Free The Splendour Falls by Unknown, Rosemary Clement-Moore

roll. Left behind, I stood between the sitting area and the door, with Gigi still hanging from my shoulder, along with her admirers.
    â€˜Can we take her out?’ Red asked.
    Setting the bag on the floor, I crouched and unzipped it all the way. ‘Don’t feed her any pizza, OK?’
    â€˜Paula won’t like it,’ said Addie, from the throne of her armchair. ‘She’s an absolute freak about her carpets.’
    â€˜It’ll be OK in here, though,’ said Shawn, smiling at me with a hint of conspiracy in his eyes.
    I didn’t point out that Addie had to vacuum tomorrow anyway. My keen powers of observation told me she didn’t need another excuse not to like me. For some reason she was already acting like I had peed in her Cheerios.
    In any case, worry over the carpet was moot since Gigi never touched it; the girls took her to the couch and sat with her in their laps, cooing and cuddling her. She looked positively smug, with two such attentive acolytes.
    I had a bigger problem. When I’d squatted to release her, the muscles in my right leg had cramped up,and I was stuck in a grand plié, with nothing to grab and inconspicuously haul myself up.
    A hand appeared in my peripheral vision. For a startled instant, I thought of Rhys, of the many times he’d already offered me assistance. I would take it now, déjà vu or no. But it wasn’t Rhys, of course. He was helpfully stowing my luggage.
    It was Shawn. His arm was tanner, more muscular. But equally helpful.
    Thinking of Rhys, though, made me hesitate just a moment – for a whole muddle of reasons that didn’t really make sense – before I grabbed Shawn’s hand. When, after the briefest of bracing pauses, I let him pull me to my feet, there was no shock, no feeling of being hit in the funny bone. Just a warmth that was, oddly enough, as charismatic as his smile.
    â€˜Thanks,’ I mumbled, grateful for the help, but grumpy and embarrassed that I’d needed it.
    Shawn held on until I was steady, my delicate fingers swallowed up in his strong ones. He was taller than Rhys, and definitely broader. Close up I could see his eyes were an interesting shade of blue – dark, with a tinge of green, like sun on salt water.
    There was clearly something wrong with me. First idling on the grass at the rest stop with Rhys, and now this stranger, holding my hand like I was some swooning Southern belle. And worse, my kind of liking it.
    â€˜Glad to help. Here. Have a seat.’ Shawn nudged one of the guys slumped in the smaller sofa, who amiably slid to the floor, yielding his spot. No doubt who was the alpha dog in this pack.
    I found myself glancing towards the door, for escape, or maybe for rescue. Rhys should have had time to park my suitcases by now. His response when I’d asked him about the Teen Town Council – ‘You’ll see,’ he’d said, unhelpfully – didn’t suggest a lot of time spent hanging around with them.
    â€˜You want a Coke or something?’ Shawn asked, drawing my attention back to him. I liked him well enough – obviously – but the group was overwhelming all at once. Too many names to remember, and being nice was such an effort. I’d never been a social butterfly before The Accident, at least not outside my ballet friends. But I didn’t want to alienate the locals, or worse, anger Paula and make my stay here any more wretched than it had to be.
    Which I suppose was how I found myself sitting where Shawn had directed me and answering his question. ‘Just some water would be great. Thanks.’
    With a huge sigh of imposition, Addie rolled her eyes again as she pushed herself from her chair and huffed over to a minibar in the corner of the room. ‘You’ll have to make do with tap water. We don’t have any Evian.’
    Spurred by irritation, I replied in kind. Seriously, what was her deal? ‘As long as it doesn’t