The Runaway - Signed Paperback

Chapter One: Nate

Pulling up to the famed Hotel del Coronado in the sourest of sour moods, I couldn’t help but grin when I saw Hattie and Brett standing in our arranged meeting spot. You’d think a smile wouldn’t come easily to me after having been dumped a few hours ago, but I hadn’t seen these two in months. Brett longer, because he’d been stationed in Okinawa for the last few years, and we never seemed to get our schedules linked up well enough to be in the same place at the same time.

“Thank you so much for doing this, Nate,” Hattie said, pulling me into a warm hug the second I hopped out of my SUV at the curb.

“Anytime,” I replied.

Sure, this favor for my mom’s oldest friend was a huge pain in the butt after such a rough day, but it was what it was. Hattie lived in South Carolina—in the exact town I was about to drive to, thanks to my new military orders—and she needed me to load some fancy dresser into my Suburban and bring it along on my drive from California. She’d flown here with her husband for her niece’s wedding, and apparently, the thing was special enough that she’d called me over on my moving day to get it home for her.

Backing out of her arms, I moved to give her son—one of my oldest friends—a backslapping hug. “Good to see you, bro. Been a long time.”

“Too long,” he said. “I wasn’t even supposed to be here for this wedding, but I don’t know …” He turned to look up at the hotel and sighed. “Something told me I should be.”

“That something is called your conscience, sugar,” Hattie told her son. “You knew Nikki wanted you here for her special day. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Judging from Brett’s expression, I had a feeling there was more to it. But since he’d be coming along for the ride while I went to pick the dresser up from Nikki’s mom’s place, I figured I’d wait to ask him about it until we were safely away from his mother.

“Here’s the key to the house,” Hattie told me, handing me a single silver key.

“Thanks.”

“And try to hurry, boys. We don’t want Brett to miss the wedding.”

Brett refrained from rolling his eyes. Barely. “We’ll be quick, Mom.”

“See that you are. And thanks again!”

We watched as Hattie clipped back toward the entrance to the hotel, then we got into my SUV. When we pulled away, Brett’s eyes were tight as he stared straight ahead.

“What’s up? You look weird.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, man. I guess I just have a bad feeling about this dude Nikki’s marrying.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s probably nothing. I hardly know the guy. But I don’t like the way he talks about her online. His captions on their photos are all really braggy. It’s like she’s a piece of property or something. It’s weird.”

I adjusted my grip on the steering wheel and shrugged as we drove along. “Some dudes are like that. And some chicks are into it.”

“Yeah, but if you knew Nikki’s history …”

I waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, I looked over and raised a brow. “What’s her history?”

Nikki wasn’t Hattie’s niece by blood, but Hattie had this way about her where she became like family to a lot of people, even without a legit blood relation. She was practically an aunt to me, too, since she was so close to my mom and always had been. I’d grown up knowing Nikki was important to Hattie, but since she lived in California and I’d never actually met her, I didn’t know much about her other than that she was a single mom.

Oh, yeah. And really freaking beautiful.

Just saying.

Brett rolled his neck, then opened and closed his mouth like he was trying to figure out what to say. “It’s not really my story to tell. And it was a long time ago. Let’s just say the guy she was married to before—Marigold’s dad—was a creep. After everything she went through with him … I’m surprised she’d want to be with a guy who was so possessive. It was bad.”

I hated the idea of the woman who’d looked so carefree and happy in photos being hurt like that, but if she was marrying this new guy, there had to be something good about him. “Hmm. Well, like you said, you don’t really know him. Maybe he just comes off that way online, and that’s not how he is in real life.”

“Maybe.”

“Besides, Hattie’s a tough nut.”

“Understatement.”

I grinned. “She knows this guy. If he wasn’t good for Nikki, I’m sure she would’ve put a stop to it before their wedding day. Right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no way my mom would let this wedding happen if he were a bad guy. She’s the queen of meddling.”

I snorted in agreement. If she wanted to stop a wedding, she totally could. Especially since she was a pro at pushing people into them. Hattie was practically the town matchmaker back home, and she’d had a hand in the marriages of almost everyone I knew.

In the last couple of years, Hattie was somehow involved when my cousin, Paul, married his best friend, Shelby. Same thing when my other cousin, Aria, married our friend Will, which shocked the heck out of all of us because he’d grown up next door to my cousins, and none of us knew they had a thing for each other.

