Thrown By Love by Pamela Aares Read Free Book Online Page B

“We all will.”
And then the light in his eyes faded and lost focus. A moment later, those eyes went blank. His hand still gripped hers, but it felt different. They were connected, still, but the energy had shifted. She sat in the silence, enveloped in an uncanny feeling, as if she were floating away with him. She stared at him and couldn’t bring herself to let go of his hand, even as it cooled against hers. Time passed and passed again until she once more heard the sounds in the hospital corridor, understood that others around her were still involved in their own battles against death. But all she could feel was the ache of the gaping space where her heart had been carved out of her body.
A nurse came in, almost tiptoeing. Chloe knew she’d been in a couple of times already, but this time she focused her gaze on Chloe.
“Miss McNalley, the undertakers are here. Your dad called them this morning. They’re ready to take him now.”
Chloe nodded. How long she would’ve sat there, she’d never know. Leave it to her dad to call the last shot.
     
     

Chapter Six
     
Scotty pulled into the parking garage of a condominium tower in San Jose. He couldn’t believe it. One day he was pitching for the Giants and the next he’d been traded to the San Jose Sabers.
Just like that.
He had exactly one day to find a place to live near the Sabers’ stadium. He cursed that it was just far enough away from his place in San Francisco that he couldn’t commute.
He should’ve listened to his agent and had a no-trade clause put into his contract, but he’d been so thrilled to play for the Giants that he hadn’t wanted to do anything to rock the boat.
The whole deal had been weird. He’d heard the rumor that the Sabers sweetened the deal with cash, lots of cash. The incentive bonus the Sabers had paid him wasn’t usual either. He liked the money, of course he did. But he’d rather be playing in the city he loved, on a team he loved.
Deep down the whole thing felt wrong.
He hadn’t been pitching well, had had worse than a rocky start to his season. So to be paid off like that made him feel like a fraud. Sure, he’d made the All-Star team his rookie year, but still, this deal didn’t make any sense. But that’s the way the game was going these days, and there was no predicting it. In the past week several of his friends had been traded with no warning, and now he knew how they felt. In three years, when he would become a free agent, he’d have better control over his life. If he got his game back.
He slammed the car door.
When he got his game back.
His agent, Tracy, had been just as astonished as he was. When she’d called him on the road with the news, he did the math and figured out that the deal had gone through two days before Chloe had helped him rescue the dog. Why that made him feel better, he wasn’t sure. He just didn’t want to think she’d had anything to do with it; having her involved in any way would be creepy.
He hadn’t spoken with Chloe since the day they’d shared lunch in his apartment four days earlier. The call she’d answered that afternoon had cut short what he was sure would’ve been more than just a meal and a kiss. But seeing her upset had wrenched his gut. If he contacted her, maybe she’d let him help her, maybe figure out where they stood.
Right. Who was he kidding?
They couldn’t stand anywhere.
Her dad owned the team he now played for. She might as well have a neon sign that said Do Not Enter hanging over her head.
To even imagine he could have a relationship with her would be insane.
He followed the real estate agent through the condo as she pointed out all the usual features. But his mind wasn’t on views and bathrooms and kitchen appliances. His mind was on Chloe McNalley. Right then he didn’t worry much about insane. The kiss they’d shared at his place could’ve lit half the West Coast. It’d shocked the hell out of him and from the look in her eyes, it’d had the same effect