Slow Heat

She blew out a breath. “Yeah.”

“Is it working?”

“Yes,” she lied.

“Good.” He startled her by stroking a finger over her temple in the exact spot it ached. “Because you’re right about all of it. Especially the part about me not being a keeper. Now tell me what’s really wrong.”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Well, then, please God, let’s be fine inside. I need a steak.” He turned her from him and nudged her inside. “Or a plate of burgers. Hell, I don’t care what it is as long as it’s red meat and no longer mooing. I hate being hungry.” ›

They sat down just in time to be served appetizers: cod-fish mousse with fried plantain chips. It was fantastic, but after a minute, Sam realized she was the only one of them eating. Wade was pushing his around with his fork, a deep frown on his face.

“Problem?” she asked.

“It’s fish.”

“Uh-huh.”

He wrinkled his nose.

She laughed. “You don’t like fish?”

“Does a fish say moo?”

“Don’t be a baby.”

“A baby?” He slid her a brooding look. “I’m wasting away here from starvation.”

The main course was a guava-glazed red snapper and Wade groaned. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

“Looks good.”

A scowl had creased his forehead. “Mark didn’t have a hand in this; he hates fish, too.” He looked around for the groom, spotting him sitting across the room with Meg in his lap, who was kissing his face all over. “Well, that explains it. He’s getting laid out of this deal, so he doesn’t care what he eats.”

“It’s really delicious.” She took another bite. “Maybe if you just try it.”

“It’s fish, Sam.” He pulled his napkin from his lap and stood. “I’ll be back.”

She watched his tall, rangy form make its way to the doors and vanish. When he didn’t immediately return, she figured he was checking out the vending machine in the hotel lobby in search of a candy bar.

Mark plopped down next to her. “Let me guess. Wade got his lucky ass out of this fancy joint and is out seeking real food.”

“I’m thinking yeah.”

He sighed wistfully. “That guy always did have the best survival instincts. I’d kill for a burger.”

“It’s your dinner,” she noted, amused. “Order one.”

“Clearly you’ve never been the groom-to-be. And you’ve certainly never had to stand up to a bride.” He looked over at Meg, sitting at a table surrounded by other women, positively glowing, and he smiled dopily. “God, she’s amazing.”

“Which is why you’re willing to eat food you don’t even like.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “I let her have her way, and she…” His grin widened. “Well, let’s just say it works to my favor.”

She laughed. “A marriage made in heaven. You’ll make a good family together.”

“Thank you.” He studied her a moment. “You know, I’ve never said this to one of Wade’s girlfriends before, but I’m going to say it now. I hope you stick.”

“Oh. Well-”

“If anyone could use more good family around, it’s Wade. I mean he has me, of course, but we don’t get to see each other much these days. There’s his dad, but he doesn’t really count. And he has his teammates, but a guy could use more, you know?”

Sam was stuck on the dad comment. She’d written the bio for every player on the team, Wade’s included, so she’d always figured she knew most everything there was to know about them. “His dad is alive?”

A funny looked crossed Mark’s face, and he set his drink down. “Wow, Meg was right. I should have quit two drinks ago.” He paused. “Look, he’s a bit touchy about his past, which is silly given how much money he sends home, but still, he’d hate that I brought it up.” Mark caught Meg waving at him and stood up. “Gotta go pretend I love the seafood. Tell Wade he’s a lucky bastard.”

“Oh, I will.” As Mark walked away, Sam looked around for Wade. It’d been ten minutes since he’d vanished on her.

She waited five more, then left the table and made her way down to the lobby, thinking about Wade’s father. Wade had always been open about growing up poor as dirt, about the fact that it’d been just his father and him in a single-wide in the woods in some tiny town in Oregon, and that it was just Wade now.

But it wasn’t just Wade, not if his father was still alive. Was the man still in Oregon? Or here in California, maybe even in Santa Barbara somewhere? But if that was the case, why had she never heard about him? Or seen him at a game?

She checked the restaurant and bar, then stepped out of the resort’s front double doors, onto a huge grassy area, lined with wild flowers in every conceivable color. And there, sitting on the grass in that beautiful suit was her multimillion dollar MLB catcher, eating a Big Mac.

Chapter 6

Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.

– Greg, age 8

Sitting on the perfectly manicured lawn, Wade slurped down his soda and tried not to think about the message he’d just retrieved from his voice mail. It’d been someone from the senior center reporting that if his father didn’t stop handing out contraband-alcohol and cigars-to the other residents, he’d be kicked out.

And then his father’s message, the softly slurred, “Yo, when are you going to get it? I don’t want to be here, I want to be with you.”

There’d been a long pause, and Wade had thought maybe his father had hung up.

He hadn’t.

Because there was more-his dad’s voice lowered, hoarse and thick, but even so, still filled with the despair that had coated most of Wade’s childhood: “Need you, Wade. Not your money. You.”

Uh-huh. He’d heard that before. Shrugging it off, Wade tilted the carton of fries up to his mouth, soaking up the last of the sun as it sank into the horizon. French fries and sunsets were God’s gift, he decided.

“I should have known.”

He looked up.

And up.

And up the best set of legs he’d ever had the pleasure of having wrapped around him. Which made him amend his thought. French fries were definitely God’s gift. But so were a woman’s legs.

And what those legs led to…

“You look like you just had really great sex,” Sam murmured, her eyes on his.

“You should know.”

She shook her head. “Why do you always circle back to that one bad decision? It was a long time ago, it meant nothing, and it’s never going to happen again.”

“Come down here and say that.”

She didn’t, reminding him that she possessed an unusually strong survivor’s instinct.

“How did you get to McDonald’s?” she asked.