For Stella, loving Nate Miller is as obvious and necessary as breathing. She’s been madly in love with him since she was twelve, but as he was five years older and the high-school football star, he never saw her as anything other than a little sister. Now they’re both grown up and Stella still feels the same way, but this time Nate feels something too… Only problem is he’s using her to be on a TV show!
Age Rating: 18+
Journey’s End by Dellywrites is now available to read on the Galatea app! Read the first two chapters below, or download Galatea for the full experience.
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1
For Stella, loving Nate Miller is as obvious and necessary as breathing. She’s been madly in love with him since she was twelve, but as he was five years older and the high-school football star, he never saw her as anything other than a little sister. Now they’re both grown up and Stella still feels the same way, but this time Nate feels something too… Only problem is he’s using her to be on a TV show!
Age Rating: 18+
Original Author: Dellywrites
My headlights bounced off the Welcome To Donaldsonville sign as I rolled into the sleepy little town where I grew up.
Small patches of dirty snow still lingered along the curbs on Main Street, serving as a stark reminder that this was Northern Michigan, where winter storms weren’t unheard of in April.
I sighed heavily when I turned onto the tree-lined street of two-storey Colonials with wide front verandas. Nothing much had changed in the two years since I’d been home.
I pulled into my parents driveway and cut the engine, dread descending on me like a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing in my ears. I hadn’t even stepped out of the car, and I was already bored.
I was a thrill seeker with the attention span of a gnat. I’d spent the last eight years wandering aimlessly from job to job and city to city. After one year of college, I knew it wasn’t for me. I started taking pictures and selling them on the internet to make money.
Next thing I knew, I landed a job as a photographer. I bought a fancy camera, and before long I was raking in the dough. I took photography classes and started building my fortune doing freelance work.
When I met Holly, I thought I’d found the perfect woman for me. She loved to travel and participate in extreme sports. That’s how I met her. On a skydiving trip. We were together for two years. I thought everything was great.
We were happy. Or I was. Apparently, she wasn’t. She came home one day and delivered an ultimatum. She was ready to settle down and get married. If I wasn’t onboard, then it was over.
Ouch.
Obviously, I was not onboard. Which is how I found myself in my parent’s driveway on that early spring evening.
I’d just slammed my truck door when my mom came flying down the porch steps
“Nathaniel!” she cried, throwing her arms around me. “I can’t believe my baby is finally home.”
“I’m not a baby, Ma,” I chuckled. “I’m twenty-seven-years-old.”
“You’ll always be my baby,” she said, patting me on the cheek. “No matter how old you get.”
“I know,” I sighed, wrapping my arm around her waist before we headed up the porch steps.
“Nate, my boy,” my dad said, rising from his chair and pulling me into a giant bear hug. “Good to have you home. It’s been too long.”
“I know, Dad. Sorry about that.”
“Where’s your stuff?” my mom asked, her eyes scanning the bed of my truck. “I thought you were here to stay.”
“Ellie,” my dad warned quietly.
“It’s okay, Dad.” I turned to my mom, who was still staring at my truck as if she hoped all my stuff would magically appear. “Mom, I’m here until I figure out what I wanna do next.
I can’t stay forever. I don’t have a lot. Just a couple suitcases and a box of keepsakes. I let Holly have most of the stuff in our apartment.”
“Oh,” she said softly. “Well, bring in whatever you brought. I’m gonna go get dinner on the table.”
***
The neighbourhood was quiet that night. It was too early in the spring for crickets. There was no traffic. Never was in Donaldsonville, with a population of only 4500.
Not even a damn dog barking. I’d only been home for two hours, and I was already itching to leave. But I had nowhere to go.
I had lots of money in the bank. That wasn’t the issue. I just didn’t know where I wanted to go. Definitely not back to LA. Two years living there was enough.
Between the traffic and the smog and the superficial people, I’d had my fill. I preferred to be out in the wilderness somewhere taking pictures of wildlife, not chicks in bikinis with fake tits.