Hattie also helped our friends Layla and Lyndi—sisters who were part of Hattie’s unofficial group of nieces and nephews—find love with a couple of other Marines stationed in South Carolina. And those were just the people in my circle. There were plenty of other couples in Bluffton who’d been shot by her Cupid’s bow.

But now that I thought about it … she’d never once tried to help my ex and me tie the knot. In fact, she’d made comments over the years that were blatantly unsupportive of us.

Interesting.

My inner thoughts were cut off as we pulled up to an absolute beast of a mansion in La Jolla. I stared at the white house and its massive windows and blew out a breath. “Wow. This is Nikki’s mom’s house?”

“Yep. Her family’s loaded.”

“Clearly.”

“She and Marigold have lived here with her mom ever since … well, for a while,” he hedged as we got out and headed for the front door. “The guy she’s marrying has a ton of money too. They met at some country club or something.”

I let us into the house and felt my eyes widen as I took in the height of the ceilings and the long staircase that looked like something out of one of those Housewives of Wherever reality shows. “So, this is how the other half lives.”

My family wasn’t poor or anything, but our house in Bluffton was tiny—or I guess cozy, if you heard my mom describe it. It was a three-bedroom rancher on a street with a ton of houses that looked just like it. And it was a far cry from this movie-set-lookin’ mansion where Nikki’d grown up. Good thing her new almost-husband had money. Doubtful she’d want to downgrade after living like this. Who would?

“Let’s find this thing and get back,” Brett said, moving through the expansive foyer toward the rear of the house. “She said it was in the dining room, between the kitchen and the sitting room.”

“Ah, the sitting room. Not to be confused with the drawing room?” I joked as I followed after him.

“Or the living room or the family room or the library,” he tossed over his shoulder with a low chuckle. “This must be it.”

I narrowed my eyes at the teal piece of furniture with two shallow drawers above a cabinet. Just like Hattie described, it had flowers painted along the side and golden handles. I wasn’t much for interior design, but it really did look like it’d be a good addition to the flower shop she and her husband owned back in Bluffton.

I could see why she wanted it, even though this request to bring it with me had totally thrown me off my schedule for today. I’d planned to be at the first stop of my trip by now. Thankfully, Yuma, Arizona was only about two and a half hours away, so I’d still get to my buddy’s house in plenty of time to rest up before the long day I had planned for tomorrow.

“You take that side,” Brett said as he gripped the other end of the dresser.

“Do you know why Hattie called this thing a buffet when she first told me about it?” I asked him as we lifted it and maneuvered through the huge house.

“Because fancy people use different words for furniture depending on which room they keep it in?”

I harrumphed. “Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t make sense to keep a dresser in the dining room. But what’s Hattie gonna call it when she puts it in her flower shop?”

Brett chuckled but didn’t reply.

We made it to the back of the Suburban and set it down, then I opened the trunk and leaned in to put down half of the third-row bench seat so we could slide it in. It was a snug fit between the seatback and the side of the SUV, but it worked. Most of my stuff was being driven across the country by the military-contracted moving company, so I didn’t have much in here that I’d deemed important enough to take in my own vehicle. Luckily for Hattie.

I closed the liftgate, went to lock up the house, then jogged back over to ensure my buddy would make it to the wedding on time. He might not like the groom, but I knew he cared about the bride, and he wouldn’t want to be late regardless of his mom’s nagging about it.

“Hey, Nate, you sure you can’t delay your trip a bit more so you can crash this wedding?”

I shook my head as we got back in the SUV. “Nah, man. I’d love to stay and hang with you, but I’m behind schedule as it is.”

“Do you ever do anything spontaneously?”

“Oh, right, because you’re such a spontaneous guy? We’re Marines. We live by schedules.”

He held up his hands. “I’m here, aren’t I? Didn’t plan to be, but that didn’t stop me.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be here if your command hadn’t approved your leave request on such short notice. So don’t act like you’re free to do whatever you want whenever you want.”

Brett hung his head with a resigned laugh. “Fine. But hey, you’re already on leave. So technically, you could stay longer if you wanted to.”

“I made plans to stay at a few friends’ houses along the way, and I don’t wanna change things up on them.” I didn’t want to change things up on myself, either. There’d been enough of that already today, and I was over it. Brett could poke fun all he wanted.

“All right, all right. But I seriously can’t wait until I’m stationed on the mainland again. Not much longer. I just gotta make it back from this deployment in one piece.”

Considering his job in the Marines—explosive ordnance disposal—his joke was a little rough. But we weren’t much better in the jokes department in my job field, so I didn’t have much room to talk.

