Read Straight from the Heart for Free Online

parts of my anatomy?”
    Conceited man! He undoubtedly thought she had been touching him on purpose. “I doubt it will do anything for a swelled head,” Rebecca said primly.
    “It’s not my head that’s swelling at the moment.”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that maybe he shouldn’t wear such tight pants, but she bit back the words. Remembrance shuddered through her and settled in a warm pool in the pit of her belly. She fixed her gaze on the odometer as she leaned forward to start the car. The Honda buzzed a noisy protest.
    “You never turned it off,” Jace pointed out unnecessarily.
    Rebecca blushed a deep apple red. “Must you make everything into a sexual innuendo?”
    “What did I say?” he asked with a shrug, amusement sparkling in his dark blue eyes. “Oh, you mean, turned off as opposed to turned on—the way I am right now?”
    The Honda lurched backward. Rebecca muttered steadily under her breath as she rammed the gearshift and pressed down on the accelerator. The motor raced.
    “That’s neutral.”
    She shot him a withering glare. “Would you like to drive?”
    Jace sobered and glanced away. “No.”
    Rebecca shifted on the seat uneasily as she managed to get the car into drive and eased it away from the curb. She felt as if she’d slapped a puppy. Jace’s teasing was abruptly finished, and it was somehow her fault. Not that she had wanted him to tease her. It was just that this brooding silence wasn’t like him.
    “Was it a bad accident?” she asked cautiously, stealing a glance at him. He was staring out the side window, his shoulders tensed as if ready for a blow.
    “Yes.”
    “Were you with—”
    “I don’t want to talk about it right now, Becca.”
    There was a certain urgency in his voice that caught her interest and, at the same time, kept her from probing deeper. She focused on the quiet, tree-lined street and piloted the car toward home. That was where she wanted to be—home, in the house she’d grown up in. Home, away from Jace Cooper. She was glad he had ended the subject because she didn’t want to know anything about his life since she had ceased to be part of it. It was none of her business.
    She glanced at the digital clock nestled in among the dashboard instruments and bit her lip. “I have to make a quick stop at home before I take you to Muriel’s.”
    “I can walk from your place. You said yourself it’s just across the alley.”
    She shot him her sternest health-care-professional look. “No. You’ve walked enough for one day.”
    “I have to admit, it does feel good to sit here.” He grinned, his old good humor returning. “It felt even better when you had your hand on my thigh.”
    Heat blossomed again under the surface of her fair skin. “That won’t happen any more,” she said stiffly as she signaled and pulled into the driveway of a sturdy two-story house painted white with colonial blue shutters and trim.
    “We’ll see.”
    “I mean it, Jace,” she said soberly. “I’m not getting involved with you again.”
    “You’re already involved.”
    “Professionally.”
    “That’s a hard line to draw when you’ve already been to bed with someone.”
    The shot was right on target. She should have congratulated him on his marksmanship. Instead she turned the car off and yanked the keys from the ignition. The look she gave him walked a thin line between hurt and hatred. Her voice trembled with emotion. “Consider it drawn.”
    She swung her long legs out of the Honda and started up the sidewalk at a brisk pace. Jace hauled himself out on the passenger side and leaned against the roof. As he started to call out to her, the front door of the house opened and a miniature human cannonball launched himself off the front porch with an exuberant shout.
    “Mom! Mom, guess what!”
    Jace’s jaw dropped. He felt as if he’d just been hit in the stomach with a medicine ball.
Mom?
Becca was a
mom
?
    Justin’s freckle-dusted face and