The Goodbye Bride Read online

  Advance Praise for The Goodbye Bride

  “Can romance be any more complicated than a bride who doesn’t remember running away from her groom? Denise Hunter’s take on a woman’s attempt to find her way back to happily ever after again is sweetly endearing. Readers will keep turning pages, wanting to know how true love ever went so wrong . . . and if The Goodbye Bride gets her chance to say ‘I do.’ ”

  —BETH K. VOGT, 2015 RITA® FINALIST AND AUTHOR OF CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE

  “I’ve been a long-time fan of Denise Hunter’s, and The Goodbye Bride has everything I’ve come to love about her romances: a plucky heroine with lots of backstory, a yummy hero, and a terrific setting. Her fine attention to detail and the emotional punch of the story made me want to reread it immediately. Highly recommended!”

  —COLLEEN COBLE USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MERMAID MOON AND THE HOPE BEACH SERIES

  “Denise Hunter has done it once again, placing herself solidly on my must-read list! The Goodbye Bride is a tender, thoughtful look at the role memories play in a romance. The clever plot kept me up way past my bedtime—and happy to be so!”

  —DEBORAH RANEY, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CHICORY INN NOVELS SERIES

  “The Goodbye Bride highlights the abandonment that so many have experienced. More importantly, within the context of a wonderful Summer Harbor romance, the author deftly illustrates that there is One who will never abandon us, and when we trust Him, we can in turn trust the people He places in our lives. All this packaged inside one heart-stopping, page-turning romance that will leave the pickiest romance reader delighted and asking for just a few more pages.”

  —CARA C. PUTMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF WHERE TREETOPS GLISTEN AND SHADOWED BY GRACE

  Praise for Denise Hunter

  “[Married ’til Monday] . . . leaves one knowing that love is worth fighting for.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4-STAR REVIEW

  “If you enjoy romance blended with suspense, you’re going to love Denise Hunter’s latest novel. Falling Like Snowflakes will make your heart race twice over—from dread of the bad guys and from the joy of watching Beau and Eden fall in love.”

  —ROBIN LEE HATCHER, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHENEVER YOU COME AROUND AND KEEPER OF THE STARS

  “Denise Hunter writes the most complex, fascinating, and yummy romances out there! Falling Like Snowflakes has it all: a vulnerable young woman on the run with her child, a hunky hero with the guts and determination to help her, and a rugged setting along the coast of Maine. This novel is one you’ll reread again and again.”

  —COLLEEN COBLE, USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE INN AT OCEAN’S EDGE AND THE HOPE BEACH SERIES

  “Hunter is a master romance storyteller. Falling Like Snowflakes is charming and fun with a twist of mystery and intrigue. A story that’s sure to endure as a classic reader favorite.”

  —RACHEL HAUCK, AUTHOR OF THE WEDDING DRESS AND THE ROYAL WEDDING SERIES

  “A handful of authors dominate my must-read list, and Denise Hunter is right at the top. Falling Like Snowflakes is a taut romantic thriller that will warm you to the core.”

  —JULIE LESSMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE DAUGHTERS OF BOSTON, WINDS OF CHANGE, AND HEART OF SAN FRANCISCO SERIES

  “Falling Like Snowflakes is a story of letting go, finding home, and discovering who you really are. It’s a story that highlights the importance of community and faith within a romance that will warm your heart. You’ll discover winter in Maine—and find yourself ready to vacation there when the snowflakes fall. And maybe along the journey, you’ll discover the freedom of letting go and trusting God.”

  —CARA PUTMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF SHADOWED BY GRACE AND WHERE TREETOPS GLISTEN

  “. . . a warm, inspirational tale of ambition, confidence, family, and love.”

  —BOOKLIST ON THE WISHING SEASON

  “A beautiful story—poignant and heartwarming, filled with delightful characters and intense emotion. Chapel Springs is a place anyone would love to call home.”

  —RAEANNE THAYNE, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ON THE WISHING SEASON

  “. . . sparkling contemporary tale of competing ambitions, wounded personalities, and powerful attraction.”

  —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ON THE WISHING SEASON

  “. . . skillfully combines elements of romance, family stories, and kitchen disasters. Fans of Colleen Coble and Robin Lee Hatcher will enjoy this winter-themed novel.”

  —LIBRARY JOURNAL ON THE WISHING SEASON

  “This is an emotional tale of overcoming the fear of loss to love again and God’s love, made manifest through people, healing all wounds. The heroine’s doubts, fears, and eventual acceptance of the gift God has given her are told in a sympathetic and heartwarming way. The hero’s steadfastness is poignantly presented as well.”

  —ROMANTIC TIMES, 4 STARS ON DANCING WITH FIREFLIES

  “Romance lovers will . . . fall for this gentleman who places his beloved’s needs before his own as faith guides him.”

