Wedding Survivor Read Online Free PDF Page B

reasons. It had been only a year since he'd been jilted at the altar in another big to-do. Yep, Eli McCain had been left standing holding the proverbial bag while the rest of the world read about it in the tabloids. The last thing he wanted or needed was a wedding in his life.
    Nevertheless he was voted down—they would hire a wedding planner. But they agreed they would hire an unknown planner who didn't have a public relations office so the press wouldn't get wind of it. And as the wedding itself would require some hiking and lifting and various other physical activities (the dale was beautiful, but it was awfully remote at eleven thousand feet), they would need a wedding planner who could at least climb trees and rocks. Thus, the idea for the audition was born.
    At that point, the guys had tackled the even harder issue of who among them would lead this expedition into virgin territory. No one stepped up. All of them said, "Not me, pal." Several bawdy and impolite things were said about weddings and marriage in general. They had at last decided which of them would lead—from the canyoning all the way to through the wedding—in their usual customary fashion.
    In a cruel and ironic twist of fate, Eli lost his round of rock, paper, scissors.
    Personally, he didn't think there could possibly be a worse choice than him. As Cooper explained everything, just watching Mamie's eyes light up at the very mention of wedding plans and exotic locales made his stomach churn. What
was
it with women and fancy weddings? If Eli
ever
contemplated marriage again, which he'd never do, he'd run off to Vegas or something.
    "So what do you think, Marnie?" Cooper asked after the spiel.
    It was clear what Marnie thought—she beamed like a ray of pure sunshine, the light coming right out of her maple eyes. "Are you kidding? A wedding in the mountains? I can't think of a more romantic setting!"
    "I guess it's romantic," Cooper said with a shrug, "but it's not easy. It involves a lot of physical stuff. And we can't afford to have a team member who isn't in shape and can't pull her own weight, you know what I mean?" . "Absolutely!"
    "That's why we need you to climb that rope."
    Mamie's beaming smile faded a little. "Well… okay. Sure!" She didn't sound very sure, but she put aside her bag, her melon, and her red hat nonetheless. "I'm not exactly dressed for it," she said, looking down at her black slacks.
    "That's why I said to dress in banging-around clothes," Eli explained.
    She gave him a brief, withering look. "I didn't realize 'banging around' meant rope climbing." She walked past him to the edge of the pavilion and stared at the rope. "Just up and down once, right?"
    "Right," Coop said.
    With a small sigh, she headed for the rope. The guys followed her. She stopped at the rope, rubbed her hands on her black slacks, then rubbed them together as she eyed the thing. Eli stepped up to spot her. "It's easy," he said. "Watch me." He jumped up on the rope, quickly scaled to the top, then just as quickly lowered himself to die ground.
    Marnie frowned.
    "Marnie… have you ever climbed a rope?" he asked carefully.
    "Of
course
I have climbed a rope," she said. "Granted, it's been a few years, like maybe twenty-five, but hey, I've climbed one. I can
do
this."
    Okay, then, it was clear they weren't going to find a wedding planner who could climb a rope. And honestly, Eli felt a little sorry for her. She seemed so… so
spunky
and so desperate to get this job. She definitely got extra points for being the only one of the four women they had talked to who'd made it to the rope.
    "Listen," he said, "if you can't get all the way up, don't worry about it. We're not going to cut you for failing the rope climb. It's just so we can get a feel for your strength."
    "You might want to stand back," she said, ignoring him, and with a grunt, she launched herself at the rope, jumping up and grabbing on about halfway up.
    And there she hung, clinging desperately to it, her