Unexpected Wedding (26 page)

“That would be very helpful. Thank you.”

Gia left the kitchen and passed the tray off to Nick. She’d never seen so much food or so many gifts in her honor and was trying to be as gracious as possible though everyone’s generosity and the July heat was overwhelming.

“Gia!” Someone called from the side of the house.

She spotted the bounce of auburn curls in the crowd. She’d know that rookie’s peppy step anywhere.

“Rebekah!” She called back and rushed to hug her. “I’m so glad you could come.”

Rebekah held her at arm’s length. “I’m so glad you invited me. You look fantastically happy.” She dropped her massive bag to the ground and fished out a pink foil box with a silver bow. “Where do I put this before it gets smashed?”

“Oh, Rebekah,” she said and dragged her into the house and to the dining room. “You shouldn’t have. She swept her arm across the growing pile. “I mean you really shouldn’t have.”

Rebekah snorted and peeled the sunglasses off her face as she wound her way between mounds of large and elaborately decorated presents. “It’s so big it’s funny,” she said and laughed. “I’m going to put my angel over here on this china cabinet so she doesn’t get squashed.”

“Angel?”

“Yes. To watch over you and Rocky. She’s glass and is holding two wedding bands. I think you’ll like her.”

Gia sighed and pressed her hand against her chest. She’d missed this raucous newbie more than she realized. “I know I’ll love her. Thank you.” She pulled out a chair. “Now sit and tell me everything before someone finds out we’re here and makes us go back out in the sun.”

“No,” Rebekah said. “You tell me everything. And Gia, I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I’m still in shock. I knew you didn’t feel well, but who could have guessed what it really was?” She shuddered and lowered her voice. “I mean, drugs? Assault? It’s unimaginable.”

“Well, it’s behind me and I’m in good health,” Gia said. “And thank you for your understanding, prayer, and confidence when I first called you. You had a right to know after I acted so strangely at work. I wish I had all those letters you caught me burning, but other than that, it’s OK. How are things at camp?”

“Great. Everyone misses you, but no one talks about anything. The story is you were sick, but got well, and moved on. There’s no negative connotation to any of it. Everyone knew it was your last summer anyway.”

“That’s good, I guess. I miss it.”

“I know you do, but hey, you’re a married woman now. And what’s that about? And why is it a big secret?”

“It’s not really a secret anymore, but we basically eloped, and no one needed to know until our close friends and family did. Word’s getting out, but I don’t know if I’ll ever see any of those summer job people from camp again. There’s no need to add a hasty wedding to my already abrupt departure.”

Rebekah’s bright green eyes twinkled as she squeezed Gia’s arm. “I always had a good feeling about you and Rocky, but it did happen fast. One day we were talking about that kiss and the next you’re married. Wow. No use waiting when you know, I guess.”

“He’s wonderful. The timing was right. There’s more to that story, but I don’t want to go into it now. I promise I’ll tell you more soon, but we need to get you a plate and introduce you to some interesting people.” Gia stood. “I want you to meet Rocky’s best friend Max when he gets here.”

Rebekah pulled her back down. “Are you saying you brought me all the way down here for a hook up?”

“No, I didn’t think about this until yesterday. You’ll like Max. He’s very cute in a shaggy sheep dog sort of way.”

Rebekah made a face. “You really don’t know how to sell this kind of thing do you?”

Gia stood again and headed for the door. “Forget the dog comparison. He’s a great guy. Plays drums in a worship band, out of college, probably going to seminary.” She tugged Rebekah to her side to peek out. “See the garage over there?”

“Yes.”

“That’s where all the food is. They’ve got some kind of portable cooling system in there. It’s heavenly. I’ve been putting pieces of beef from the Souvlaki skewers into pita bread and smearing it with Tzatziki sauce.”

“So really you’re using a chunk of Souvlaki beef to make a Gyro instead of using thinly sliced lamb.”

Gia met her gaze and swallowed hard. “Is that wrong? Because it feels soooooo right.”

Rebekah burst out laughing. “You can do anything you want. You’re the bride.”

“What are you two doing?”

Rebekah screamed and jumped.

Gia jerked and bumped her head on the door. “Ow!” She rubbed her scalp. “Why are you sneaking up on us?”

