3000 Degrees Read Online Free PDF

there?”
    “I'll be right out,” she said again. She dressed quickly, fluffed the mane of chestnut curls that fell below her shoulders, gave Joe a kiss and a playful swat, and opened the door.
    Joe smiled to himself, satisfied, happy.
All my dreams came true.
He knew it was a cliché, even thought the phrasing was awkward every time he'd said it out loud to Linda. But it was the truth, especially the last two years. He had a beautiful wife, happy and healthy children, a roof that he'd put over their heads with his own two hands and food on the table he would cook with those same hands. And he was a fireman. An honest-to-God fireman, his father's son.
    He realized he was running late, wouldn't have time to stop by his lawyer's office and pick up the check for the two-family house. It was in their old neighborhood, a run-down wreck when he bought it at auction eleven years before. He had fixed it up and rented it out, then fixed it up again after it burned. “It's Everett's college fund,” he used to tell Linda. She'd never been crazy about him being a landlord—in fact, she'd never even seen the inside of the building. Now Joe had finally gotten tired of it, too. Dealing with the repairs had become a hassle, so he sold the building. Turned a nice profit, too, doubled his money in a decade. It would have been nice to get his hands on it today, but a few planned hours with Linda were nicer. The check would be there Monday.
    He puttered around the house for a while, then got ready for work. He was cooking supper for the guys that night, which meant making two trips out to the car to load the food he'd bought at BJ's Wholesale Club. Just before four-thirty, he told Linda he was leaving and that he'd call to say goodnight to the kids, just like he always did when he had an overnight tour. He said goodbye to Everett, who was in the basement with a friend, and then he called up the stairs. “Emily, I'm leaving.”
    She didn't answer.
    Joe waited a few seconds, pitched his voice up an octave.
    “'Bye, Daddy, I'll miss you.” Down to his normal tone. “I'll miss you, too, Emily. Thanks for the kiss.”
    “Wait, wait, wait!” He heard her feet padding down the hallway, saw her bound down the stairs. Emily threw her arms around her father's neck, wrapped her legs around his waist, buried her face against his cheek. “'Bye, Daddy,” she said. “I'll miss you. I love you.”
    “I love you, too,” Joe said. He kissed her back, kissed his wife again, and went out the door.
    T om Spencer's cell phone trilled above the light hum of afternoon traffic, caught his attention a few blocks out of the grocery store parking lot. “Hello?”
    “Hi, it's me. I've got time for lunch. Can you make it?”
    Tom brightened. Kathy rarely had time to meet him in the afternoon, especially in the weeks before Christmas. She worked full time managing a medical office, though she only put in a half day on Fridays. Then she scooted out to Paxton, a sleepy town to the northwest, to a nursery where she twisted pine garlands and wrapped poinsettias and tended to the other plants. She went back Saturdays and Sundays, and would through the Christmas rush. They didn't need the money. Tom made a decent living as a lieutenant on Ladder 2, and a few more bucks on the side cleaning office buildings and setting up stages at the Worcester Centrum. That was a good gig. Eighteen dollars an hour for the bull work that kept him in shape, and more for working the lights from the catwalk, which he'd been learning to do the past few nights at the
Holiday on Ice
show. But Kathy liked plants.
    “Yeah, of course I can,” Tom said. “I'm just coming from the grocery now. I've got stuff for sandwiches, so I'll see you in a few minutes.”
    Tom did all the grocery shopping and most of the cooking. The finances he left to Kathy. He'd turn over his paychecks, all three of them, and say, “Take care of it.” Cooperstown every year, plus a week in France or England or on