High Heat (Hard Hitters #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

last week, but he’d delayed giving her an answer. Time to ride his butt a little bit.
    Concentrating on the email she was writing, she didn’t notice that Tracy hadn’t returned with her papers until the sound of a throat clearing caught her attention.
    “Hey, Paul. What’s up?” She beckoned him in, her gaze dropping to the sheaf of papers he held in his hand. “Is that my lease?”
    “Apparently it’s Tom Cord’s lease.” He strolled in and sat in the armchair in front of her desk. Her office was utilitarian, with memorabilia and baseball photos on the walls and in a display case near the corner: a signed Nolan Ryan baseball in an acrylic protective box, her first glove from Little League, an official team photo of this year’s lineup, framed. No “woman’s touch” for her office. Next to her computer sat a photo of her as a child, wearing a pink dress for Easter, her hair pulled back into a scrunchie. She sat on her late mother’s lap, her mom’s head, with its shiny brown pageboy haircut, tilted toward hers. The photo was the only non-baseball article in the room.
    “Yeah. I’m renting him the other half of the duplex for his stay in Plainview. Can you believe his agent had him staying in a hotel in Louisville?”
    Paul shrugged. “That’s not so awful. I’ve heard worse ideas.”
    She stared at him. Had he gone crazy? “What happened to team spirit? You know Dad wants players living here in town, no matter how short their stay is. Remember when Mark Justin rented a condo in Bloomington and tried to drive in every day? Dad had a fit and told him if Plainview wasn’t good enough for him, he could find another club to play for.”
    “Mark Justin wasn’t Tom Cord.”
    Frowning, she extended her hand for the lease. After a moment, he sighed and handed it to her.
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    “I’m saying Tom has a whole lot of potential to cause trouble for you, especially if he’s living right next door. You know how he is with women.”
    She eyed him. “You think I’m in some kind of danger from your old college buddy? What is he, some kind of predator?”
    “Oh, come on. You’ve read the gossip. You know what he’s like.”
    “Yeah, and you know what
I’m
like. Trust me, I have no interest in Tom in that way.” She looked back to her screen, scrolling aimlessly up and down without seeing anything.
    Honestly. Men could be so annoying. Did her brother think she was still some teenager, helpless in the throes of a first crush?
    “What’s Rich going to think about this? You living in the same house with another guy?”
    “Paul, that’s weak. You don’t even like Rich.” It was true. Her brother didn’t care for the CPA she’d been seeing off and on for a couple of years. Honestly, maybe he was onto something. She’d met Rich Blakely when he did her taxes, and the highlight of their relationship so far had been when he’d found an extra five hundred dollars’ worth of deductions she’d missed.
    “Really,” Sarah continued, “it’s like you think I’m a little kid or something. Big brother has to come and protect me, and from who? His old college buddy.”
    “You can’t deny you once had a thing for him.” He wagged a finger at her.
    “Yeah, I once had a thing for Justin Timberlake, too. I got over it.” Mostly.
    “Pardon me if I’m not worried that Justin Timberlake is going to show up here and talk his way into your bed.”
    “No such luck,” she muttered.
    “Ah-ha!” He pointed an accusing finger. “I knew it! You haven’t gotten over Justin Timberlake, have you? And something tells me maybe you haven’t gotten over Tom Cord either.”
    “Oh, please. Hanging on to a celebrity crush out of nostalgia is a lot different than continuing to chase a guy who didn’t give you the time of day when you were a kid.”
    “Yeah, but I know you. That hurt your pride. Maybe you’re tempted to show him you’ve grown up.”
    “Paul, I
am
grown up, which is why