“I’m famous,” he said lightly. “I pay people to make my phone calls for me.”
“Bullshit. And speaking of paying people, why are you dumping this on me? Jackie’s in charge of publicity and press.”
“Her head would explode.”
The silence on the other end lasted so long Joe thought his agent might have hung up on him. But no such luck. “Joe, we’ve been together a long time and, speaking as a guy who’s had your back for almost a decade and a half, I think this is even a worse idea personally than it is professionally.”
“I know, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
* * *
Keri swallowed another mouthful of non-designer water and resisted glancing at her watch again. Maybe she’d been spoiled by a generous expense account, but meeting in a cheap chain restaurant in the city was too high a price to pay for privacy, in her opinion.
And what was with Joe having his agent contact her to set up the dinner? He couldn’t pick up the phone and call her himself? Maybe his overinflated ego interfered with telephone use, so he had to use his agent as though she were a total stranger. As if she didn’t know he had a birthmark shaped like an amoeba on his right ass cheek.
Unfortunately, her opinions didn’t seem to matter. Tina had made it very clear that if Joseph Kowalski held up a hoop, Keri was to jump through it, wearing a pom-pom hat and barking like a dog if that’s what it took to make the author happy.
It really burned her ass to be in this predicament, and just thinking about her boss made her temples throb. The temptation to walk out was incredibly strong but, while she knew she could walk into any magazine editor’s office and come out with a job, it would set her back years in her quest to climb to the top of the masthead.
It was only an interview, after all.
There hadn’t been a new press or book jacket photo of Joe since his sixth book. That picture had pretty much looked like him, albeit without the grin and dimples. It was one of those serious and contemplative author photos and she’d hated it. But by now, especially considering the coin he was pulling down, he was probably a self-indulgent, fat, bald man with a hunched back from too much time over the keyboard.
She, on the other hand, thought she’d aged well. Nothing about her was as firm as it had been in high school, but she was still slim enough to pull off the pricey little black dress she’d chosen for tonight. Her hair, now sleek and smooth to her shoulders, was still naturally blond, though she would admit to some subtle highlighting.
“Hey, babe,” a voice above her said, and just like that the sophisticated woman was gone. She was eighteen again, with big dreams, bigger hair, and an itch only Joe Kowalski could scratch.
She could almost taste the Boone’s Farm as she turned, braced for an old, fat Joe and finding...just Joe.
He’d aged even better than she had, the bastard. His face had matured and he had a trace of what men were allowed to call character lines, but he still had that slightly naughtier version of the boy-next-door look. Of course, he wasn’t quite as lean as he used to be, but it probably wasn’t noticeable to anybody who hadn’t spent a significant amount of senior year running her hands over his naked body.
All in all, he resembled the boy who’d charmed her out of her pants a lot more than he did the stodgy author she’d hoped to charm into an interview.
“Hi, Joe.” She’d stored up a mental cache of opening lines ranging from cute to funny to serious, and every single one seemed to have been deleted. “Thank you for coming.”
He slid onto the bench seat across the booth from her. “Time’s been pretty damn good to you, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
No, she didn’t mind at all. “You, too. Interesting choice of restaurant, by the way. An eccentricity of the rich and reclusive author?”
He flashed those dimples at her and Keri stifled a groan. Why couldn’t he have been fat and bald except for unattractive tufts of hair sprouting from his ears?
“I just like the all-you-can-eat salad bar,” he said. “So tell me, is Tina hiding under the table? Waiting to pounce on me in the men’s room?”
Keri laughed, partly because it was such a relief to have the topic out in the open. “No, she refuses to leave the city. Says her lungs can’t process unpolluted air.”
His smoky blue eyes were serious even though his dimples were showing. “Terry’s been expecting you to sell me out for your own advantage since I first made the NYT list.”
Hearing his sister’s name made her wince, and knowing she still held such a low opinion of Keri just made her sad. During the very rare moments she allowed herself to dwell on regrets, she really only had two. And they were both named Kowalski.
“I’m being professionally blackmailed,” she admitted. “If I don’t get an exclusive interview for Spotlight from you, I’m out of a job.”
“I figured as much. Who spilled the beans?”
Keri pulled the 8x10 from her bag and handed it to him. “I don’t know. Do you remember who took that?”
“Alex did, remember? The night we...well, the caption’s pretty thorough.”
She remembered now. Alex had been a friend of Joe’s, but they’d all traveled in the same circle. “But Tina said the blogger who claimed to go to school with you was a woman.”
“His name’s Alexis now. You wouldn’t believe how much he paid for his breasts.”
