Stealing the Groom Read Online Free PDF Page A

Obviously the seller had exaggerated the cabin, but her grandfather had still fallen in love with its rustic charm.
    And it didn’t have a phone. Which was one of the main reasons she’d chosen it.
    No phone meant no phone calls. Chad was all hers for the whole night.
    She was determined to make him see how bad marrying Claire would be for him.
    “I hope there’s food,” Chad said over his shoulder as he dashed up the steps, taking them two at a time. On the small wooden porch, he stomped his feet, kicking the mud off his expensive dress shoes. “I didn’t get a chance to eat this morning and I’m starving.”
    Amelia rushed around the front bumper of the car to join him. She wiped the muck from her tennis shoes onto the faded sunflowers on the welcome mat.
    Unable to stop her teeth from chattering, she stammered, “Mrs. Foster, the caretaker, said she’d g-g-get here by this morning and stock the pantry for me.” She wiped wet strands of hair away from her eyes and fished the key from her purse.
    Chad removed his tuxedo jacket and draped it over Amelia’s shoulders. “Here. This is drier than your shirt.”
    “I didn’t realize the temperature at night dropped so much here in the mountains this time of year.”
    “It’s May, Ame. The temperature can drop fifteen to twenty degrees depending how far you go into the region.” He tucked the jacket around her and rubbed his hands up and down the sides of her arms briskly. “You said stock the pantry. Just how long did you plan to keep me here?” he asked, impatient as he grabbed the key from her shaking fingers.
    He inserted the key into the lock and pushed hard. The sun-faded wood door swung open with a loud, squeaking protest.
    Stale air whooshed free to greet them and dust particles swirled in the air.
    Amelia sneezed.
    “Well, it’s not the Hilton, but at least we’ll be warm and dry.” Chad fumbled along the wall for the light switch.
    One bulb from a low-hanging light dimly illuminated the center of the room, keeping the rest of it in shadow.
    Amelia forced a cheerful expression to hide her dismay at the small space offered by the one-room cabin and headed straight toward the fireplace. “At least there’s plenty of wood stacked out by the door. Look on the bright side, you loved camping, remember?”
    “I haven’t gone camping since I was a kid. I’m not a Boy Scout anymore, Amelia. In case you haven’t noticed,” he muttered.
    “It’s just for one night,” she said more to reassure herself than him as she hurried to kneel on the gray stone hearth.
    She laid a small pile of kindling in the fireplace and felt along the mantel for matches. As soon as the fire roared to life, she sent Chad a triumphant grin. “I haven’t forgotten my camping skills.”
    Brushing her hands together, she stood and looked around at the furnishings. Definitely not up to the opulence Chad enjoyed in his life, but it was nice in a rustic sort of way.
    A plain wooden table with two ladder-back chairs—one paint-splattered—sat tucked in a corner near a window. A fat blue bowl of wildflowers with drooping blossoms took up space in the middle of the table. At the window beyond the table, faded red gingham curtains arched with every puff of wind, bringing some of the rain inside.
    Amelia hurried over and closed the window, latching it once she had it down, wondering if she’d done the right thing by coming here. She shook off the doubt. She was saving Chad. Of course she’d done the right thing.
    A colorful patchwork quilt topped the iron bed. It would be a cozy, romantic hideaway for a couple, which they weren’t and never would be.
    As Chad had said, they weren’t kids anymore, and crushes and wishes of first kisses were their history, not their future.
    He interrupted her musings when he called her name.
    Holding up two cans of tomato soup, he waved them back and forth. “I found something that’ll hit the spot. Just what we need on a night like tonight.