Stand-in Groom Read Online Free

a jacket that managed to be both mannishly cut and thoroughly feminine. Or maybe it was the fact that Chelsea was wearing it that made it seem so feminine.
    She straightened up as she caught sight of him, obviously waiting for him.
    “Hi, John. Remember me?” She looked slightly self-conscious, slightly nervous. “Chelsea Spencer.”
    Johnny had to laugh. Did he remember her? It was a ludicrous question. “What are you doing here?”
    He looked around at the crumbling brownstone apartment buildings, at the littered sidewalks, at the bent and fading street sign. Yes, this was definitely one of the crummiest streets in one of the crummiest parts of town. He looked again andChelsea Spencer was still standing next to his truck, impossibly out of place.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    She nodded, another flash of something faintly shy and sweet in her blue eyes. “You’re … taller than I remembered.”
    Her eyes lingered on the front of his T-shirt, and he glanced down, suddenly panicked that he was wearing another embarrassing slogan across his chest. But no. Today he was a walking billboard for athletic shoes. JUST DO IT , the white letters on his shirt proclaimed.
    Chelsea tried to hide a smile, meeting his eyes only briefly, and he knew without a doubt that she was remembering the words he had been wearing the last time they met.
I’m too sexy for my shirt
. She was going to remember
that
until the end of time. No doubt he’d made one hell of a first impression.
    “I wanted to talk to you about something, and the Meals on Wheels office wouldn’t give out your phone number. It’s kind of urgent, so instead of leaving you a message, I talked them into telling me your route. I was starting to worry this wasn’treally your truck,” she added. “You were gone an awfully long time.”
    Johnny nodded. “Mr. Gruber’s my last delivery of the morning. Sometimes he needs a little extra attention. Today I played a couple of games of cards with him and helped him repot a plant. But if I’d known you were waiting …”
    “I didn’t mind waiting.” She shifted her weight and cleared her throat and jammed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. She was definitely nervous and Johnny was intrigued. “If you’re done for the day … Do you have to get the truck right back? Or can you take some time to talk?”
    His curiosity kicked into overdrive. “What, did they find the kids who snatched your purse? You need me to testify or something?”
    She shook her head no. “I noticed there’s a coffee shop just around the corner. Would you mind if we sat down and talked?”
    “Sure,” he said. “That’d be great.”
    Johnny forced himself to be cool. She’d asked him to have a cup of coffee. So what? It wasn’t like it was a date or anything—after all, the lady was getting married in just a few short days.
    “Have you ever been married?” she asked,glancing up at him as they walked down the cracked and uneven sidewalk.
    “No. Have you?”
    She shook her head again. “No. So you’re not separated, or waiting for a divorce to come through or something like that?”
    She was watching him closely, as if his answer were very important.
    “Nope.”
    “No steady girlfriend? No significant other?”
    Johnny stopped walking, suddenly realizing where this line of questioning was leading. “You’re going to set me up, aren’t you?” he guessed. “You have some friend who needs a date for your wedding, right?”
    Chelsea hesitated, chewing slightly on her lower lip. “Well, sort of … You see …”
    She was gazing up at him, her blue eyes so wide that she looked about twelve years old. He could drown in those eyes, Johnny realized. He could just fall right in and never come back out.
    She took a deep breath and gave him a somewhat tentative smile. “You see,
I
need a date for my wedding.”
    He stared at her, convinced he’d misunderstood. “You need a
what?
”
    “Groom,” she said. “I need a groom.