Second Chance at the Sugar Shack Read Online Free PDF

whatever four-legged critter happened to end up in his crosshairs. A few days later he’d come home like Rambo with the carcass slung over his shoulder. Her mother would praise him with such enthusiasm you’d think he’d been nominated president of the NRA. Yet the woman would nicely shoo a stinky old skunk from her much-loved garden.
    Letty Silverthorne, savior of skunks, would never dream of picking up a firearm. But it was okay if someone else did.
    Kate sat on a metal folding chair, an untouched piece of pineapple upside-down cake on a plate in her lap, listening to the remember when stories fly about the room. She had no appetite for anything other than escape. No room for anything except guilt because she didn’t have any recent Letty stories.
    And she sincerely didn’t know how many more she could take.
    “You look like you could use a big brother right about now.”
    Kate looked up into Dean’s handsome face—a face that graced wall posters, prime-time sports clips, and probably more than one woman’s fantasies. She wanted to hug him for coming to her rescue.
    He sat next to her, sprawled his long legs out in front of him and draped his throwing arm over the back of her chair.
    “I saw you over there talking to that pretty redhead,” Kate said.
    Dean tweaked her nose like he used to when she was a kid. “Yeah, but you’re my favorite redhead.”
    “Great. That means my roots are showing and I need to make an appointment with José as soon as I get home.”
    He gave her the smile that had landed him in the number one spot for People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. “So when do you head back to Weirdoland anyway?”
    “Day after tomorrow. I have three clients to dress for the music video awards next week and none of them can make up their minds between the designers I’ve chosen. They’re all waiting for the fashion spies to let the cat out of the bag as to who’s wearing what so they can choose a more chic designer.” She took a breath. “Does that make sense? Even I can’t decode it sometimes.”
    “You ever get tired of that game?” he asked.
    “Do you ever get tired of football?”
    He shrugged. “I’ll never get tired of the game on the field. But sometimes the celebrity game gets kind of ridiculous. Like when you come out of your house and there are paparazzi everywhere just waiting to see what kind of jeans you’re wearing. Personally, I don’t think I’m all that special. I just know how to throw a ball.”
    “Stop dating supermodels and they just might forget about you,” Kate said.
    “Yeah.” He flashed her a grin. “I don’t get that tired of it.”
    She laughed and bumped his shoulder with hers. “When do you leave?”
    “Same as you,” he said. “Season’s just started. And since I’m now at the ripe old age of thirty-four, I’m not about to move aside and let the new kid take over for long.”
    “Why? Are you worried about being replaced?” Kate asked. “For crying out loud, you made the Super Bowl last year.”
    “But we didn’t win the Super Bowl.”
    “Ah.”
    “Yeah. The kid’s like a wolf, always stalking me . . . waiting.”
    “Waiting?”
    “He knows one more wrong hit to the shoulder and I’ll have to call it a career.”
    “Would that be so bad?”
    His chin dimple winked at her. “Does the end of the world sound too over-the-top?”
    “ You’re too over-the-top. The last time I sat in Arizona’s stadium and watched you kick the Cardinal’s asses, I couldn’t believe you were my freaking brother.”
    “Oh yeah? Well I’m still the guy who cut the hair off your Barbie and used it for my G.I. Joe camouflage tents. Besides, you aren’t hurting in the superstar department either. I Googled your name the other day and came up with umpteen hundred thousand hits.”
    “You Googled me?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I’m flattered.”
    “Don’t be. I’m just being an overprotective brother. I check up on you and Kel all the time