“Rick, is that you?” she heard a woman call from the back of the house, and Jessica’s stomach twisted into a knot. “Did you get the... Oh. You have company.”
Jessica looked at her grandmother, emotions tangling together in her mind. Marie was tall and slim, with short white hair and blue eyes. And Jessica knew, many years from now, she would look like this woman.
“Where’s Joe?” Rick asked, and Jessica was thankful he seemed to want them together because it bought her a few more seconds to gather herself.
“He’s in the kitchen. Come on back.”
When Marie turned and walked away, Jessica looked up at Rick. He nodded his head in that direction, so she followed. Other than a general sense of tidiness and a light citrus scent, she barely noticed her surroundings. Her focus was on her grandmother in front of her and an awareness that Rick Gullotti was behind her.
Her grandfather was sitting at the kitchen table, working on some kind of puzzle book with reading glasses perched low on his nose. When he looked up, he frowned and then took the glasses off to stare at her.
“I found Jessica outside,” Rick said. “She says she’s your granddaughter.”
Marie gasped, and Jessica felt a pang of concern when she put her hand to her chest. “What? She can’t be.”
“If her hair was short, she’d look just like you did years ago, Marie.”
“I can’t believe Davey wouldn’t tell us he had a baby.”
“Davey hasn’t told us anything in almost forty years.”
“I’m thirty-four,” Jessica said, as if that explained everything, and then she immediately felt like an idiot. “I’m sorry. I should have called first.”
“Did Davey send you because that damn doctor called him?”
“I came because of the call, yes.” She couldn’t bring herself to admit yet that her father had no idea she was here or why.
Silence filled the kitchen, and she became aware that the Broussards had a real clock hanging in their kitchen—the kind with a second hand that marked the awkward seconds with a tick tick tick.
Jessica was torn. The logical analyst voice in her head—the part of her that had earned her a cushy corner office in her father’s investment business—wanted her to set up a time to speak with them about the doctor’s call and then check into the hotel room she’d reserved. But her inner eleven-year-old wanted to hug her nonfictional grandmother.
“It’s a long flight,” Rick said, stepping out from behind her so she could see him. “You hungry?”
His quiet words breaking the silence also seemed to break the tension, and Marie gave her a shaky smile. “Have a seat and tell us all about yourself. Rick, are you going to stay for a while?”
“I’ll stay for a little bit,” Rick said, and though his voice was even enough, the look he gave Jessica made it clear he wasn’t just a tenant in this house and he wasn’t sure what he thought of her yet. “I want to hear all about Jessica.”
Copyright © 2015 by Shannon Stacey
Don’t miss CONTROLLED BURN
by Shannon Stacey,
Available December 2015 wherever
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Also available from Shannon Stacey
Carina Press
The Kowalskis
Exclusively Yours
Undeniably Yours
Yours to Keep
All He Ever Needed
All He Ever Desired
All He Ever Dreamed
Taken with You
Falling for Max
Holiday Sparks
Slow Summer Kisses
Mistletoe & Margaritas
Snowbound with the CEO
Her Holiday Man
Harlequin HQN
Be Mine
(anthology with Jennifer Crusie and Victoria Dahl)
Harlequin Special Releases
Heart of the Storm (available separately as an ebook, and in print as part of the Snow Day anthology with Jennifer Greene and Barbara Dunlop)
And watch for the next books in the Boston Fire series, Controlled Burn and Fully Ignited, coming soon from Carina Press!
About the Author
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Shannon Stacey lives with her husband and two sons in New England, where her two favorite activities are writing stories of happily-ever-after and riding her four-wheeler. You can contact Shannon through her website, shannonstacey.com, where she maintains an almost daily blog, or visit her on Twitter at twitter.com/shannonstacey, her Facebook page, facebook.com/shannonstacey.authorpage, or email her at [email protected].
The Kowalskis series by New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey
EXCLUSIVELY YOURS
The Kowalskis, book one
UNDENIABLY YOURS
The Kowalskis, book two
YOURS TO KEEP
The Kowalskis, book three
ALL HE EVER NEEDED
The Kowalskis, book four
ALL HE EVER DESIRED
The Kowalskis, book five
ALL HE EVER DREAMED
The Kowalskis, book six
LOVE A LITTLE SIDEWAYS
The Kowalskis, book seven
TAKEN WITH YOU
The Kowalskis, book eight
FALLING FOR MAX
The Kowalskis, book nine
Fall in love with the New York Times bestselling series from Shannon Stacey, available now at CarinaPress.com and wherever ebooks are sold.
We hope you enjoyed
HEAT EXCHANGE
by New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey.
If you liked reading this novel, then you will love
FIREFIGHTERS
by New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis.
These sexy firefighters will go to any lengths to protect their town…and their women
“Shalvis firmly establishes herself as a writer of fast-paced, edgy but realistic romantic suspense.”
—Booklist
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We hope you enjoyed
HEAT EXCHANGE
by New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey.
If you liked reading this novel, then you will love
MEN OF COURAGE
by bestselling authors Lori Foster, Donna Kauffman, and Jill Shalvis.
Three sexy stories where the men are heroes—strong and fearless…
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ISBN-13: 9781426899867
Heat Exchange
Copyright © 2015 by Shannon Stacey
Edited by: Angela James
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Heat Exchange Page 25