  —BOOKLIST ON DANCING WITH FIREFLIES

  “Hunter’s latest Chapel Springs Romance is a lovely story of lost and found, with a heroine struggling to accept that trusting God doesn’t make life perfect—without loss or sorrow—but can bring great joy. The hero’s love for her and willingness to lose her to save her is quite moving.”

  —ROMANTIC TIMES, 4 STARS ON BAREFOOT SUMMER

  “Jane Austen fans will appreciate the subtle yet delightful Austen vibe that flavors this contemporary cowboy romance—and not just because Pride & Prejudice is protagonist Annie’s favorite book. The Trouble with Cowboys is a fast, fun, and touching read with the added draw of a first kiss that is sure to make my Top 5 Fictional Kisses of 2012. So saddle up, ladies: We have a winner!”

  —USATODAY.COM

  “In the third and final book of the Big Sky series (which can be read out of order), Hunter may use the term ‘cowboy’ too much, but she creates an endearing story of a strong woman who learns to have faith in people and God’s plan—even if it doesn’t make sense at first. This read will not only have fans cheering the characters on, it will leave them feeling inspired in their own lives.”

  —ROMANTIC TIMES, 4 STARS ON THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS

  “. . . a story filled with romantic tension . . . Hunter’s well-developed characters and plot twists make for a delightful and inspirational journey.”

  —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ON THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS

  “A fun weekend read with equal parts spunk and spice, Denise Hunter’s The Accidental Bride will keep readers lassoed up tight ’til the cows come home.”

  — USA TODAY

  OTHER NOVELS BY DENISE HUNTER

  SUMMER HARBOR NOVELS

  Falling Like Snowflakes

  The Goodbye Bride

  Just a Kiss (coming September 2016)

  THE CHAPEL SPRINGS ROMANCE SERIES

  Barefoot Summer

  Dancing with Fireflies

  The Wishing Season

  Married ’til Monday

  A December Bride (novella)

  THE BIG SKY ROMANCE SERIES

  A Cowboy’s Touch

  The Accidental Bride

  The Trouble with Cowboys

  NANTUCKET LOVE STORIES

  Driftwood Lane

  Seaside Letters

  The Convenient Groom

  Surrender Bay

  Sweetwater Gap

  NOVELLAS INCLUDED IN

  Smitten

  Secretly Smitten

  Smitten Book Club

  © 2016 by Denise Hunter

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photo
copy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-0-7180-2374-4 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Hunter, Denise, 1968-

  Title: The goodbye bride : a Summer Harbor novel / Denise Hunter.

  Description: Nashville, Tennessee : Thomas Nelson, [2016] | Series: Summer Harbor ; 2

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015035781 | ISBN 9780718023737 (softcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Amnesia--Fiction | Man-woman relationships--Fiction. | GSAFD: Love stories. | Christian fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3608.U5925 G66 2016 | DDC 813/.6--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035781

  16 17 18 19 20 RRD 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  Discussion Questions

  Acknowledgments

  An Excerpt from Barefoot Summer

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Lucy Lovett had barely opened her eyes when she took notice of the pain hammering at the back of her head. She groaned, her fingers finding the tender spot, a lump that pushed up through her thick brown hair.

  She closed her eyes again as other details registered. Her cheek, pressed to a cold, hard surface. A girdle-like squeeze in her middle. Pinched toes.

  The squeak of shoes sounded somewhere in the distance, then a thud. Cool air whooshed over her.

  Someone gasped. “Oh no! Miss? Miss, you okay? Oh mercy.”

  Lucy opened her eyes, rolling over, the lump connecting with the hard surface. “Ow.”

  Her gaze drifted over the water-stained ceiling tiles, then fell to the chubby cherub-like face of a middle-aged brunette.

  “How many fingers?” the woman said.

  Three thick fingers blocked Lucy’s vision.

  “Whatever happened?” she asked.

  “Oh dear, you don’t remember?”

  Lucy’s gaze bounced around the room. Gray stalls, a speckled floor, two porcelain sinks, their rusty guts exposed from her vantage point. Her eyes lit on a yellow folded sign on the floor nearby. Caution!Slippery When Wet, it warned above a stick figure doing the slippety-do.

  “I fell.”

  Didn’t she? She must’ve. Why else would she be lying prone on the floor—wet, she realized now, as the dampness registered—with a lump on her head? She winced as her hand found the bump again.

  “Can you get up? Oh, have you hit your head? Maybe we should call 911.”

  “No!” Just the thought of the hospital had her sitting up. “See, I’m just . . .” Her eyes dropped to her lap and took in the frothy white skirt. She followed the delicate beading up the bodice to her bare shoulders. Her thoughts raced, searching for answers, but all she found were scrambled puzzle pieces.

  “Well, who are you here with? I’ll let them know what happened.”

  “I—I’m alone.” Wasn’t she? Why couldn’t she remember?