I reached for my beer, tipping the bottle back while I watched a BMW pull into the driveway next door. As soon as I saw who was in the driver’s seat, I was on my feet and across the lawn in two seconds flat.
“Hey, man!” I shouted, pulling him into a one armed hug before accepting the handshake of my childhood best friend.
Jackson Davis and I grew up together. His parents still lived next door to mine. We’d kept in touch through social media over the years, but I couldn’t remember the last time we got together.
Maybe once or twice in the two years I was in LA. Jackson was a big shot producer at a major television network.
“Good to see you, Nate,” he said. “Mom told me you were coming back to town.”
“I’m sure she did,” I chuckled. “What are you doing here? I’m guessing your life didn’t fall apart.”
He leaned against his fancy rental car, shooting me a sympathetic smile. “No. It didn’t. I’m really sorry to hear about you and Holly.”
I shrugged. “It’s no biggie. We wanted different things. It happens.”
He nodded. “So what are your plans now?”
“Well, right now I’m gonna have a beer with an old friend,” I said.
“Sounds like a plan.” He pushed off the car and followed me up to my porch. “My folks are out for dinner with some friends tonight, so I won’t get in shit from Ma if I hang out over here for a bit.”
“That’s good,” I chuckled. “I wouldn’t want you to get grounded.”
I grabbed a couple more beers from inside and we settled on the porch.
“So, how long are you home for?” I asked.
“Just a couple days. We’re heading out on the road in a few weeks for filming. I’ll be gone for four months.”
“Really? I thought you taped those shows in a month.”
Jackson was a producer for a hit tv series called Marathon of Adventure. Teams of two traveled all over the world in an elimination type race for a million dollar prize.
It was one of the few tv shows I watched. I would love to be on that show someday. But the competition and audition process was unbelievable.
“We usually do,” he said, setting his beer on the table. “But this is a special edition. We’re trying something different.”
“Oh yeah? I know you can’t tell me many details, but give me some hint. You know how much I love your show.”
“I can tell you a lot about it if you sign an NDA,” he said, eyeing me nervously.
“What? A non disclosure agreement?” I shook my head. “What the fuck?”
“That’s actually why I came home this weekend, Nate. To see you.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “You lost me. You came all the way to Michigan to tell me about your new show?”
“I’ll be right back.” He jogged to his car and returned with a briefcase.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to read his poker face as he handed me a pen and a sheet of paper on a clipboard. After I scanned the document, I scribbled my signature at the bottom and handed it back to him.
He tucked it away in his briefcase before turning to me with excitement sparkling in his eyes. “We’re doing a road trip across America. Four months. The contestants have to drive RVs from state to state and complete challenges and scavenger hunts.
Every night, they check into a campground. Whichever team arrives first, collects the passport for that state. Whatever team has the most states at the end, wins five hundred thousand dollars. There’s no eliminations. Everyone completes the entire race.”
“Why only five hundred grand? Usually it’s a million.”
“Because it’s not as intense. The contestants don’t fly anywhere or go to any foreign countries. It’s more like an adventure than a race. Kind of a cross between a race and a reality show. And the winners of each leg get a thousand dollars.”
“So five hundred? I assume that’s split between you and your partner?”
“Well yeah,” he chuckled.
“So why are you here, Jackson? I doubt you flew all the way here just to tell me about your new show.”
“This show is my baby, Nate. I came up with the idea and presented it to the big wigs. And they liked it. They made it happen. This was gonna be the turning point in my career.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, studying his face in the glow of the porch light. “Is there a problem with your show?”
He nodded and took a swig of his beer. “A huge fucking problem. We had two teams back out.”
“I thought you always had a shit ton of alternates in case that happened.”
“We did. But only one team can do the show.”
“How is that possible? I thought you always had thousands of people audition?”
“We didn’t have as many for this edition. It’s a little different asking people to leave their jobs and families for four months as opposed to one month. And the requirements narrow down the pool of eligible contestants quite a bit.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s only married couples. And they have to be newlyweds. Married less than two years.”
