More Than Friends Read Online Free PDF Page A

the girls joined her there.
    "What are they doing?" Zoe asked.
    "Tests," Teke answered.
    Jana leaned against her. "Is he aware of it?" Teke swallowed. "No. He's still unconscious."
    "Then he's not in pain?"
    "I don't think so."
    "When can we see him?"
    "When they're done."
    "Will he be okay?"
    "I hope so."
    Jana looked at her--no longer up, they were nearly the same height, though at that moment Teke felt lowly as hell--and said, "Annie told us they caught the guy."
    With a twist in her heart, Teke saw Grady's face again. So many years had passed since she had seen it last. Then, too, it had looked ravaged.
    He shouldn't have come, she cried silently. Her life was no business of his, he had told her once. Why couldn't he leave well enough alone?
    She wanted to weep. Instead she took a breath and said in a carefully controlled voice, "They didn't have to catch him. He never left the scene."
    "Did they arrest him?"
    "I don't know."
    "Was he speeding?"
    "I didn't see."
    "Why didn't Michael hear him? Or see him?"
    Teke didn't know. She could guess, though, and the guessing gave no comfort. Nor did the thought that Jana's questions were nothing compared with the ones J.D. would have when he arrived. KizM-jA
    two
    ON HIS WAY IN FROM SPRINGFIELD, J.D. WAS
    stopped for speeding. The cop said he was going eighty-five, and in other circumstances he would have argued. He was a lawyer. He knew the score. Radar guns were unreliable as hell. If he could talk the cop down to seventy-five, an appeal of the ticket would do the rest. This time, though, he simply passed over his license and registration and said, "I was in the middle of negotiations when I got a call that my son was hit by a car. They say he's unconscious, but that's all I know. He's thirteen."
    "Thirteen?" The officer frowned. "That's rough." "My wife and best friend are at the hospital. I've been trying to reach them, but they're somewhere between the emergency room and intensive care. I can't even get a doctor on the line. They won't take my calls."
    "Be grateful, if they're working on your son." "But I can't get any news," J.D. complained. "It's the not knowing that's so bad. I'm imagining the worst. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about driving." The officer handed back his license and registration. "You have a better excuse than most. I won't hold you up giving you a ticket, but watch it, will you? Especially if you're using that phone. It won't do your son any good if you kill yourself on the turnpike." J.D. kept his speed down to seventy-five the rest of the way. When he wasn't badgering the hospital to put him through to someone in the know, he was talking with his secretary, with Vicki Cornell about Sam's case, with the public relations person he often used. Dunn v. Hanover was a milestone. The publicity would be great for the firm. His father would be eating crow, and what satisfaction there was in that. John Stewart had fought against taking Sam into the firm. He had thought Sam lacked the connections, and the social standing, to have much of a practice. But J.D. had been willing to take the chance. For one thing, Sam had distinguished himself in the district attorney's office. For another, he had the drive to succeed. For still another, he was married to Annie, who was Teke's best friend. Mostly, though, J.D. had wanted Sam in the firm because they were best friends themselves. Sam kept him human, social, and loose.
    J.D. was grateful that Sam was at the hospital with Teke. He trusted his judgment. If there were decisions to be made, Sam would guide Teke to the best one. And she would need guiding. Her wits were probably scattered all over the place by now. She didn't have the poise in a pinch that J.D. did. She didn't have the breeding for that. She was strictly small-town, backwoods that way.
    It wouldn't occur to her to call him in his car with news to ease his worry.
    As it happened, there was precious little news to ease anyone's worry. J.D. arrived at the