Read Across the Line (In The Zone) for Free Online Page A

get back. It’s time for the photo shoot and I want to stand next to Eruzione.”
    “Make sure your eyes aren’t closed,” Calder said.
    After hanging up with his dad, he got ready for his lunch date, but when he came down the stairs in shorts and a polo shirt, the keys to the Camry in his hand, his mom stopped him.
    “Wait a sec. Hart called while you were in the shower. He’s coming in day after tomorrow.”
    “What?” Suddenly the spring in his step disappeared. He paused on the bottom stair.
    “He said he has a last-minute thing in New York he has to go to, but after he was done, he wanted to swing by and catch up.”
    “Did you tell him I was here?”
    She smiled. “Yes. He’s excited to see you.”
    “I’ll bet,” Calder muttered. He and Hart weren’t close. At least, not anymore. Calder had hated being the little brother, always trying to play catch-up. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Hart hadn’t been like the King Midas of the family, excelling at everything he tried, especially hockey.
    “Don’t be like that,” Jenny said. “You’re brothers. I want you to try to get along while you’re both here.”
    His mom’s wistful expression cut through the animosity he was feeling and he let it go. “I’ll do my best.”
    “Thank you, sweetie.” She looked down at his feet and clucked her tongue. “Calder. Flip-flops? Really?”
    “Mom. We’re not going to Ma Maison. It’s lunch at her lettuce cup and soup place.”
    She sighed as he closed the front door.
    Uncertain now, Calder paused on the porch to reassess, then shook his head. He looked fine. These were his good flip-flops, the leather ones he’d gotten at the neighborhood surf shop back home, not the ratty rubber ones that were falling apart. Shit, if his mom had her way, he’d be spiffed up in slacks, shirt and tie.
    He found the café easily enough. It was a cute place with a lime-green and black awning and some wrought-iron tables and chairs out front. The easel-style menu board near the door advertised the specials for the day. One of the two soups du jour was the Chicken Curry Chowder, “a hearty, spicy nontraditional chowder.” The second was the Pork Meatball Soup, “tasty meatballs in a shiitake mushroom broth with Napa cabbage and a dash of cilantro.” The featured lettuce cup was the BLT.
    Calder fucking loved bacon. Hell, all three of those specials sounded great.
    Since he was fifteen minutes early, he strolled a little farther. The Commons looked different but the same. A few places had opened that he’d never seen before, but a lot were old favorites. He stepped into a men’s clothing store that had probably been there since the sixties and found, of all things, an orange necktie with old-fashioned goalie masks all over it. It was the ugliest fucking tie he’d ever seen.
    He bought it.
    He had no idea what he was going to do with it—wear it to a classy affair just for fun, give it to a buddy for his birthday—but he’d think of something. By the time he was done with the purchase, he had to get back over to Cups.
    Wearing khaki shorts and a loose-fitting white blouse, Becca stood out front. Her hair was up in a ponytail and he wondered if she ever wore it down. As usual, her face was bare of makeup, except some pale lip gloss.
    He leaned forward to kiss her cheek in greeting and the scent of her overpowered his senses. She smelled amazing, sort of peachy this time but mostly womanly. He remembered her being citrusy on the plane and wondered if he saw her tomorrow she’d smell different. He lingered a little longer than was polite, but he couldn’t help it. She pulled away with a giggle and he wondered if she was ticklish.
    “So, here it is,” she said, her face a little pink. “My pride and joy.”
    Pulling his focus away from her soft skin, he smiled at her. “Becca, the place looks really great. I mean it.”
    “Wait until you taste the food,” she said, leading him inside.
    The lime-green and black