“Oh my God,” I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re doing The Newlywed Game.”
“Kind of. Anyways, if I don’t find another team, the whole thing is going to get cancelled. And my career will be over.”
“Why can’t they do it with nine teams?”
“I don’t know. They don’t want to. They want ten. And I can’t go back to LA until I find another team.”
“I’m really sorry, man. I wish there was something I could do to help you out.”
“You could go on the show,” he said, a sheepish grin spreading across his lips.
“I’m not married! I don’t even have a girlfriend, Jackson.”
“You have a month,” he said with a shrug. “You could get married, go on the show, then just get it annulled.”
“What?!” I stared at my friend, waiting for him to crack the smile that told me he was joking.
“You’ve wanted to be on my show forever. And think of the money if you won.”
“And wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest since you’re my friend?”
“No. I’m an assistant producer. I don’t have any control over the outcome of the race. My boss told me to find a couple. He doesn’t care who they are as long as they have a marriage certificate and a completed health assessment that says they are physically and mentally fit.”
“I’d really love to do this, man. But I can’t pull a wife out of thin air.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he said with a sly grin.
I followed his gaze to the house across the street just as a light came on in an upstairs window. A willowy figure appeared, closing the curtains.
“No way,” I laughed.
“Why not?”
“I am not marrying Stella Crane.”
“Why not? She’s single. And I happen to know she’s had a crush on you forever. She’d definitely say yes.”
“You don’t know that, Jackson.”
“And neither do you unless you ask.”
I sighed heavily, running my fingers through my hair while I stared at the house across from mine.
Stella Crane had lived across the street from me since we were kids. Our dads were childhood best friends. Stella’s mother died when she was a baby.
Her dad moved in across the road so my mom could babysit while he worked. My mom became like a substitute mother for Stella. Her dad never remarried. It was just the two of them.
Stella was five years younger than me. She practically grew up in my house until she was old enough to stay home alone. By that time I was a teenager.
I was too busy playing football and hockey to pay much attention to a nerdy, preteen girl with acne who looked at me like I hung the fucking moon.
“I haven’t talked to Stella in years. And you want me to march over there and ask her to marry me?” I shook my head. “You’re insane, Jackson Davis.”
“Maybe you’re insane, Nathaniel Miller. I’m offering you the opportunity to do something you’ve always wanted to do, with the chance to win a lot of money. And you won’t even consider it?”
“I wanted to be on the normal version of Marathon of Adventure. Not the newlywed version.”
“Beggers can’t be choosers.”
“Even if I was actually considering this, which I’m not, Stella Crane would be my last choice for a partner. She doesn’t have an athletic bone in her body.”
“But she’s smart. Stella Crane is a fucking genius. She just finished her masters degree in business. At age twenty-two! What she lacks in brawn, she definitely makes up for in brains. And you definitely need some brainiac action on this race.”
“Why do I feel like you had this all planned out?” I asked. “You already had a wife picked out for me, didn’t you?”
“This is my career on the line, Nate.”
“She’ll never agree to this. Not in a million years.”
“Are you saying yes?!”
“I’d do anything for you, Jackson. You know that. But I can’t force Stella to marry me.”
“Leave that all up to me,” he said, rising from his chair as he rubbed his palms together. “I can be very convincing.”
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2
I closed my laptop and pushed my chair away from my desk. My mind was too preoccupied with the man across the street. I couldn’t believe it when I looked out my window and saw Nate Miller sitting on his parent’s front porch.
I had no idea he was coming home. His mom never said a word when she came over a couple nights ago to loan my dad her suitcase scale. Maybe it was a surprise visit. He hadn’t been home in two years. And why was Jackson Davis back in Donaldsonville at the same time?
I turned off the light and peeked out the curtain. They were still sitting there, drinking beer. But it looked like they were having a serious conversation. I shook my head, disgusted with myself for being nosey.
I had more important things to think about than Nate Miller. Like getting a job. Because there were so many opportunities for someone with an MBA in Donaldsonville, Michigan. I would probably end up teaching at the university in nearby Sault Ste. Marie.
