Undercover Heat Read Online Free Page B

you don’t have to sell me on Middle Valley . I liked it up there. And now you’ve put the place on the map with that bed and breakfast of yours.” He reached across the table and brushed his fingers across hers. “I’m proud of you. Really.”
    The tone was back. The one that reeked of pity. She tugged her sleeves down over her hands and sat back in her seat. When she looked up, she noticed him staring, a curi ous smile straitening his lips.
    “You look beautiful, Carrie. I noticed at the studio. Good and healthy.”
    The added weight of his deep blue eyes somehow made her all the more self-conscious. She cast a sideward glance around the diner. A thin-haired man with a mangy goatee li fted his coffee cup and smiled.
    “Why don’t you take your jacket off? It’s warm enough in here.”
    Her gaze shifted to the linoleum table. “I’m okay, still a little chilled from the outside.”
    “Carrie- ”
    “I told you. I’m fine.” She couldn’t fool him. His scowl told her as much. Acting came naturally to her, hell she had the awards to prove it. But she couldn’t lie, and no part of Ty bo ught her lame attempt to do so.
    “There he is. My favorite semi-regular!” A waitress with long dark hair and unnaturally tinted contacts popped her bubble gum as she approached their table. When she touched Ty on the shoulder, he startled at the intrusion. “Ty Hollister! Boy have I missed you.” She bent down and kissed him on the cheek, then placed the menus on the table.
    “Hey Stacey.” He winked and flashed a red carpet smile. “How have you been, honey?”
    “Better now that you’re here. How long has it been two, three months?”
    “That’s about right. I’ve been on location. In Italy .”
    “At the gym it looks like.”
    “Played a boxer. Had to put on some mass.”
    “No kidding.” Stacey slid her fingers down his arm, and made a show of squeezing his biceps. “Is that why you’re strutting around in the dead of winter with no shirt on under that biker jacket of yours? Showing off?”
    “I was in a hurry this morning.”
    “Well, let me speak for my whole gender and tell you, we don’t mind.” She pulled a pencil and pad from her apron pocket. “So, how long are you in town? Maybe we could catch up, you know what I mean?”
    Carrie did. It never ceased to amaze her how women blatantly threw themselves at him, any time any place, even in mixed company. She chuckled and buried her nose in the list of lunch specials.
    “Wait a minute! Is that? Are y ou? It is! Carrie Ann Langley!”
    Carrie peeked out from behind the menu. Stacy looked at her, red-faced with her hand covering her mouth like she’d seen the Ghost of Elvis. “Oh my God,” the girl gushed. “I love you so much. Really!”
    “Thank you,” Carrie said in a polite whisper, a tone she hoped Stacey would emulate. No luck. Instead she squealed and did a strange little dance th at looked almost like a seizure .
    “God, and your show ‘ Undercover Heat ’ is my number-one favorite ever. You two were so good together. It was like you really were madly in love.”
    Ty smiled. “We were that convincing, huh?”
    “Oh yeah. I love the episode when you guys are being chased by those drug dealers, and you end up hooking up in that refrigerator thingy.”
    “Um, I think it was a meat locker.” Carrie corrected, surprised she suddenly didn’t mind the stroll down memory lane. “That was Ty’s method acting stage, and he insisted we actually do the scene in a gigantic freezer.”
    “Yeah, and I was sick in bed for a week after that.”
    “I told you it was a bad idea.”
    Ty leaned across the table and smiled. “I didn’t mind. I may have been in bed, but I did have pretty good company.”
    The waitress had slipped away, but Carrie was sure any idiot could tell by her blush that they weren’t talking about the weather. The spell was broken when a shutter clicked on a high speed camera. Ty scowled at the table beside them.