If You Can't Stand the Heat... (Harlequin Kiss) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the phone. His father’s voice—an oasis of calm—crossed the miles.
    ‘ Are you hurt?’
    ‘Mmm.’
    ‘Where?’
    Everywhere. There was no point whining about it. ‘Couple of dents. Nothing major. Tell Mum to calm down to a mild panic.’ Jack heard his mum gabbling in the background, listened through his father’s reassurances and waited until his father spoke again.
    ‘You mother says to please remind you to visit Dr Jance. Does she need to make an appointment for you?’
    He’d forgotten that a check-up was due and he felt his insides contract. He did his best to forget what he’d gone through as a teenager, and these bi-yearly check-ups were reminders of those dreadful four years he’d spent as a slave to his failing heart. He tipped his head back in frustration when he heard Rae demand to talk to him again.
    ‘Jack, the Sandersons contacted us last week,’ she said in a rush.
    Jack felt his heart contract and tasted guilt in the back of his throat. Abruptly he sat down on the edge of the bed. Brent Sanderson. He was alive because Brent had died. How could he not feel guilty? It was a constant—along with the feeling that he owed it to Brent to live life to the full, that living that way was the only way he could honour his brief life, the gift he’d been given...
    ‘In six weeks it will be seventeen years since the op, and Brent was seventeen when he died,’ Rae said with a quaver in her voice.
    She didn’t need to tell him that. He knew exactly how long it had been. They’d both been seventeen when they’d swapped hearts.
    ‘They want to hold a memorial service for him and have invited us...and you. We’ve said we’ll go and I said that I’d talk to you.’
    Jack stretched out, tucked a pillow behind his head and blew out a long stream of air. He tried not to dwell on Brent and his past—he preferred the it happened; let’s move on approach—and he really, really didn’t want to go. ‘It’s a gracious invitation but I’m pretty sure that they’d be happy if I didn’t pitch up.’
    ‘How can you say that?’
    ‘Because it would be supremely difficult for them to see me walking around, fit and healthy, knowing that their son is six feet under, Mum!’
    They’d given him the gift of their son’s heart. He’d do anything to spare them further pain. And that included keeping his distance...
    ‘They aren’t like that and they want to meet you. You’ve avoided meeting them for years!’
    ‘I haven’t avoided them. It just never worked out.’
    ‘I’ll pretend to believe that lie if you consider coming to Brent’s service,’ Rae retorted.
    His mother wasn’t a fool. ‘Mum, I’ll see. I’ve got to go. I’ll visit when I’m back in the UK.’
    ‘You’re not in the UK? Where are you?’ Rae squawked.
    Jack gritted his teeth. ‘You’re mollycoddling me, and you know it drives me nuts!’
    ‘Well, your career drives me nuts! How can you, after fighting so hard for life, routinely put yourself in danger? It’s—’
    ‘Crazy and disrespectful to take such risks when I’ve been given another chance at life. I’m playing Russian Roulette with my life and you wish I’d settle down and meet a nice girl and give you grandchildren. Have I left anything out?’
    ‘No,’ Rae muttered. ‘But I put it more eloquently.’
    ‘Eloquent nagging is still nagging. But I do love you, you old bat. Sometimes.’
    ‘Revolting child.’
    ‘Bye, Ma,’ Jack said, and disconnected the call.
    He banged the mobile against his forehead. His parents thought that guilt and fear fuelled his daredevil lifestyle. It did—of course it did—but did that have to be a bad thing? They didn’t understand—probably because he could never explain it—but playing it safe, sitting behind a desk in a humdrum job was, for him, a slow way to die. At fourteen he’d gone from being a healthy, rambunctious, sporty kid to a waif and a ghost, his time spent either in hospital rooms or at his childhood home.