I came home out of guilt. My dad was all alone. I’d been gone for five years. I left for Stanford when I was seventeen. I skipped a grade and graduated high school a year early before completing my masters degree in five years.
My entire education was funded by scholarships. My dad never had to pay a dime, and I finished without any debt. I could go anywhere I wanted. And I came home to Nowhere, USA.
Then my dad took off for Las Vegas with his friends for a guy’s weekend. Unbelievable. Two days after I moved home, he left.
My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d skipped dinner. I was just about to head downstairs to the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Who would stop by at eight o’clock at night? I peeked out the curtain again. There was no car in the driveway. And Nate and Jackson were gone.
I crept down the stairs and tiptoed to the front door, pressing my eye up to the peephole. Nate and Jackson were standing on my porch!
My heart took off in a crazy gallop, my belly fluttering with a mixture of nerves and excitement. What were they doing here? I couldn’t remember the last time Nate came to my house.
And he only ever came with his parents when we were little. When he became a teenager, he stopped coming. We probably hadn’t exchanged more than a hi in the last several years.
Jackson reached up and rang the bell again. Should I open the door? I glanced down at my attire. My pink pajama pants with unicorns were really sexy.
Not to mention the ratty old t-shirt I was wearing. And I didn’t have a bra on. Not that I needed one. My little boobs were barely noticeable.
“Just a minute,” I yelled before I darted upstairs and grabbed a hoodie.
I took a deep breath, willing my heart rate to settle down as I turned the deadbolt and pulled open the front door.
“Hi,” I said. “What can I do for you guys?”
“Can we come in?” Jackson asked.
“No. I’ll come out on the porch.” I didn’t feel comfortable being alone in my house with two men. Even if they were guys I’d known my whole life.
“Fair enough,” Nate said as he took a seat in one of the wicker chairs my dad kept on the porch.
Jackson leaned against the railing and gestured for me to take the other chair. I sat down, glancing back and forth between them as I waited for one of them to say something.
“Nate has a proposition for you,” Jackson said.
I looked at Nate expectantly. He rubbed his hands up and down his thighs, his eyes fixed on the floor of the porch.
I couldn’t recall ever seeing Nate Miller nervous before. He was as gorgeous as ever. And a lot bigger than I remembered. He’d filled out. I couldn’t help noticing the muscles rippling underneath his tight grey t-shirt.
Were his shoulders always that broad? And when did he get the tattoos? Both of his arms were covered in some kind of intricate design.
He ran his fingers through his thick, chestnut waves, those devilish blue eyes scanning my chest as he cleared his throat.
I folded my arms over my chest. Why was Nate checking me out? He’d never done that before. Ever. Although to be fair, the last time I’d spent any time around him, I was thirteen.
“Jackson is one team short for the next season of Marathon of Adventure. He asked me if I would do it.”
“Hold on,” Jackson said, raising his hand. “She needs to sign an NDA before this conversation goes any further.”
“Why do I have to sign one?” I asked, wrinkling my brow. “This has nothing to do with me.”
Jackson opened his briefcase, that I hadn’t even noticed he’d brought, and produced a sheet of paper. “If you’ll just sign this, we’ll answer all your questions.”
“Seriously?” I scoffed, grabbing the piece of paper from his hand. I skimmed the paper before penning my signature at the bottom.
“Go for it, Nate,” Jackson said as he slid my NDA back in his briefcase.
“Well, here’s the thing,” he started, rubbing his jaw as he stared out at the street. “Where’s your dad?”
“What?” What did this have to do with my dad? Or me for that matter?
“He’s gone to Vegas. Why?”
“Just wondered,” Nate replied. “So, um. Yeah.”
“Oh my God,” Jackson snorted impatiently. “I need a newlywed couple for my show or I’m gonna get fired. Nate agreed to go on the show, but he needs a partner. And that partner has to be his wife.”
