Unexpected Wedding Read Online Free Page B

over his head and push several unruly curls out of his face. He grunted a couple times as if it were painful.
    “Aw, Max, you don’t have to get all gussied up for me. You know I love you just the way you are.”
    “Shut up.”
    “What’s got you so grouchy this morning? You’re never more than one day out of step with the rest of the world and now you’re three. What gives?”
    “One and a half jobs, my friend. I’m working at two restaurants. Open at this one, close at that one...not enough sleep.”
    “I thought you were still working for your dad while you figured out what to do with your fancy college degree.”
    “I was. But business is slow. Not many houses going up in this economy, and I’m not going to take a job from one of his regular crew who has kids and a mortgage.”
    “Makes sense. We working in the usual spot?”
    Max snatched sunglasses off the roof of his mom’s car and pointed. “Yep. Concrete pad by the shed. But we haven’t had rain in so long you’ll be able to roll around on the ground anywhere. Try to stay as close to the shade as possible.”
    Rocky sped to the nearest oak and was out of the car in under thirty seconds. Max and Leonardo moseyed toward him with apparently no sense of the mission’s importance whatsoever.
    “Get the lead out, Max. I need to get back to work sometime today.”
    “Aw, hold your horses. We’ve got this oil changing bit down to a science. You remember the filter?”
    “No, Max. I came all the way over here to change the oil without the new filter and the oil.”
    Max paused at the shed entrance. “You know, I could go back and finish my nap.”
    “Get the tools.”
    Max put two jack stands and a drain pan on the creeper and slid it toward the car while Rocky took the handle of the hydraulic jack and tugged it out of its place in the corner. Two shop brooms and a rake came loose with it, and the ensuing tumble of handles knocked a coffee can full of screws off the neighboring shelf and right into his lap.
    Max hurried toward him with a wrench and a couple sockets. “Take it easy over here, will ya? Don’t need you ripping your leg open.”
    Rocky picked assorted hardware from around him and tossed it back into the can with a clunk. “I’m not going to rip anything open, Mom .”
    “Said the man who pulled a pizza out of the oven and didn’t realize he’d given himself second degree burns because he couldn’t feel the sliding sauce and melted cheese land on his thighs.”
    Well, that was true. “Can we get this done?”
    “Sure. Whose turn is it to get under the car?”
    “I got it,” Rocky said as he gathered his supplies and prepared to transfer to the creeper.
    “That’s cool.” Max grabbed the jack and started to lift the car. “But I’d make sure you line up the drain pan in the right place this time. My dad said it took a twenty-five pound bag of cat litter to soak up that mess you made.”
    “You ever gonna let that go, man? It wasn’t that bad.”
    “Just sayin’. Dad made a special trip to Wal-Mart for that cat litter. And we don’t have a cat.”
    “Yeah, keep talkin’. And when you’re done we’ll revisit that time you didn’t tighten the lug nuts on the front tractor wheel. Pretty awesome the way it rolled right off into the pasture when you took off down the drive.”
    That shut him up.
    Rocky positioned himself near the passenger door. He found it worked well if he slid head first under the car on one side and, when finished, slid on out the other. Provided Max got the car high enough, he could easily pull everything he needed along with him.
    The clunk of a heavy stand followed the hiss and rumble of the jack as Max moved around the car. “All set,” he said. “Go for it.”
    Rocky started forward and then stopped. “Toss me that rag, will ya? Everything’s still hot.”
    Max did as he asked and sat on the ground nearby. “You ready for tomorrow?”
    Rocky loosened the drain bolt. “As I’ll ever be I