Read Online Unexpected Wedding by Carla Rossi - Free Book Online Page B

use him as a cushion when we sit out in the field and watch the fireworks,” he said and rolled off.
    “Isn’t it too bright to see anything with all the carnival lights?”
    “They dim everything at nine-thirty.”
    “Nice. I hope my insect repellent hasn’t worn off. I don’t need to be a meal for mosquitos. I get enough of that at camp.”
    “Gotcha covered. I have some in one of these pockets.”
    “What don’t you carry around with you?”
    “Blueberry pie. Wish I had more.”
    Rocky paused at the edge of the sidewalk and let the crowd shuffle past.
    Gia shifted the bear onto her other hip. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing. I’m looking for the path of least resistance.”
    Gia stepped onto grass. “We haven’t had rain. This ground is hard as a rock. If you fall in a hole, I’ll put the bear in the chair and go on without you.”
    “Thanks.”
    She trudged forward to find a good spot. She could hear him right behind her as he worked hard and steady to keep the chair moving across the field. It had to be considerably more difficult than rolling on concrete. Yet, she felt an offer of help would bother him. Not offering to help would bother her.
    “I’ll give you an extra push if you’ll let the bear ride in your lap,” she proposed.
    “I got it,” he said. “There’s a place up ahead that doesn’t look too crowded.”
    “I see it. There’s not much light, but I’ll check for fire ant mounds.”
    “Good idea.”
    “If I’d remembered about the fireworks, I would have brought something to sit on,” she said and dropped her things.
    “Sit on my shirt,” he said and tossed it her way.
    She tossed it back. “I’m not sitting on your white shirt. I’ll be fine.”
    Gia patted the ground beside her. “Can you climb down from that thing and sit here?”
    “Don’t mind if I do.”
    If she’d have blinked, she would have missed the transfer. One second he’d locked his brakes and the next he was beside her on the grass. In one fluid movement he’d leaned forward, stuck his arm out, planted his fist on the ground, and gracefully slipped out of the chair.
    “That was fast,” she said.
    “Years of practice.” He straightened his legs and used the bear as a pillow as he stretched out to watch the sky. “Much better. And don’t be too impressed with the dismount. Gravity helps. Getting back in is the hard part.”
    She leaned back against her share of the stuffed animal. “I was going to wait until I could hear your whole presentation to learn about your injury, but now I’m curious. What happened to you, anyway? Was it football?”
    “That would be a good, tragic tale laced with glamor and its own highlight reel, but no, it wasn’t football.”
    “Car accident?”
    He swiped a lock of dark hair away from his forehead and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Are you going to let me tell my own story?”
    “Yes, and I wish you’d get on with it before the show starts.”
    “All right. Here comes the short version.”
    “Why the short version?”
    “Because it’s your turn to talk. I don’t know anything about you.”
    Gia looked away. Where was she going to start if she ever had to truly tell him about herself? She was a terror as a child, a total mess as a teen, and a repeated failure as a college student. Some days it was hard to remember she’d really pulled herself together. She cleared her throat and turned toward him. “We’ll get to my mistake-filled existence later. Please tell me more. How’d you end up in that chair, what do you do with computers and what do you do for fun?”
    With a curious tilt of his head, he pinned her with a soft but intense gaze. She had to look away again. His heavy sigh seemed to mark his temporary retreat from his own questions.
    “I was at a party I shouldn’t have been at, and on a balcony I shouldn’t have been on because it was too crowded and collapsed. The fall broke my spine. Or should I say my spine broke my fall? I have