Read Online Where Angels Tread by Clare Kenna - Free Book Online Page A

for the flash of Shane’s blue cruiser to round the corner.
    After a few minutes an unfamiliar car drove slowly down the street and pulled to a stop in front of her driveway. Heidi watched as Zachary raced to greet it. Of course, she thought, there was no reason for Shane to bring his squad car. She was disappointed all the same; there was something about a man in uniform that really got her blood flowing.
    As Shane stepped out of the car, Heidi felt her pulse quicken; her attraction to him, fueled by the touching way he interacted with her son, had only intensified since she last saw him. A far cry from the usual stiff police clothes she had seen him in so far, today Shane sported a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt cut off at the shoulders, showing off his tanned arms and tight muscles. Tucked beneath his arm was a basketball, which he tossed to Zachary, who caught it deftly.
    Heidi watched as Shane popped open the trunk of his car and lifted out a heavy box; when Zachary saw what was inside, he clapped his hands enthusiastically and raced to the front stoop. “Mom!” he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. “I need a screwdriver!” Then he bounded back down the steps and hurried to the car, where Shane was now pulling a large basketball hoop from the box.
    After locating the toolbox, one of the things she hadn’t so much as laid a finger on since John’s death, Heidi slipped on a pair of shoes and went outside to greet Shane. “Wow, what do you have there?” She peered into the box, which besides the hoop contained a long pole and a base.
    “I didn’t know if you guys had a hoop, so I decided to bring one along.” Shane straightened up and smiled at her, a slow sexy smile that she could feel throughout her entire body. She turned away to catch her breath for a second, praying that Zachary didn’t notice anything. Heidi could barely admit her feelings for Shane to herself, let alone worry about having to explain them to her pre-teen son; she shuddered at the thought.
    “That’s incredibly generous,” Heidi said gratefully once she regained her composure. “You didn’t have to do that.”
    Shane waved his hand in the air unconcernedly. “It’s my pleasure,” he said, then turned and ruffled Zachary’s hair. Heidi was shocked to see the grin on her son’s face; if Heidi tried to touch his hair he always flung her hand away. Boys, she thought, shaking her head. They were a strange breed all right.
    Heidi could see rivulets of sweat running down Shane’s back as he bent over in the hot sun, muttering to himself as he tried to fit the pieces of the basketball hoop together. Zachary hopped from one foot to the other impatiently, every so often dribbling the ball and raising his arms to take an imaginary shot.
    “There,” Shane announced after a few minutes. “We’re ready for business. Mind giving me a hand, Zachary?” Together they heaved the hoop to a standing position and dragged it over to the side of the driveway. Shane wiped the sweat from his forehead and surveyed his work. “We can always move it,” he said to Heidi. “If it’s in the way.”
    “It’s perfectly fine where it is,” she replied, mentally trying to calculate how she was going to squeeze her car by the hoop without knocking it over. Heidi had never been very good at backing out of tight spaces, as Zachary could attest to, but the last thing she wanted to do was complain when Shane was going out of his way to be so helpful.
    Shane raised his hands in the air, signaling for the ball; in his excitement, Zachary overshot and the ball whizzed past Shane’s head and started bouncing down the road. “Sorry!” Zachary said as he dashed after it.
    “Watch out for cars,” Heidi called to her son as he finally caught up with the ball. She turned to Shane. “I’ll just leave you two boys here. I think I’ll catch up on some reading. I made some lemonade if you want to stop in when you’re done playing. Of course,” she