Runaway Bride by Rita Hestand

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  Savannah couldn't see the highway for the tears in her eyes. She'd never been so embarrassed in her life, except maybe when she caught Chad and Douglas together. Everything seemed to come crashing down on her now.

  It wasn't that she couldn't accept his life; it was that she couldn't accept hers. Her plans for marriage and family had become an obsession. She had it planted in her mind so deep, that she didn't consider anything else in her life. She could live without marriage, couldn't she?

  Stupid, that's what she was. Now everyone knew what a fool she had been. For almost marrying Chad, for falling in love with Ben...oh her life was a total mess. Even her work as a photographer didn't cheer her. Why should it, she reasoned, her father's disapproval made her sick. Why couldn't she ever do anything right?

  Thunder sounded above her, but she wasn't frightened. She was too humiliated to be anything but miserable.

  The rain began slowly at first, in big heavy drops, but before long it began to pour. She didn't know where she was going, didn't care.

  She also hadn't paid the least bit of attention to the gas tank or she would have known she was about to run out. When the engine started sputtering, she glanced at the dash and saw another big blunder. She'd passed high waters, paying little attention, she'd flooded the engine out.

  She pulled to the side of the road, beat the steering wheel several times, then dropped her head and bawled.

  She was berating herself when a knock on her window startled her.

  Slowly her head came up and she knew who she would see, it was him...Ben!

  She didn't wipe away the tears, nor roll the window down, she just sat there.

  He opened the door, and scooted her over.

  "I might have known," he bellowed.

  "Don't you dare say a word to me," she shouted.

  "You don't even know where you are, do you?" He asked, his voice lowering some.

  "No, and I don't care."

  "No, well, you're not more than a hundred yards from the same place you had trouble before."

  "So what?" she cried, her tears still streaming down her face. "So what, how did you find me?"

  "I put an APB out on you as soon as you took off. My office rang me a minute later said they spotted the car, headed west."

  "So," he glanced out the window, "That gully you just passed is washed out. We're stuck again."

  "Stuck....but...." she glanced about her.

  She hadn't noticed the water covering the road, she hadn't noticed anything since she left Ben's house. She just wanted to die...alone.

  "Leave it to you!" he muttered.

  He got out of the car, and came back with a rain slicker, "Here, put this on, and let's go."

  "Where are we going?"

  "To the Dugan place, there's flash flood warning out for this part of the road. Didn't you notice you were in the lowlands. You must have crossed a foot of water back there, didn't you realize it?"

  "No, I wasn't paying attention, I guess."

  "I guess." He pulled her by the arm to his car, then drove to the ranch house again.

  Chapter Eleven