Keri laughed, but Joe was still looking at the photo. Judging by the way the corners of his lips twitched into a small smile and how he tilted his head, Keri figured Tina had been right about the nostalgia angle.
The waitress approached their table, order pad in hand.
Joe still hadn’t looked up. “Remember the night you started drinking your screwdrivers without the orange juice and did a striptease on Alex’s pool table?”
“I bet the jokes about Alex’s pool table having a nice rack went on forever,” the waitress said, and then Joe looked up.
“You bet they did,” he said easily, but he was blushing.
“There must be a whole new slew of jokes about Alex’s rack now,” Keri said, making Joe laugh.
The waitress tapped her pen on the tab. “So do you guys know what you want?”
And then he did it, just as he always had whenever he’d been asked that question—he looked straight at Keri with blatant hunger in his eyes and said, “Yes, ma’am, I do.”
The shiver passed all the way from her perfectly styled hair to her Ferragamo pumps. Then she watched in silent amusement while he ordered for them both—her regular high school favorite of a medium-well bacon cheeseburger with extra pickles, fries and a side of coleslaw. There was no mention of salad, all-you-can-eat or otherwise.
When the waitress left, she gave him a scolding look. “That’s more calories than I’ve consumed in the last two years, Joe.”
He waved away her halfhearted objection. “Let’s get down to business.”
Keri didn’t want to. She was too busy enjoying that sizzle of anticipation she’d always felt when Joe looked at her. Apparently those blue eyes hadn’t lost their potency over the past two decades.
Joe leaned back against the booth and crossed his arms. It was probably supposed to look intimidating, but all the gesture really did was draw attention to how tan and incredibly well-defined his biceps were against his white T-shirt. Typing definitely wasn’t the only workout his arms got.
“Let’s see if I can synopsize our situation,” he said. “I never give interviews. You want an interview. No, strike that. You need an interview, because the rabid jackal you work for has made it clear your job is on the line. Am I close?”
The sizzle receded to a tingle. “You’re in the ballpark.”
“I’m not just in the ballpark, babe. I’m Josh Beckett on the mound at Fenway. If I don’t give you what you n
eed, you’re hiding behind palm trees waiting for drunk pop stars to pop out of their Wonderbras.”
And that pretty much killed the last of the lingering tingle. “Payback’s a bitch and all that, right, Joe?”
The dimples flashed. “Isn’t it?”
Keri just shrugged. She wasn’t about to start putting deals on the table or making promises. After years of dealing with celebrities, she usually knew how to handle herself. But this was Joe Kowalski. He’d seen her naked and she’d broken his heart. That changed the rules.
“I’m leaving town tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll be gone two weeks.”
The tingle flared up again, but this time it was a lot more panic and a lot less anticipation. “There’s always the telephone or fax or email.”
“Not where I’m going.”
She laughed. “Would that be Antarctica or a grass hut in the Amazon Basin?”
“I’m not even leaving the state.”
Joe had sucked at cards in high school—he had no poker face—but she couldn’t read him now. The instincts that had skyrocketed her to the top of the Spotlight food chain were giving her nothing, except the feeling he was setting her up for something she might want no part of.
The waitress brought their food, buying Keri a few more minutes to think. One thing Joe had never had was a mean streak—if there was no chance in hell of the interview happening, he wouldn’t have agreed to meet her for dinner. He’d never had it in him to humiliate somebody for the sake of his own enjoyment.
Granted, the kind of checks he had to be cashing changed a person, but she’d already seen enough of him—and heard enough from her mother—to know Joe was still Joe. Just with more expensive toys.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have her jumping through hoops, of course. Probably an entire flaming series of them.
She bit into the bacon cheeseburger and the long-forgotten flavor exploded on her tongue. She closed her eyes and moaned, chewing slowly to fully savor the experience.
“How long has it been since you’ve had one of those?” Joe asked, and she opened her eyes to find him watching her.
Keri swallowed, already anticipating the next bite. “Years. Too many years.”
He laughed at her, and they enjoyed some idle chit-chat while they ate. She brought up the movie and he talked about it in a generic sense, but she noted how careful he was not to say anything even remotely interview worthy.
There would be no tricking the man into revealing something that would get Tina off her back.
“You know,” she said, still holding half her cheeseburger, “I really want to enjoy this meal more, and I can’t with this hanging over my head. What’s it going to take?”
“I gave it some thought before I came, and I think you should come with me.”
“Where?”
“To where I’m going.”
Keri set the cheeseburger on the plate. “For two weeks?”
The length of time hardly mattered, since she couldn’t return to California without the interview anyway. But she’d like an idea of what she was signing up for.
“Whether you’re there for two weeks or not is up to you. For each full day you stick it out with the Kowalskis, you get to ask me one question.”