I stared at Jackson, my mouth hanging open wide as I processed his words. “Are you out of your ever loving mind, Jackson Davis?”
“Probably,” he sighed. “But my career is at stake.”
“And you agreed to this?” I asked, glancing over at Nate.
“Yeah.” His eyes locked onto mine, sending a shiver down my spine. I was still attracted to him after all these years. “We would get it annulled as soon as we were done filming the show. It’s not a big deal. It would be in name only to meet the requirements.”
“Are you guys insane?” I yelled.
“Shhh,” Jackson hushed. “This is top secret stuff. You signed an NDA.”
I stood up and pointed to the stairs. “Leave. Now. My answer is no.”
“Won’t you at least think about it?” Jackson whined.
“No. I’m not participating in a fake marriage. And I have no desire to be on your show. I’m sorry I can’t help you, Jackson.”
“Sorry for bothering you, Stella,” Nate said, smiling sadly before descending the stairs.
Jackson opened his briefcase and pulled out a red duo-tang. “Here,” he said, handing me the folder. “In case you change your mind. This has all the information potential contestants receive. But make sure nobody else sees it. It’s confidential.”
After they left, I went back inside and closed and bolted the door. My knees trembled as I walked into the living room and flopped on the sofa.
What just happened? Cause it kind of seemed like Nate Miller asked me to marry him. And be his partner on Marathon of Adventure. I could never do something like that. Even if it didn’t involve a fake marriage.
I wasn’t athletic. I could barely run down the sidewalk without getting out of breath. And the contestants on that show had to do some pretty extreme stuff. There was no way on this earth I could repel down the side of a mountain or go bungee jumping.
My iPad dinged, alerting me that I had an incoming FaceTime call.
“Hey, Dad!” I said.
“Hey, kitten. How’s everything at home?”
“Everything’s fine, Dad.” I squinted as he panned out. What the hell was he wearing? My dad was decked out in a baby blue, retro tuxedo, grinning from ear to ear. “What’s going on? Are you drunk?”
“Drunk on love, baby,” he said in his best Elvis impersonation. I should mention that my dad is a huge Elvis fan.
“What are you talking about?” I laughed.
A young, red-headed woman appeared in the frame. She was probably around my age. Dread seeped into my gut as I took in her white dress and the baby’s breath in her hair.
“Dad, what is going on?” My voice shook as I prayed this wasn’t what it looked like.
“I got married, honey,” he announced proudly, wrapping his arm around the girl’s shoulder.
“Excuse me?”
“This is my wife, Tina.”
The iPad slipped through my fingers, landing on the sofa with a soft thud. My dad got married? To a girl who didn’t look much older than me. This was not happening.
“Stella, are you there?”
I swallowed hard, picking up the iPad with trembling hands. “I’m here, Dad.”
“Hello,” Tina said with a little wave.
“How? When?”
“We met last night. She was our waitress at the club we went to. As soon as our eyes met, I knew. After she got off work, we met up and talked. One thing led to another, and we decided to get married.”
“You married a cocktail waitress in Vegas! Dad! Are you insane!?”
“Don’t be rude, Stella.”
“How old is she, Dad?”
“Stella,” he warned in that voice that always alerted me to the fact that my dad was getting angry. But I didn’t care. I was pissed.
“How old, Dad?”
“Tina is twenty-four. So you two should have a lot in common. I’m hoping you will become best friends.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” I shrieked. “She’s a cocktail waitress! From Vegas! She’s probably a stripper. She is, isn’t she?!”
“Stella! Enough!”
“I’m hanging up now, Dad. And I won’t be here when you arrive home with your new ‘wife’.”
“Why don’t we talk more about this tomorrow when you’ve had a chance to calm down?”
“Bye, Dad.”
My body shook, rage sweeping through my veins as I fought the urge to break something. I considered myself a pretty easy going person. It took a lot to trigger my anger switch.
How could my dad marry a woman he just met? That wasn’t like him. He didn’t have a spontaneous bone in his body. My dad had never even had a girlfriend since my mom. Not that I knew of anyway.
