Mismatch Read Online Free PDF Page B

“cute” with his wholesome kind of all-American looks. Even with his stubborn chin and a scowl pulling his dark blond brows low over his eyes, his was a friendly face.
    “Yeah, well . . .” He dug into his pocket for an antacid tablet. “I didn’t want it on my conscience if you accidentally burned this place to the ground or got attacked by a bear or something.”
    Bronwynn smiled at him in genuine surprise. “You were worried about me. How sweet.”
    “I thought you needed a keeper,” Wade said, pushing himself to his feet and pushing his attraction to Bronwynn a good arm’s length away. “I was right.”
    She stuck her tongue out at him. They may have been in the Middle of Nowhere, Vermont, but he showed all the signs of being a stuffed shirt, corporate type. How was it then that she felt this stirring of desire for him? How could she feel desire for any man after what she’d been through with Ross?
    Maybe it was
because
of what she’d been through with Ross, she realized. Maybe she was experiencing a natural human need to be comforted, to be desired by another person after what amounted to a rejection. Finding out her fiancé had wanted someone else, that she hadn’t been enough for him, had to be considered rejection . . . of the worst kind.
    One thing her attraction to Wade Grayson was telling her: She had made the right decision in not marrying Ross.
    “That’s a great outfit,” he remarked dryly. “You’re really getting your money’s worth out of that dress.”
    Bronwynn glanced down and shrugged. “So it’s not haute couture. I never did make it to France today anyway. I was going to change, but I couldn’t get out of the darn thing. There are forty ridiculously tiny pearl buttons down the back. Only a contortionist could undo them without help.”
    She led the way into the parlor and settled back down on the couch, tucking her legs into her sleeping bag as she watched Wade move his gear in. He gave her a look that discouraged argument or discussion and said, “I’m staying here tonight.”
    Bronwynn nodded. After the scare he’d given her, she wasn’t inclined to refuse. Even disagreeable company was better than waiting for some ghoul in a Halloween mask to sneak up on her with a chain saw. She waved an arm at the ravaged packages of junk food beside her. “Help yourself to supper.”
    “I brought peanut butter sandwiches,” he said, settling cross-legged on his sleeping bag on the floor and digging one slightly mushed sandwich out of the brown sack. “Want one?”
    “Do they have bananas on them?” she asked hopefully.
    Wade made a face. “Don’t make me queasy on top of everything else, Bronwynn.”
    “Have you ever tried them with bananas?”
    “I don’t have to. I don’t have to try calf’s brains to know I wouldn’t like them either.”
    She was right, he was a stuffed shirt. He probably favored plain vanilla ice cream and kept the foods on his plate from touching one another. She sat back and munched on a cookie. “You obviously have no sense of adventure.”
    Wade looked around them. “I’m spending the night in the Munster mansion with a pyromaniac in a wedding dress, and you say I have no sense of adventure? What do you want me to do, throw some cobras around on the floor to make it more exciting?”
    Bronwynn looked up at the cracked plaster ceiling and heaved a sigh. “No, thanks. I’ve had all the excitement I can take for one day.”
    “Do I get an explanation?” Wade asked. He thought he deserved one, but he wasn’t going to force the issue if it really upset her. He watched her while he waited for her answer. She ran her hands back through hair that shone like dark copper in the lantern light.
    “I guess you deserve one,” she said at length. “I walked out in the middle of my wedding today.”
    “You did what?” Maybe she was even more of a kook than he’d first guessed. He wondered if there were people somewhere searching for her.
    “Two