  “Let’s call somebody then. Your groom perhaps? I’ll get some ice for that head, then we’ll call. He must be worried silly.”

  The woman bustled out the door while Lucy tried to assimilate the facts floating through her ringing head. It couldn’t be her wedding day. That just made no sense whatsoever. It was over a month away. Maybe this was just her fitting. But why didn’t she remember a single thing? Why didn’t she remember getting into the gown or coming here or falling?

  Think, Lucy. Think.

  Her last memory was of cleaning up the restaurant with Zac the night before. He’d walked her to her apartment afterward, the cool fall wind ruffling his longish black hair. He’d slipped his coat over her shoulders, and they’d talked all the way to her door. There, under a puddle of light, she’d looked up into his handsome face, into his stormy gray eyes, and felt a pinch of fear. That niggling worry that something would go horribly wrong and she’d lose the one person she needed more than air.

  A shuffling of feet sounded outside the door, pulling her back to the present. She was fine. She just needed to get up and find Zac. He’d help her make sense of all this.

  Lucy pulled her knees in and braced herself against the subway-tiled wall. As she got to her feet, her eyes fell on the white satin heels pinching her toes. Heels she’d admired a few weeks ago on Nordstrom.com. Kate Spade sling-back peep-toes with tiny demure bows. Shoes that were far out of her budget. She hadn’t ordered them. She’d settled on a cute (if not darling) pair of pumps from a Summer Harbor boutique.

  She looked down at the shoes. And yet, there they were.

  The door burst open, and Cherub reappeared with a baggie of ice. She helped Lucy to her feet, and Lucy set the ice against the lump. A jackhammer was going in her head, and she blinked against the pain.

  “Let’s get you to a chair, honey. I think you should get an X-ray or something. You seem a little muddled.”

  “I’m fine. But I need to call my fiancé.”

  “Of course you do. My cell’s about dead, but the manager will let you use her phone. I think she’s worried about a lawsuit.”

  The bathroom door opened to a bustling diner that looked straight out of the 1950s with red stools and a black-and-white tiled floor. Lucy didn’t recognize the place. A savory smell hung in the air, making her stomach churn.

  She looked out the big picture window. The sun sparkled off the ocean in the distance, but the shops across the way were unfamiliar. Some corner of Summer Harbor she hadn’t set eyes on? Though the little town only had so many corners, and she thought she’d seen them all.

  Cherub retrieved a phone from the frowning lady behind the counter and handed it to her.

  “You call that fiancé of yours. I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the ladies’ room.

  “There was a sign,” the woman said, glaring. “Soon as you walked in the door. You couldn’t miss it.”

  Lucy nodded, making her head pound harder. Her breaths were quick and shallow. She was sitting in a room full of people, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling so alone. Well, except the one time. But that was
so very long ago. Way before Zac.

  He’s only a phone call away.

  Lucy punched his cell number into the handset, trying to ignore the frowning manager and the prying eyes. She supposed it wasn’t every day a person saw a bride in a diner.

  Zac must be fretting about her, she thought as the phone rang. She did hope he wasn’t waiting at the chapel. She glanced at the clock on the diner wall. No, it was too early for that. The wedding didn’t start until five thirty.

  My wedding day. What happened to the past month?

  She pushed the questions away. Needing Zac more than ever, she dialed the Roadhouse.

  Zac Callahan lined up the shot, drew back the stick, and struck the cue ball. It rolled forward, spinning across the green felt, and kissed the solid blue ball, which shot off at an angle and sank into the corner pocket.

  The bystanders erupted in cheers. Wagers always had a way of upping involvement.

  “Of all the luck,” Beau said.

  Zac straightened to his full six-four height. “Luck’s got nothing to do with it, big brother.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” Beau surveyed the table, his near-black eyes narrowing in a frown.

  Zac had left him nothing. With the rest of his evening on the line, he wasn’t leaving it up to chance. Marci, one of his servers, had called in sick, and the crowd was picking up. He was going to need the extra hands.

  “I can’t wait to see you in that apron,” Zac said.

  “Not happening.” Beau’s dark hair hung forward as he took a shot and missed.

  His new fiancée, Eden, consoled him with a pat on the arm and mouthed to Zac, I’m so there.

  “Zac, you’re wanted on the phone!” his hostess called on her way past the poolroom.

  He set down the cue stick and pointed at Beau. “No cheating.”

  Beau gave a Who, me? face as Zac headed toward the counter. The restaurant was already half full because of the Red Sox game on TV. The crowd gave a hearty shout as the tying run crossed home plate.

  Zac paused a moment to watch, then continued on his way. He patted Sheriff Colton’s shoulder as he passed and avoided the booth where Morgan LeBlanc sat with a friend. He’d had a couple dates with Morgan, and they were going out again soon. He tried to work up some excitement about that and failed.