Heroes (Hollywood Heartthrobs #1) Read Online Free PDF

of fifteen, when his greatest hero had
been the first baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Dean had gone with a school trip
to see a matinee production of Shakespeare’s Henry V at the theater on
Navy Pier. Sitting in that theater, letting the words soak into his teenage
mind, that production had started him on the path to acting. A month later, he
had auditioned for the part of Mercutio in his high school production of Romeo
and Juliet . The rest, as they say, was history. It was a long way from
Shakespeare to Once Bitten , but this place held a special significance
to him still.
    Thinking
that kids stuffed full of donuts should probably have a break before the rides,
they strolled from the entrance all the way out to the end of the pier to look
at the lake before circling back to the Ferris Wheel, mini golf course, and
Chicago Children’s Museum.
              After a lunch
of greasy cheeseburgers, Tucker and Alec were clearly wearing thin. Nathan had
warned Dean they might not make it the day, and said that in that case they
were welcome to come back to the office and one of the secretaries could pop a
Disney movie in the projector in an empty conference room. By 2pm, this was
looking like a winning plan. Thinking the boys had had enough walking for the
day, Dean quickly checked the bus route map out in front of the entrance arch.
A bus here would require a transfer, but four blocks further on they could
catch one that would drop them right outside Nathan’s building. The boys could
hoof it another four blocks, no problem, he thought. This had been a great day,
and they were obviously tired, but their spirits had been sky-high all day.
              It turned out
four city blocks was a lot longer with two tired children in tow than Dean had
imagined. By the end of the second he found himself cajoling them that it was
just a little further and they would be there soon. Super soon. Super duper
soon.
              Up to that
point, the most significant events in Dean’s life had been events that took
time, included anticipation or dread, and were long enough in coming that he
mentally prepared for them. They included traumatic things like his mother’s
death when he was a teen after her long battle with cancer, or his father’s
passing three years ago after several successive strokes left him increasingly
weak. They also included joyful things, like standing as best man at Nathan and
Samantha’s wedding, or holding Tucker and then later Alec for the first time.
They included career successes like seeing a commercial he filmed air for the
first time, or getting the call that told him he’d won the part of Jared. But
none of those events had ever hit him as suddenly and completely as what was
about to happen. He was utterly unprepared.
              Finally
arriving at the bus stop, Tucker, Alec, and Dean were all clearly at the end of
their rope. Alec sat down on the sheltered bench and quietly began to play with
a toy Dean had helped him win from a claw game. It was a paddle game with an
attached rubber ball. Meanwhile, Tucker’s shoelaces had come undone, and in his
exhaustion he seemed to have suddenly forgotten how to retie them. Dean bent
down to help him as three or four other people began to congregate around the
stop. Later, Dean would ask himself repeatedly if he had heard, or could have
heard, the elastic string on Alec’s toy snap as the ball flew out of the bus
shelter enclosure.
    The
first he did hear over Tucker’s soft whining about doing his laces “bunny
ears,” whatever that meant, was a man’s voice shout “Hey, kid!” The first thing
he saw was Tucker’s eyes go wide. Dean turned around like lightning, but he
wasn’t fast enough. Alec was standing a good four feet from the curb, broken
paddle toy in one hand, rubber ball in the other, right in the lane of traffic
as a delivery truck screeched in a desperate attempt to slow down before the
inevitable impact. Alec looked like