Heart in the Field Read Online Free

This entire situation was frustrating. “I’m going to
be working, not having an affair.”
                Nick raised an eyebrow. “Calm down.
No one mentioned anything about having an affair.” He chuckled.
                Serena felt her face grow hot. “I
just meant that nothing was going to go on. Nothing.”
                “You’re not going to treat any
aspect of this show as fun, are you?”
                “You might think this studio stuff
is mere fooling around compared to field journalism, but it’s not. It’s hard
work.”
                “I know it’s hard work. But we don’t want it to become a grind. We have a new show. We’ve
got a chance at stardom. We have to play to that.”
                “Then you’re just like Don. He plays
with TV.”
                “Successful play?”
                “Indeed. But he manipulates careers.
His ideas count. He’s very forceful. We have to be equally forceful in return.”
                “I’ve already figured that out. It
means we’ll have to make certain we put our own personal stamp on Neon Nights . To make
it a success we can’t leave any holes. We have to come up with material so
tight he can’t fault it. In other words, we have to take ourselves to the edge.
And we have to be side by side on this. If we both have an identical view for
the show it will work better. I’m not saying we should agree on everything. But
we shouldn’t accept any inferior content just because we can’t come up with
anything better. No hoops for Don to dance through. Okay?”
                Nick made John seem like mush. But
she had to admit she agreed with him. If Don couldn’t fault their
presentations, then Don lost control of Neon
Nights and it was all theirs. “I understand.
You have my commitment to the show. I’ve given up my day job, as it were.”
                “Which was?”
                “I was the afternoon news anchor.”
She knew for him that was likely considered a very lowly news job.
                But he didn’t show any disdain.
“This will be much more challenging.”
                “Exactly. That’s why I jumped at the chance, even if it is rather like diving into the
deep end without knowing what’s underneath.” She wasn’t sure why she was
exposing her vulnerability.
                “Then we’ll have to make sure there
are no rocks at the bottom.”
                His grin was friendly, reassuring.
The adrenaline and anger were now gone and her body felt limp and devoid of any
energy. She opened her right-hand desk drawer, drew out her purse, and stood
up. To reach the stainless steel coat rack she walked around the desk to where
Nick was standing. She unhooked a khaki bomber jacket that matched her pants
and tucked the jacket over her arm. “I’d better be getting home. It’s been a
long day.”
                Nick blocked her vision. Tall and lean, with a hint of a shadow on his hard jaw. “I’ve come to meet you, to chat about our new show. You can’t go home yet.
Let’s go for a drink. You look like you need something strong.”
                His eyes were so much like her
father’s it was uncanny.
                “How do you know what I need?”
                “Because you might
need the same as what I want, a way of calming down from the day. Let’s
continue this somewhere else.” He plucked his jacket from the back of the chair
and shrugged his broad shoulders into it.
                Serena turned away from him and she
heard the rustle of leather.
                “Are we going?” he said.
                “Yes. My keys.” She opened her purse and dug around for her keys.
                Nick walked outside and waited while
she locked her office door. It was a long walk up the corridor