked down the aisle on our wedding day and you weren’t there, my first thought, as awful as this sounds, wasn’t, “Where is he?” it was, “Oh, it figures.”

I was so scared something happened to you…but then again, when I found out you left…

Braxton, it made sense to me. You had a future. I had…this.

Getting all your letters, realizing you carried me with you wherever you went, well, it was daunting as hell. For one, it felt like you were in love with a me I had never dared to be. For two, what if I let you down? What if I wasn’t all that you remembered? What if you left me after all that?

How could I live with that?

To be honest, Brax, I panicked. I freaked the fuck out and I bailed, leaving you lying there asleep.

And I regret it.

If I could rewind time, I wouldn’t change our wedding day.

I know that probably sounds pretty weird coming from me. I wouldn’t change that because you were right. We were too young and it wasn’t our time.

But if I could rewind time, I wouldn’t have left the safety of your arms by the pond last week. I would have stayed, curled up in you until you woke. I would have kissed you awake and tried to convince you to make love to me again.

I can’t rewind time.

I love you.

Love, Abigail

Dear Brax,

So I snuck into your break room. Feeling very naughty having snuck back here. You know you leave the back door standing wide open, right? Good thing I’m not here to rob you. I could make off with all sorts of washers and hammers and…what the fuck is this thing?

Anyway, while I am here being naughty, I thought I would leave you a sexy note.

Some of the letters you wrote me were very detailed. I got wet reading them. I can’t believe you remember the no-panties thing.

We’re older now. Do you know they put in a toy store over on the highway…?

Just saying.

Who needs toys though when you’ve got a cock like yours? You know how I like to read those romance novels sometimes? The ones my mom always called the dirty books? There was this one that had a scene with chocolate powder…you lick and brush it on where you licked…then lick it off.

I would like to start by getting you naked on a blanket under the stars. I’m sure I could lick a treasure trail up your legs, ending with a chocolate covered…

Mmm…

I think you can imagine what I am thinking.

That idea you had about the truck?

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

Gotta run.

Love ya,

Abs

Dear Braxton,

So you just got off work. They’re calling for rain tonight. Storms before morning. But tonight it is so hot that my clothes feel like they’re sticking to my body.

I’m going for a swim over at Watkin’s pond. I know. We need to talk.

I’ve told you I’m sorry and there are probably a hundred other conversations we should have but tonight…

Tonight my skin is hot; my mind is full of dirty things I want to do to you.

Meet me there. Nine?

If you don’t come, I understand. I haven’t given you a lot of reasons to believe in me.

But, well…

Love you.

Abby

Chapter Twenty-One

Some might consider it thinking with his dick, but Braxton wasn’t sure there was a man alive that could have read the letters he got from Abby this week and still not show up at the pond.

When the woman he loved said she wanted to swim and that she was hot…

He went.

Putting the truck in park next to her small red car, he saw, illuminated in the headlights, her head bobbing out in the water. A pile of clothes by the shore made him wonder if she stripped down to a bathing suit or if she swam in her birthday suit.

Either idea didn’t help the fact his jeans felt far too tight.

Cutting the engine, he shut off the lights, shucked his own clothes and waded into the water. The mud sucked at his feet, seaweed catching at his ankles until he was deep enough to swim. Water, cold compared to the heat of the day, soothed over his tired muscles but didn’t ease the ache in his chest.

He couldn’t resist her when they were kids. He couldn’t resist her from hundreds of miles away. Like a magnet, he was drawn to her in the water now.

“Nice night for a swim.” He tried for a casual tone when what he really wanted to do was catch her in his arms and kiss away the time lost over the last week. He missed her. Stupid since he spent years without her but true nonetheless.

“It is,” she agreed.

“There’s a lot I have to get to know about grown-up Abby.” She swam closer and he enjoyed the way the water slid over her shoulders like a caress. “But the letters helped a little.”

“I was hoping they might level the playing field some.” Her smile was a siren’s smile, temptation in a curl of lips. “This might help too.”

For the first time since he’d been home, she came to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck as easily as they had so long ago. Her mouth, tasting like summer and the water and a little like toothpaste, caught his and rubbed seductively over it before nipping at his bottom lip. As their legs tangled under the water, and they started to sink, he remembered their first kiss in this same pond.

Heat lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating her face, as they parted for air.

“Missed you,” he whispered.

Resting his forehead on hers, he smiled, heart twisting when she rubbed her nose against his. “Missed you too, Brax.”

Small kisses, teasing ones, peppered across his jaw and his neck and her fingers sliding across his back sucked all thoughts from him. “Missed you. Love you. So many things I’ve wanted to say but I was scared. You ran because you were scared, but I was scared too.”

“You were?”

“Yeah.” He tilted her head, getting a good angle to nibble his way up to the sensitive spot behind her ear that always made her wriggle.

“Don’t be scared with me, Abs.”

“I can’t promise that.”

The feel of her, alive and moving in his arms, had him so needy, he thought he might burst.

“But I can promise I won’t run again,” she whispered.

“Me either.”

He caught her in his arms, dragging her out of the water. Carrying her to the back of his truck, he yanked a blanket out of the cab. He spread it across the dark metal.

“I’m not going anywhere this time. The promises I made you a long time ago…I meant them. I may have left your side, but I never left you, Abby. Not really. I took you with me, every step.”

“You’re making me want to cry. I’m not going to be one of those weak broads who goes all weepy because you said something crazy romantic, you know that, right?”

“But do you believe me?”

Shrugging, she smiled at him. “I believe we can try. If you leave, well, it was worth it for the time we had. I’m not willing to give up the moments we could have because I’m afraid of the ones we won’t.”

With a smooth move, he bent her over the tailgate, legs spread, cold metal against her breasts and stomach when the blanket bunched up. “Hey!”

“It’s fine if you want to make me work for it. I’m a man now and I can be patient, especially since it means I can play with your sexy little body. It looks like it might take a while, but I will stick around and go with plan A.”