Runaway Love (Prequel of Runaway Wife)
Prequel of Book 5)
To Have & To Hold, Book 5.5
Joy has learned not to expect much from life. Abandoned as a child and raised in foster care, she's built walls around her heart and focused on getting her degree and building a better future. But when she meets Nolan Christakis, everything changes.
Nolan is charming, passionate, and completely unlike anyone Joy has ever known. He sees her. He wants her. And despite every instinct telling her to run, Joy falls hard. Within months, they're married and expecting a baby.
But Nolan's world is nothing like Joy's. His mother is determined to destroy their relationship, and she'll stop at nothing to drive them apart.
As Joy navigates pregnancy, prejudice, and the suffocating pressure of Nolan's family, she must decide what she's willing to sacrifice for love. And Nolan must choose between the family that raised him and the woman he loves.
Being mindful of her aversion to extravagant public displays, Nolan wasn’t inclined to surreptitiously place a diamond ring in a glass of champagne or bribe a waiter to conceal it in her pavlova. He wanted to be direct, let her know how much he felt for her through the sincerity of his words, rather than resort to theatrics.
At what he hoped was the right moment, Nolan withdrew a tiny box from his pocket, reached across the table, taking her hand. Her eyes were round and puzzled, and he could tell that she had been struggling inside herself to say something too, except he was about to beat her to it.
He took a deep breath and asked, “Joy, my heart, my everything. You’ve made every single day since I met you more beautiful and meaningful than I ever could have imagined. I can’t imagine my life without you. Will you marry me?”
There they were, the words were out of his mouth—the problem was that at the very end of his speech, Joy said something too. Words he couldn’t make sense of. Couldn’t understand.
“Nolan, I think we should break up.”
They stared at each other in astonishment, both suggestions hanging between them, at war. Both were diametrically opposed. One idea the death of the other.
He spoke first. “No.”