Keri, unlike Joe, did have a poker face and she made sure it was in place while she turned his words over in her head. “When you say the Kowalskis, you mean...”
“The entire family.” The dimples were about as pronounced as she’d ever seen them. “Every one of them.”
Her first thought was oh shit. Her second, to wonder if People was hiring.
Joe reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a folded sheet of spiral notebook paper. “Here’s a list of things you’ll need. I jotted it down in the parking lot.”
Keri unfolded the paper and read the list twice, trying to get a sense of what she was in for.
BRING: Bug spray; jeans; T-shirts; several sweatshirts, at least one with a hood; one flannel shirt (mandatory); pajamas (optional); underwear (also optional); bathing suit (preferably skimpy); more bug spray; sneakers; waterproof boots; good socks; sunscreen; two rolls of quarters.
DO NOT BRING: cell phone; Blackberry; laptop; camera, either still or video; alarm clock; voice recorder; any other kind of electronic anything.
She had no clue what it meant, other than Joe wanting her half-naked and unable to text for help.
Copyright © 2010 by Shannon Stacey
Author Note
The processes and organizational structures of large city fire departments are incredibly complex, and I took minor creative liberties in order to maintain readability.
To first responders everywhere, thank you.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Angela James and Carina Press for your constant support.
Also available from Shannon Stacey
and Carina Press
THE KOWALSKI Series from Shannon Stacey
Suggested reading order
EXCLUSIVELY YOURS
UNDENIABLY YOURS
YOURS TO KEEP
ALL HE EVER NEEDED
ALL HE EVER DESIRED
ALL HE EVER DREAMED
LOVE A LITTLE SIDEWAYS
TAKEN WITH YOU
FALLING FOR MAX
HOLIDAY SPARKS
MISTLETOE & MARGARITAS
SLOW SUMMER KISSES
SNOWBOUND WITH THE CEO
HER HOLIDAY MAN
BE MINE
HEAT EXCHANGE
A FIGHTING CHANCE
Also available from Shannon Stacey and Harlequin
ALONE WITH YOU
HEART OF THE STORM
And stay tuned for FULLY IGNITED, the next book in the BOSTON FIRE Series from Shannon Stacey, coming soon
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 driving her UTV through the mud. You can contact Shannon through her website, shannonstacey.com, where she maintains an almost daily blog, or visit her on Twitter, twitter.com/shannonstacey, and her Facebook page, facebook.com/shannonstacey.authorpage, or email her at [email protected]. To find out about other books by Shannon Stacey or to be alerted to new releases, sign up for her monthly newsletter here or at bit.ly/shannonstaceynewsletter.
Tough. Dedicated.
Meet the men of
HEAT EXCHANGE
BOSTON FIRE, book one
“This is the perfect blend of sweet and sexy for those who love a bit of firefighter action!”
—Heroes & Heartbreakers
Lydia Kincaid left Boston to get away from the firefighting community—but family is number one and her father needs her help running the pub he bought when he retired. Soon, Lydia finds it hard to resist the familiar comfort and routine, and even harder to resist her brother’s handsome friend Aidan.
Aidan Hunt is a firefighter because of the Kincaid family. He’s had the hots for Lydia for years, but if ever a woman was off-limits to him, it’s her. She’s his mentor’s daughter. His best friend’s sister. The ex-wife of a fellow firefighter. But his plan to play it cool fails and soon he and Lydia have crossed a line they can’t uncross...
The addictive BOSTON FIRE series continues with FULLY IGNITED (March 2016).
Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers and much more!
Visit CarinaPress.com
We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/CarinaPress
&nb
sp; Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/CarinaPress
If you love Shannon Stacey’s happy-ever-afters, you won’t want to miss
A FIGHTING CHANCE!
A FIGHTING CHANCE
All work and no play makes Adeline Kendrick a dull girl, so when she heads to a casino resort for a friend’s bachelorette weekend, she’s ready to have a good time. Until she runs into Brendan Quinn, professional fighter and the one who got away—the one her family drove away—and things take a turn for the interesting.
Running into his ex won’t shake Brendan. Even if it brings up the old pain of loving her when she was only slumming. Even if she looks really good. In fact, what better way to get over the past than to take advantage of the still-sizzling chemistry running hot between them? He’s there to win an MMA fight, but he won’t say no to a little physical relief of a different kind.
But when the weekend is over, Adeline isn’t ready to give up on her second chance that easily. Brendan is still the one for her, no matter what her family thinks. Now, if only she can convince him of that...
Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers and much more!
Visit CarinaPress.com
We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/CarinaPress
Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/CarinaPress
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
Controlled Burn Page 25