Free Winter's Heart by A. C. Warneke Page A

couple of hours afterwards and I hope I never have to do it again but I’m glad I did it once. I also got to experience zero-G, which was a rush. There’s nothing quite like floating around weightless, feeling like you're going to fall but knowing you won’t. What about you?”
    “That's so cool,” she murmured genuinely interested, without any trace of false curiosity at all. “I think the most exciting thing I’ve done in my life is move out here with my sister. But I had a job lined up and an apartment and I wasn’t alone, so it wasn’t really that far outside of my comfort zone. I do have my college degree, though.”
    “Really?” he grinned, realizing she had to be twenty-two or twenty-three, which wasn’t quite as young as she appeared. “What did you study?”
    “Well,” she hedged, drawing out the word. “I got a degree in literature by default.”
    “By default?” he asked on a laugh.
    “I loved taking lit courses because I enjoyed discussing all of the different books in depth.” She shrugged her shoulders and crinkled her nose as she smiled. “When it came time to declare a major, I realized I had nearly fulfilled all of the requirements for literature so there you have it. My daddy says it would have been cheaper to simply join a book club.”
    “He’s probably right,” he said with a grin. “Unless you were there on a full scholarship.” At her tell-tale blush he leaned back in his seat and laughed, “Don’t tell me you’re a nerd.”
    “Full-fledged,” she said with a hint of pride. “Except I got a full ride because of track.”
    “You’re an athlete.”
    “I can run,” she clarified. “And it was enough to allow me to get a degree that I will probably never use but I’m glad I did it.”
    He laughed as she returned his words back. “And now you’re a party planner.”
    “Right,” she said with a wry grin, rolling her eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out what I am but it’s definitely not a party planner.”
    “Right, event coordinator,” he teased, feeling warmth explode in his chest when she laughed. “I know your sister is out here to pursue her dream of becoming a star,” he said, watching her closely, loving how expressive she was. “Why are you here?”
    “We made a promise to each other,” she answered. “She’d go to college and get a degree, have something to fall back on, and I’d come out here with her so she wouldn’t be alone. I think it would be a lot harder to do this all alone and she might make… poor choices if she didn’t have me to vent to on her bad days.”
    He nodded his head in perfect understanding. Maybe if he had had someone in his corner when he first came out here he wouldn’t have made some of his more questionable choices. Of course, he was one of those exceptional cases where serendipity played her hand, plucking him out of obscurity for a small role on a television show. For some reason, the audience fell in love with him and the producers expanded his part until the show revolved around his character. Then he was offered roles on the big screen and that came with lots of money, which came with expensive toys and beautiful, willing women.
    He behaved how any eighteen -year-old boy would have behaved. It wasn’t some of his better years.
    Clearing the unexpected emotion from his throat, he murmured, “She’s lucky to have you.”
    “Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual,” she said with a soft smile, the love for her sister apparent in her face, her words. “I don’t know what I’ll do when she becomes famous and no longer needs me.”
    “You’ll be surprised how much we still need our family when we find ourselves plastered on billboards in our underwear to promote our latest movie.” He said the words lightly to hide the cynicism that still ate away at him. “Far too often, the support we get is superficial and when something bad happens it quickly disappears.”
    She stared at him with wide,