“Sorry,” Rocky said. “I wasn’t sneaking. Hey, Rebekah, how you doin’?”

“I’m great. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. Max got here and everyone else from church is arriving. Candi’s looking for you. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Gia said.

“You need ice.”

“I don’t need ice.”

Max came from the kitchen with his hand in a bag of chips. “What’s up?”

“Gia needs ice.”

“I don’t need ice. Max, this is my friend Rebekah. Rebekah, this is Max.”

Max stood there looking like a dork with chip crumbs on his upper lip. He was staring like a doofus but didn’t bother to take the hand Rebekah offered him.

“Max.” Rocky sent him a disgusted glare. “When a lady wants to shake hands—”

“Potato chip grease,” he said. “All over hands.”

Rebekah smiled because she was polite that way.

Max continued to exhibit monosyllabic dorkiness.

“Gia needs ice,” Rocky said again.

“I don’t need ice,” she insisted. “I don’t have a bump.”

Rebekah shuffled her feet and avoided Max’s continued gaze. “This is funny because didn’t you two meet when one of you got hurt and the other one tried to administer forcible first aid?”

Rocky grumbled. “In a way, yes, but I didn’t need her help.”

Gia blew out a breath. “No, of course he didn’t. It would have been fine to let him leave with that horrible oozing gash on his arm. It didn’t need to be cleaned or dressed or covered...”

“Max,” Rocky ground out between clenched teeth, “you’re making Rebekah uncomfortable.”

“Sorry,” he said and dropped the chip bag in Rocky’s lap. “I have to go do something.”

He stumbled off in a daze.

Rebekah raised her eyebrows and let out a long slow whistle. “Boy Gia, when you pick a girl out a sheep dog, you really find the most charming one in the kennel. Pick of the litter that one is.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Gia said. “Forget it. Let’s find the others and eat.”

“We’re hitting the pool in a half hour,” Rocky said. “And there’s talk of a girls versus guys volleyball game.”

“I’m in,” Rebekah said.

Gia wanted to participate, but suddenly she was concerned with things like accidental kicks to her stomach and hard collisions in the pool. “I think I’ll referee that one from the sidelines. I need to watch for my parents anyway.”

“Good idea,” Rocky said. “I’ll help you. Volleyball is not my best event. Need to be able to push off from the bottom for that.”

“What is your best event?” Gia asked. “We’ll make sure we do that one.”

“Probably watching you float around on a tube. Or floating around with you. Or rubbing sunscreen on you. Or you rubbing sunscreen on—”

“Stop right there,” Rebekah said. “Not in front of company.”

Gia laughed. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Rocky said. “I’m going to change.”

“Do you have everything you need?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll see you out there.”

“OK. It’s going to be fun.”

It wasn’t fun.

Within an hour the volleyball game had been stopped, abruptly and unceremoniously halted when Rebekah took a wicked blast to the face with the hard, wet ball. It cracked her sunglasses at the bridge of her nose and sent crimson drops into the water. In a haze of pain, anger, and perceived intentional attack, she’d dived under the net and rammed her knee into Max’s gut.

Game over.

The net had been put away, and the ball was taken into custody by Kevin as evidence. The men stayed at one end of the pool, hurling their bodies off the diving board in preposterous attempts to hurt themselves, while the women floated and lounged around the steps at the other end.

Carol Ann sat on a towel at the edge of the pool with her capris rolled up and her legs dangling in the water. She pushed her straw hat forward.

“Float back over here,” she told Rebekah. “Let’s see how that looks.”

Rebekah was sprawled on her back across a large ring with yellow ducks on it. “Coming.”

Carol Ann pulled away the ice bag. “Ah... Looks good. Swelling is down. That gash will close nicely. Bev has some closures in her first aid kit. I’ll dress it when you get out. You’ll have a little scar, but it will fade.”

Carol Ann sent her spinning back to the center.

Rebekah lifted her tumbler of iced tea as if toasting. “Thank you, Sheep Dog Max,” she said sarcastically. “It’s a little scar. It’ll fade.” She took a drink.

Kelly backstroked around them and treaded water between Rebekah and Gia. “Max didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know he didn’t,” Rebekah said. “But he was acting so weird when we met and then I glanced up and saw him hit that ball right at me and
wham!
It hurt. I lost it.”

