Hot & Bothered by Susan Andersen Read Free Book Online Page A

but he rose to his feet and gave his father the bored, insolent sneer he’d perfected years ago. “Yeah, well, what can I say? Shit happens.”
    Ford gave him a look of disgust. “Shit does not just ‘happen,’ young man. It’s a result of sloppy preparation.”
    He shrugged, but his gut roiled harder and fiercer. Wouldn’t it be something if just once his father didn’t take the opportunity to tell him what a huge disappointment he’d turned out to be? Other guys had dads who actuallytossed balls around with them. He had Ford Evans Hamilton, who tossed his son’s every mistake in his face. His chin jutted out. “And who do you see giving me a hand with these preparations? You?”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous.” Exuding polish from his expensively barbered hair to his gleaming loafers, the older man strode across the room until he loomed over Jared. “You’re seventeen years old—call a baseball camp or hire yourself a coach. Exert yourself for once in your life. A Hamilton strives to excel.”
    â€œMaybe I am striving! How would you know? You’ve never even seen me play.”
    Ford shot his cuffs impatiently. “Is this going to be another whine because I didn’t attend your little game? How many times do I have to tell you that business—”
    â€œTakes precedence over sports.” Jared completed the familiar litany in unison with his father’s cultured tones. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” A thought popped into his head and left his mouth before he had time to censor it. “Man, you are such a hypocrite.”
    Ford stilled. “What did you say?”
    The fury in his father’s eyes made Jared’s heart pound so hard he could barely breathe, but he didn’t back down. “I didn’t want to join the stinking team in the first place, but you insisted it would build character and turn me into a team player.” And as it turned out, he’d discovered baseball was something he was pretty good at and had ended up loving the sport. But everyone else had family at the games to cheer them on. With Tori and the pip-squeak in London the past couple of years, his own cheering section was diddly-squat. Thrusting his chin a notch higher, he put forth his best I-could-give-a-rip curled lip. “Team player, my ass.” His voice cracked embarrassingly on the last word and he played with the sleeve of his jersey, uncovering the bottom half of his tattoo to distract the old man’s attention from that sign of weakness. “You talk the talk,” he sneered. “But what you really mean is that everyone else oughtta be a team player. Not you, though. You’re the frickin’ owner of the franchise, always too damn important to waste your time doing anything nice for anyone else.”
    â€œI can’t believe I sired you.” Ford’s voice neither raised in volume nor exhibited anger. Yet like an arctic wind, it sliced an icy swath through Jared’s self-esteem. “You look like some punk off the street, with your tattoo and your earrings, and you’ve disgraced our good name by being tossed out of three schools.”
    â€œFour,” Jared said, clenching every muscle in his body to prevent his father from seeing the way they’d started to tremble. “You always forget Chilton. And hey. At least I don’t keep marrying women young enough to be my daughters.”
    Ford’s eyes turned more frigid yet. Leaning down, he murmured conversationally into Jared’s ear, “I really should have insisted your mother have an abortion. Things would have been so much better all the way around.”
    Pain sliced deep and scalding tears rose in an unstoppable tide in Jared’s eyes. Feeling as if he were suffocating and would die if his father saw how powerfully the words had wounded, he reached out blindly with both hands to thrust Ford out of his way. He had to