I pulled away from the towering house and got back on the road. “You don’t like Okinawa?”

“No, it’s not that. I like it, I guess. I’m just ready to come back, that’s all. You know how it is. Once you’re used to moving every three years, you start to get antsy right before it happens.”

I got that for sure … only for the last six months, it wasn’t just the urge to move on that had me excited about going from California to South Carolina. It was the fact that I thought I was moving back there so I could be with the woman I’d had an on-again, off-again relationship with for pretty much my entire adult life, only to get dumped by her on the day of my move. Over the phone, in fact.

“You wanna talk about it?” Brett asked.

I swallowed. “Wanna talk about what?”

“Whatever just made you look like you got punched in the gut.”

Nope.

If I talked about the fact that I’d requested orders to South Carolina to be with a woman who’d traded me in for another man, I’d come out sounding as pathetic on the outside as I felt on the inside. Besides, I wasn’t much for talking anyway. And he knew it.

Brett jabbed my bicep with his elbow. “Come on. It’s me.”

I shot him a look.

“Alright, have it your way, tough guy. Suffer in silence.”

It shouldn’t have, but that stung a little. My ex had told me multiple times over the years that I was “emotionally unavailable.” Whatever that meant. But it was usually in the context of how little I opened up about my feelings, and it always resulted in a shouting match because when I did try to open up, she hated everything I said. I could never win.

But I wanted a fresh start, right? Maybe I should start … here? Ugh.

Giving in, I shifted in my seat and let out a breath. “Chelsea dumped me this morning.”

“Again? Bro, you have got to stop beating a dead horse with that girl. Seriously, enough is enough.”

Shooting him a glare, I turned my focus back to the road. Okay, maybe talking about it was overrated.

Brett let out a long breath and shook his head. “Sorry. You okay?”

I shrugged.

“Look, I know everyone gives you crap for going back and forth with Chelsea all the time, but you know it’s because we care, right? Everyone just wants you to be with someone who doesn’t jerk you around so much.”

“Thanks.” I pulled my lips up a little on the corners when I looked at him, letting him know it was all good.

He was right about one thing: I needed to find someone who wouldn’t jerk me around. In fact, I’d do everything I could to make sure the next woman I dated knew what she wanted before anything got serious between us. If she seemed flighty or wishy-washy in the slightest? Boom. I’m out.

❤️ Military Hero

❤️ Roadtrip Romance

❤️ Single Mom

❤️ Light Suspense

❤️ Runaway Bride

❤️ Small-Town Vibes

Brides of Beaufort

📚 The Proposal - Paul & Shelby
📚 The Planner - Will & Aria
📚 The Bridesmaid - Zac & Layla
📚 The Fake Date - Beau & Lindi
📚 The Contract - Chase & Zoe
📚 The Proposal - Nate & Nikki

Related Standalone:

📚 The Beginning - Thatcher & Hattie

Note: Chronologically, this one is set 30 years before book one of this series. It’s where you’ll meet Ms. Hattie (the much-loved, meddling matchmaker in the main series) and watch her find forever with her now husband, Thatcher. There’s no reason you can’t read it last if you’d like to start with the main books, but if you’d like to read them in chronological order, that’s how it goes! :)

📚 BONUS 📚

Love the San Diego or Kailua Marines? The Brides of Beaufort series follows our Kailua heroes, and you’ll even see cameos from the characters in San Diego! But, no worries, all of the books can be read as standalones if you’re just in the mood for a specific trope/location. It’s just fun to run into old friends sometimes if you read them in order! :)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Runaway

"What a fun, wild, sweet, and beautiful story!! 😍 I absolutely loved Nikki and Nate, and the whole runaway bride story was gripping! Marigold and her teenage vocabulary and interactions with Nate was just great. 😂 This was the last book in the series and seeing cameos from the previous MCs and the continuation of their stories was so heartwarming! I greatly enjoyed this series of clean, Marine romance and definitely recommend it! 😆"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great as Usual

"Love the lives of military and this one stood up to the test. I loved the story of imperfect people who come together and make a life together. Mix in military life and it can be difficult but love overcomes."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great romance

"A wonderful cross-country trip. Nikki leaves her groom at the alter when she overhears him; that he will be sending her daughter Marigold away to boarding school. Nikki's Aunt Hattie asks her friend Nate to take Nikki and Marigold with him on his way to his next Marine post. There are so many twists and turns that are hilarious. Great plot, beautiful settings, and interesting complex characters. Love everything Jess Mastorakos!!"