“You sure did,” Candi chimed in from her seat on the steps. She was lounging there half in and half out of the water. “One minute you were on our side of the net and the next you were on the other beatin’ the crap out of him.”

They all laughed. It was funny. Sad, but funny.

“I probably wouldn’t have gotten a piece of him if he wasn’t so close. We’d been crowding each other at the net.”

“Ohhhh...” Carol Ann said. “Is that what you’re calling it these days? Crowding? Looked like good old fashioned flirting to me.”

Rebekah halfheartedly snarled at her. “Anyway. I think he thought he was going to spike that ball right behind me but I’d already backed up and—”

“Wham!” Everyone said.

Rebekah gave them all a dirty look.

“What?” Gia asked. “That’s the word we’ve heard five times since the incident.” She used big air quotes to highlight the word “incident,” and the others snickered.

“I liked the part where he clutched his stomach and slipped under,” Carol Ann said.

“He was never in any danger of drowning,” Gia added.

Kelly laughed and dipped beneath the water. “Maybe not,” she sputtered when she came up, “but I think he wished he were. He was so embarrassed.”

“Well, I tried to apologize,” Rebekah huffed. “I’m not proud of myself. I thought I had that streak of rage under control. Evidently I don’t.”

“I think you do,” Gia assured her. “You had a reflex response. Pain and proximity will do that. What’s the first thing you do if a bee lands on your arm and stings you? You swat at it.”

“Or in Rebekah’s case,” Candi cut in, “you knee the little fellow under the ribs ‘til he cries and tries to drown himself.”

Rebekah paddled away from them as they laughed again. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

“Don’t float into enemy territory,” Kelly warned. “They’re still mad we were ahead by three points at the time of the”—she paused so they could all join her in the word and add the air quotes—“incident.”

Gia swam to where her friends waded near the steps.

“Look at them down there,” Candi said and pointed. “They’re determined to crack their skulls on that diving board.”

Rocky hung out at the side and watched from the deep end while Shade, Max, and Kevin took turns jumping off the board in scary, yet creative ways and entertained the kids with their who-could-make-the-biggest-splash contest.

“Rocky looks so happy, and so do you,” Carol Ann said.

“We are happy.”

Kelly watched the men with a faraway look in her eyes. “Do you think it bothers Rocky that the others are on that diving board and he’s down in the water with the kids?”

“It has to creep up on him once in a while,” Gia said. “He seems to handle everything with grace and humor. I haven’t witnessed a really hard moment. Truth be told, you all have known him a lot longer than I have.”

“We saw him get really aggravated over a grocery store once,” Candi said. “The place has a huge entrance on each side but has only one ramp over the curb to get to it. On top of that, the curbs are higher than usual because the parking lot floods. I know he can pop a curb, but those really high ones are tough because it takes a lot of strength to do that and there’s a good chance he could fall out of his chair. Anyway, the whole design was substandard and not ADA compliant.”

“So we all boycotted the store for a while,” Carol Ann said. “We said we wouldn’t go back until they fixed it. As far as I know, they did. We need to ask him for sure. They had the best deli.”

“It’s funny,” Gia said. “We met at camp, but I have yet to hear the talk he gives up there.”

“I wouldn’t worry,” Candi said. “We’re launching that new youth service later this month and I think Pastor Charles wants to get him on the schedule to speak there once in a while.”

“He didn’t say anything.”

“Well, he keeps denying he has ministry with the youth, and yet he ends up with them every time he turns around.”

“Isn’t Max in charge of that service?”

“Yes. He’s been working hard on it.”

“Hey,” Kelly said and bumped her arm. “Look what’s going on over there.”

“That’s interesting.”

Rebekah had made her way across the pool. Max obviously tried to impress her with that last cannonball and then swam to her side. They both smiled. Then Rebekah inexplicably rolled off her ring with arms and legs flailing as she went.

Her ice bag sank.

“Did he...?”

“Surely not.”

“I don’t know,” Candi said. “It appears he tipped her off her floatation device.”

Kelly snorted.

“He really isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, is he?” Carol Ann asked.

“Look at him,” Candi said. “He’s rushing away as if he did do something wrong.”

Sure enough, Max was hightailing it out of the pool as Rebekah righted herself and exited the other side.