Inside Heat Read Free Page A

were long and purposeful – a woman on a mission. He could imagine her in her nurses’ scrubs, covering the pediatric ward with the same enthusiasm. Jeff slowed his pace, hoping she’d notice and slow too. He wasn’t ready to let her out of his sight. She adjusted her stride to match his, but not before she let out an exasperated breath.
    “How far is this place?”
    “A couple of blocks.”
    “It’s getting late. Will they still be open?”
    He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number. Alec would be there, stocking shelves and reordering inventory until much later than this. Or at least he was supposed to be. If he weren’t, he’d have a few things to explain to the owner. Alec answered on the second ring, a good sign, and assured Jeff he’d let them in. “No problem. We’ll get in.”
    “You can do that? Call up a store and they’ll let you in after hours?”
    “Only with this one. I own it.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Well, Jason owns half, but yeah, seriously. What do you think Christopher would like? A hat, a jersey? How about a glove?”
    “I don’t know. He’s ten. What do ten-year-old boys like?”
    “Ten, huh? I guess that rules out the beer logo clock and the shot glasses. Just about everything else is in the realm of possibility.”
    “I suppose you have a lot of Mustangs stuff in the store?”
    “Yeah. The hard part will be picking out the right thing.”
    Alec met them at the door, locking it behind them. Jeff introduced Megan to the store manager and pulled him aside after sending Megan off to pick out anything she wanted.
    “Do you have a digital camera around here?”
    “I have one in the back. Why?”
    “Get it. Anything Megan wants, put it on my tab. Then I want a whole bag of stuff for a ten-year-old boy. Mustangs stuff. A stadium throw, a glove, hat, posters, jersey. You know what a kid would like, but this one is real sick, so not a lot of active stuff. Bag it for me and I’ll be in to pick it up in the morning.”
    Alec went in search of the camera, and Jeff caught up to Megan. “Find anything yet?” She turned her velvet brown eyes on him, and he almost forgot his own name. Earlier, when he’d gotten close enough to the rail to see details, her eyes had captivated him. In the past, it had always been the overall package that captured his interest rather than the details of a woman’s body. Not that Megan didn’t have a killer body and he’d have to be blind not to notice, but her eyes were her best feature. They were windows to her soul, and from what she’d let him see, her soul was Grade A. Megan was the kind of woman you took home to meet your mother, and those were harder to come by than World Series wins.
    “There’s so much to choose from, but it needs to be something he can keep in the hospital with him.”
    “He spends a lot of time there?”
    “You could say that.”
    Even if the sadness in her voice hadn’t given her away, her eyes would have. She knew much more than she was saying, but he understood the patient confidentiality thing. The fact that she had gone to as much trouble as she had to get his autograph, told him the kid was really ill. No health care worker would go to this much trouble on their day off for a kid with good prospects.
    “Then, why don’t we go with a glove? It’s small enough, but soft. He can hang on to it, sort of like a stuffed animal, in a grown up sort of way.”
    They moved to the wall covered with gloves from ceiling to floor and Jeff pulled one down. “This is like the one I use. I can autograph it for him.”
    She smiled at him. The first genuine smile he’d seen from her, and blood rushed to places it had no business being.
    “Really? You can autograph something like this?”
    “Sure. Come on. I bet Alec has a pen up front.”
    They made their way to the front of the store where Alec was waiting for them, pen and camera in hand. Jeff pulled Megan close while he signed the glove. Alec snapped photos as Jeff