Flaming Desire - Part 3 (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Read Online Free Page B

How about you?”
    “About the same,” I said, smiling. “I bounce around. Matt told me that his crew was short a person, so he invited me aboard.”
    “The more the merrier,” Sam said and turned to me more fully. She stuck out her hand. “Allow me to introduce myself properly. I’m Samantha Reynolds.”
    I smiled and extended my hand as well. “I’m Jessica Landers, but as I told you before, Matt insists on calling me Jesse.”
    She laughed. “That’s right. He has a penchant for that. Since the moment I introduced myself to him, I’ve been Sam.”
    I had to smile at that. I wondered about her, and I could imagine by the assessing looks she gave me that she wondered about my own relationship with Matt. As we neared the base camp, she finally asked. I was glad she did, because I wasn’t about to.
    “How did you meet Matt?”
    The crew truck came to a halt and the doors opened. I rose from the seat and stepped out, with Sam close behind. We walked together toward the mobile kitchen trailer. “I work at Santa Fe General Hospital as an ER nurse,” I explained. “Matt just came down, transferring from Sacramento. So actually, I’ve known him for about a week.”
    We stepped up to the mobile kitchen, where several volunteers were handing out metal trays. Cold cheese sandwiches, an apple or an orange, a bag of chips, and either Coke, water, or coffee.
    My throat was scratchy and dry so I opted for the Coke. I still had water in my canteen. Sam did the same and then we walked together to the covered tent with the tables. We sat down and began to eat. After swallowing a couple bites of sandwich, I continued our conversation. “What about you? Where did you meet Matt?”
    “Up in Seattle,” she said, opening her bag of chips. “His wife and I were best friends in high school—”
    “Matt has a wife?” I asked, stunned. I nearly choked on a chunk of cheese I had pulled from the sandwich. What the hell? Why hadn’t he said anything about—?
    “Had,” she said. She said nothing for a moment, but began to pull one potato chip after another out of the bag, chewing thoughtfully as she consumed each one.
    I wanted to ask her questions, but didn’t want to seem too curious or forward. Finally, when Sam had finished off the bag of chips, she popped open her can of Coke and took a deep sip. Then she looked at me.
    “Matt’s wife and little boy died a few years ago in a car accident.”
    I froze. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. Matt had a wife and child? They were both dead? In a car accident? How horrible. I supposed my eyes expressed my shock, because Sam spoke up.
    “You didn’t know.”
    It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. I shook my head. I glanced down at the other half of my cheese sandwich, but I had lost my appetite. Still, I knew this was all I’d get to eat for who knew how long, so I had to choke it down. I took another bite.
    “Not surprising,” Sam said. “He doesn’t talk about it. It hit him pretty hard though, naturally. After the accident and then the funerals, he left Washington and headed to California. I tried to keep in touch with him over the years, but he’s pretty much made himself a loner. I knew he was working in the ICU in Sacramento, but I had no idea he’d moved again, down to New Mexico.”
    “I didn’t know that much about him,” I said. “He told me he was born in Colorado Springs, so I just assumed he came from there.”
    “He did, but his wife, Tracy, came from Seattle. They met at Denver University. They fell fast and hard for each other, were married within six months, and then before I knew it, bang, they were pregnant.” Sam paused a moment, sipping her Coke, gazing out the tent opening.
    I felt nothing but shock. Not that I expected Matt to divulge everything from his history, but I pretty much had, hadn’t I? To know that Matt also shared tragedy in his past overwhelmed me. I knew how much comfort Matt had been able to give me, but if Matt