Free Double Play by Jill Shalvis Page A

work?”
    “I’m impressed.”
    “Good. Mission accomplished.” Allie had a smile in her voice. “I was beginning to think maybe you’d fallen off the planet. Or better yet, found a hot guy or something.”
    “Or something.”
    “Are you kidding me? I’m right?”
    “No,” Holly said on a laugh. “You’re not right. I’m swamped with getting this series started, that’s all.” Or not, she thought, staring at her laptop. “I just wanted to check in.”
    “Aw, you miss me.”
    “Yeah.” Holly felt a smile cross her face. “I really do.”
    “Then stop running around like a chicken without a head. Stand still and grow roots. And if you could do that here in LA, with me, that’d be great. This is where it’s at, chica.”
    “For you maybe, but I write nonfiction. I need to travel to the stories.”
    “So switch to fiction. So is he on the Heat?”
    “He who?”
    “He, the hottie distracting you who.”
    “Stop it.” But she caved as she sank to her chair and stared at the computer. “He’s the phenom. Phenoms don’t tend to like bossy reporters.”
    Allie laughed. “I love it. You always did aim high.”
    “You heard the nothing’s-going-to-happen part, right?”
    “Call me when you have details.”
    “There won’t be any.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Holly thunked her head on her desk. “Well I don’t want there to be details, how’s that?”
    Allie laughed and Holly hung up. She looked around at the condo she’d rented for the next month and let out a breath. Another condo in another city.
    She had no idea where she’d go next.
    Contrary to what Allie thought, that was actually the fun part of her job, nothing tying her down . . . Or it had been, until recently, when this odd sense of restlessness started hounding her. Maybe Allie had a point, maybe she should think about settling. She didn’t have to do it the way her mother had, with all the various addictions in play—the men, the shopping, the lying . . . which when combined had destroyed her, and nearly Holly as well. It’d certainly left them in the poor house.
    Or more accurately, a single-wide in south Georgia. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Nope, if they’d been a real family, it’d have been fine. But Holly’s mom had always blamed Holly for her problems, and Holly in turn had blamed her mother for . . . everything.
    They’d never been a real family.
    Talk about being tied down. Poverty was the worst of ties. The memories were harsh, but Holly had raised herself and gotten out. The days of being so poor she couldn’t pay attention were over.
    And yes, maybe now she was a little tough, a little jaded, and a whole lot mistrustful, but she had her morals firmly in place, instincts honed sharp.
    Which is how she screwed up enough courage to call Tommy.
    “Finally,” he grumbled. “I was getting ready to send out a search party. You don’t return calls now?”
    “I’m sorry. I need to talk to you.”
    “Well, I need to talk to you, too, doll. I need you to get me your article ASAP. I’m running it tomorrow.”
    “It’s not due until Monday.”
    “I know, but Alicia crapped out on me and now I have a spot to fill. You’re it.”
    “I need some more time.”
    “What do you mean you need more time?”
    “Actually,” she said with a glance at her blank screen, “I need to change subjects. I’m thinking ice dancing.”
    He laughed good and hard. “Oh no you don’t.”
    He had no idea. She had to change subjects—she’d kissed hers! “I have a little conflict of interest.” A six foot two conflict of interest . . .
    “Huh?”
    Tommy had given Holly a chance when no one else would, so she felt she owed him for that, and she gave him the truth that meant so much to her. “It’s possible that I’m developing a very small . . .”
    “Zit? Parasite? What? ”
    “Crush. On one of the players.”
    “So?”
    “So . . .” The last time she’d dated someone related to her work, it had ended badly.