Authors: Shannon Stacey

Heat Exchange (22 page)

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.”

Don’t miss
CONTROLLED BURN
by Shannon Stacey,

Available December 2015 wherever
Carina Press books are sold.

www.CarinaPress.com

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]
.