Project Runaway Bride(13)

Then things had gotten a bit too serious with Reid and begun to scare her. So what had she done? She’d tucked tail and run. Something she realized was becoming a nasty habit.

Or maybe she was just unlucky in love and would mess up any relationship she got into. In which case, why not stick with the status quo?

No one except Reid and Paul had known she’d broken the engagement, and Paul had never given up trying to get her to change her mind. He’d apologized again for losing his temper with her. Agreed that commuting back and forth between Connecticut and New York was a compromise he’d be willing to make, at least for the first few years of their marriage. And he’d assured her that if designing with her sisters was what she enjoyed, then of course he wanted her to continue her partnership in Zaccaro Fashions.

It was everything she’d ever wanted to hear from him, and falling back into the role of his fiancée was so easy.... Why not simply go through with it after all?

It had all made so much sense at the time.

Fate, however, seemed to be working against her.

She had turned her back on Reid with every intention of doing what everybody expected and settling down with Paul....

Boom! The stick had turned blue and she’d discovered she was pregnant with Reid’s child.

She’d run away from her wedding to avoid marrying a man who wasn’t the father of her child....

Boom! Her sisters had sent out the private-sector version of the National Guard to track her down.

She’d snuck off to her family’s lake house in Vermont to hide out for a while....

Boom! The very man she’d least wanted to deal with was the one to find her. The one she’d suddenly found herself alone with in the wilderness.

There was a message in there somewhere. A lesson. A cruel, cruel irony.

And no matter how much she might wish otherwise, she didn’t think Reid would be leaving any time soon. Never mind that he’d done his job—he’d found her, made sure she was okay. He could go back to New York now and report as much to her family.

But he wouldn’t. He would stick around and make her just a little bit miserable first. At least if his arrogant, uninvited disappearance into the cabin was anything to go by.

Juliet considered staying outside. All night, if necessary. Frankly, if the keys to her BMW hadn’t been on a hook in the kitchen—oh, so far away—she would have jumped in the car and raced at sixty or seventy miles per hour in the other direction.

With a sigh, she began to wonder if she would forever feel like running away. And if there was anywhere far enough away to truly escape the myriad problems surrounding her like quicksand.

The smart thing to do would be to face those problems head-on, but no way was she ready for that. Not yet. It was too much, happening all too fast. She still needed time to work it out for herself, let alone figuring out how to tell the rest of the world—or the few people directly involved, at least—what was going on.

Taking a deep breath, she moved the rest of the way around the house, climbing the wide plank porch steps to the front door. She didn’t know what Reid wanted, exactly. Other than finding her, as her sisters had asked, he really didn’t have any reason to stick around. But she knew him well enough to realize he wouldn’t leave until he was darn good and ready.

So she would play along. She’d become a rather good actress over the past several months.

She would simply do the same now, until Reid tired of toying with her and decided to leave her alone. Blessedly alone.

Pulling open the screen, she stepped inside, closing the heavier wood-and-beveled-glass door behind her. Across the way, Reid stood at the kitchen island, making himself at home by pouring himself a glass of orange juice—one of the few things Juliet had picked up at the small general store in town on her way to the cabin. He took a few long swallows before returning the carton to the refrigerator.

Crossing the wide-open space of the living room with its floor-to-ceiling windows facing the lake, she pulled out a stool and took a seat directly across from him, keeping the width of the island between them.

She had to bite her tongue to keep from asking why he was there, what he wanted from her, why he wouldn’t leave. But she knew if she spoke first, she would lose what little solid ground she currently possessed. Better to remain silent and let him steer the direction of their conversation so she at least had a clue of what was going on in that labyrinthine mind of his.

The seconds ticked by. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Then he pulled out a stool of his own and sank down as casually as though he’d lived there all his life.

That had been something else about him that attracted her. How comfortable he seemed to be, no matter his surroundings. Of course, she supposed a man like Reid had earned that right. An ex-army ranger. A self-made millionaire. He’d been everywhere, done everything.