Space in His Heart Read Free Page A

hair. Cute. She was nervous under all that poise. He
crossed his arms and settled back into his spot on the wall. Maybe
he’d give her fifteen minutes.
    “Ladies and gentlemen. NASA is in trouble.”
She clicked a button on the laptop and the screen filled with
reprints of negative articles from the New York Times and
the Washington Post that appeared fifty times their original
size. Brutal headlines, all reinforcing her point that outside of
Cape Canaveral and Houston, most of the world didn’t give a crap
about the space station and thought the whole shuttle program was a
waste of precious tax dollars.
    “The fact is, very few Americans know that we
have a space station up and manned and even fewer could tell you
what it does.” She let a laser pointer illuminate a particularly
nasty quote from a congressman who wanted to slash NASA’s budget.
“Space isn’t important to America right now. It doesn’t touch a
chord in our hearts. Not the way it used to.”
    She switched off the damning headlines and
the screen backlit her, showing off her feminine silhouette and
giving her an unintentional halo. “The goal of public relations is
to create support for NASA and ultimately protect and increase the
funding it receives. To do that, we need to make space relevant to the average American.”
    Did Stu Rosen just say that she’d be staying
at the Cape for a while? Now that was relevant. Deke took
another lingering glance at the way her skirt hugged her backside.
Relevant and nice.
    “Ross & Clayton is the largest public
relations firm in the world. We’ve spent a great deal of brainpower
on the problem and we have a simple plan. It’s the oldest and most
effective marketing technique in the world.” She paused and lit the
room with that sexy smile again. “NASA is about to get some sex
appeal.”
    The echo of his unprofessional thoughts
jarred Deke out of his musings and he joined in the uncertain,
nervous laughter of the audience.
    She clicked to a new slide, her magnificent
eyes balancing her serious demeanor with a touch of humor. He
didn’t know her qualifications and doubted she was thirty years
old, but she’d obviously studied this sex appeal stuff pretty
thoroughly.
    “I’m afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that in a
space suit, all astronauts look the same.” She paused for more
laughter. “We propose to give NASA a face. An unforgettable,
grab-at-your-heart kind of face.”
    You got one of those, sweetheart . Her
heels clicked in rhythm as she crossed the stage, a sound as
completely feminine as she was. “Then we’re going to give NASA a
personality. Engaging, attractive, and even a little mysterious. A
personality that is the polar opposite of the staid, conservative,
and stuffy reputation you are…” she said, teasing them with a wink,
“ enjoying right now.”
    She had them and she must have known it; a
glimmer lit her eyes. “We’re going to change your image through one
individual who will embody a new NASA.”
    The silence lasted just long enough to be
slightly uncomfortable, and Deke wondered if he’d missed something
that she said. He wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to her
words as the occasional glimpse of cleavage he caught as she
reached to her laptop to click on the next slide.
    “What is the sexiest thing about space?” she
challenged, crossing her arms and damn, just deepening that
enticing valley enough to truly distract him. “Astronauts. Daring,
handsome, risk-taking, gravity-defying, reach-for-the-stars space
cowboys.”
    Suddenly, the image of a man in a blue flight
suit leaning against a Navy F-18 fighter jet filled the screen
behind her. Deke tore his gaze from the presenter to the face on
the wall.
    Familiar black hair that had been smashed by
a helmet stuck to a forehead and touched the collar of the suit in
the back. A hint of laughter teased the lips of the photo’s
subject. Recognition numbed his senses as he stared at the
screen.
    “Move over, George