Valentine's Child Read Online Free PDF Page A

over again until they were hoarse.
    Sherry was just weary of the whole damn thing.
    But that was last week, and now Ryan had grinned at her in excitement and Sherry wondered what would happen if she made Ryan Delmato her boyfriend…
    “Thanks, Ryan,” she said, blinding him with her smile.
    “You bet.” Slightly dazed, he wandered away, glancing back at her once. Sherry waved, thrilled with a power she heretofore had not known she possessed.
    Ryan’s father, Bernie Delmato, was a pussycat. He shook her hand, then embraced her as a part of the Bernie’s Pizza team, flourishing an apron emblazoned with Bernie’s in red and green letters before placing it in her hands. His joy and exuberance caught at Sherry’s heart. This was a father to love. She suddenly envied Ryan so thoroughly she wanted to cry.
    “What is it, sweetie?” Bernie asked, concern pushing aside his laughter for the moment. “Something wrong?”
    “No.” Sherry clutched the apron tightly between clenched hands. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”
    She started the job the next afternoon. At first she worked the till, marveling at Bernie’s expert toss of the dough so that it spun into a round circle, the perfect size for the pan. He winked at her, showed another teenager, Wendy, how it was done, watched her rip fifteen holes in the dough as it landed on her untrained hands, then slapped his thighs and howled with laughter. He was like Santa Claus all year long.
    Sherry ached to love him as a father should be loved, and their relationship throughout her last two years of high school was as close to that kind of father-daughter feeling as she had ever had. When she found out she was pregnant she’d thought of going to Bernie; he would have helped her. But events took place that superseded her chance for Bernie’s surrogate-parent support, and she’d walked away from him just as she’d walked away from the rest of her life in Oceantides.
    The second event that took place that fateful week was an encounter with J.J. that changed everything between them, even though nearly another year would pass before she actually admitted that she loved him.
    She ran into J.J. Beckett after a football game and saved his life.
    She herself had not gone to the game; she hated watching J.J. lead his team to victory and then embrace the accolade and adoration from his band of groupies. She’d stayed home, listened to music, half written a paper on teen nutrition and then, because she’d heard her father stumble in drunk, had sneaked out the back door and taken a long walk toward the beach.
    Mariner Lane was a small street at the edge of town that ran perpendicular to the beach and was flanked on each side by summertime businesses — bike rental places, kite shops, and ice cream huts — and ended in a wide cul-de-sac parking lot. Mariner Lane was also not too far from North Beach Road — the rich people’s haven. It was there Sherry ended up walking, heading toward the concrete stairs that led down to the beach. At this time of year the whole area was closed up and lonely, perfect for her mood. She just wanted to be alone.
    But a blue BMW was parked against a piece of driftwood that doubled as a bumper barrier. J.J.’s car. Sherry recognized it instantly and huddled inside her coat. It was chilly. Downright cold. Half expecting to find him making out with some girl in the BMW’s back seat, she hid in the shadows of the shuttered-up snow-cone hut.
    And then she saw a dark figure staggering up the beach toward her. Sherry gazed in amazement. The figure had come straight from the water. A skin diver? Good Lord. No one in their right mind would go swimming in water cold enough to kill them.
    She gasped as he came into view. J.J. She almost stepped forward to help him up the stairs to the parking spot but her own reserved nature made her hesitate.
    He was shaking from head to toe — hypothermia. His pants and shirt were sodden with icy water. His keys