Nate’s mom told me he started dating after I left for college. But he never mentioned it, so I didn’t bring it up. I was just happy he was getting back out there. I didn’t want him to be alone, but there was no way this marriage was gonna last.
My dad wasn’t old. He was only forty-six. But his wife was almost half his age! And my dad is kind of nerdy like me. He’s an engineering professor at Lake Superior University.
There’s no way a twenty-four year old cocktail waitress wants to be tied down with a guy who likes to spend his Saturday nights playing Scrabble or putting together a puzzle while he watches The Discovery Channel.
My phone chimed with a text from my dad.
I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head. This just kept getting worse.
I started to type that you should get to know someone before you marry them, but then I erased it. What was the point? They were already married. My dad was going to bring home his new family home to live in our house. And I had no intention of sticking around.
My mind was on the high spin cycle, banging against my skull like an unbalanced load in the washing machine.
In the span of one hour I went from the prospect of a quiet, albeit slightly boring life, with just me and my dad and a teaching job at Lake Superior University, to a marriage proposal and the introduction of a stepmother and stepbrother.
I don’t know how long I sat there staring at the fireplace. It wasn’t even lit. It was just the focal point during my temporary catatonic state. The fireplace and the red duo-tang on the coffee table. I kept glancing at it, opening my mind to the opportunity it represented.
A chance to get away at a time when I really needed it. An escape from my new reality. An all expense paid vacation of sorts. With the potential to win a lot of money.
But at what cost? I had to get married. Could I go through with that? It wasn’t like it was a stranger. It was Nate. A guy I’d known my whole life. The son of people who were like parents to me.
And it was only a piece of paper. I wouldn’t be expected to perform wifely duties. I shivered at the thought. There would be no consummation. I would make that crystal clear.
As if Nate would want to have sex with me anyway. No other guy had ever shown any interest. Unless you counted the nerds at Stanford. I’d been asked out many times, but I always declined. I’d never met anyone that held a candle to Nate Miller.
He had ruined me for all other men. Which was silly considering our platonic relationship didn’t really extend beyond casual acquaintances.
I snatched the duo-tang from the table and opened to the first page. It couldn’t hurt to read it. I’d watched every season of the show since it premiered.
But this one was totally different. There were no eliminations! And it sounded a lot more relaxed. The contestants had a full day off in every state before they moved onto the next leg.
There would be no sleeping in airports. We would be driving an RV the whole time. At least we wouldn’t have to carry all our belongings in a heavy backpack.
At midnight, I made a cup of tea. By two am, I’d read the entire package from front to back. At four am, I’d decided I was going to do it. I was going to marry Nate Miller and go on Marathon of America. I eventually fell asleep on the couch just as the sun was coming up.
“Ugh,” I muttered, immediately regretting my decision to sleep on the couch. My whole body felt like a twisted pretzel. I sat up and stretched my stiff neck until I worked out all the kinks.
The red duo-tang was lying open on the coffee table, a jolting reminder of the life altering decision I made in the wee hours of the morning.
But I was committed to it. That’s how I was. Once I made up my mind about something, I usually followed through. This would be no different.
By the time I finished showering and getting dressed, Ellie was on her porch drinking coffee just like she did every morning. I grabbed my jacket from the hall closet and headed across the street.
“Good morning, Stella,” she called out as I headed up her walkway.
“Good morning, Ellie.” She frowned when I reached the top step. “Oh dear. Did you have a rough night, sweetheart?”
“You could say that,” I sighed.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“My dad married a twenty-four year old cocktail waitress he met in Vegas. And she has a kid.”
“Um. Wow.” Ellie set her coffee cup on the table and stood, pulling me into her arms. “Are you okay?”
“Not really,” I whispered.
“That doesn’t sound like something your father would do.”
“No kidding,” I said drily. “So I need to get out of here before he brings his new family home. Where’s Nate?”
“I think he’s still in bed, sweetie. Why?”
“We’re gonna get married and go on Marathon of Adventure.”
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