Heroes (Hollywood Heartthrobs #1) by Kate Rivers Page A

to fake smiles
like that. The woman who could would win an Oscar. He thought he would sell his
soul to keep her smiling like that at him. Then he thought that by not telling
her the truth, that was very nearly what he was doing.
              “Um, you’re
welcome,” he answered lamely. “What should I call you?”
              “Well, it
says Jane on the clipboard, and that seems as good a name as any other. We are
well met, Dean. I’m Jane.”
              “It suits
you,” he responded, still mesmerized by that dazzlingly simple smile.
              “Another
question, Dean. Why did you stay? Until I woke up, I mean, it must have been
hours.”
              “I… I needed
to know that you were okay.”
              She laughed.
“I’m not sure ‘okay’ is how I would describe myself right about now, but I’m
alive, thanks to you.” She gave a large, fake sigh. “My hero.” She said it with
such overblown, Disney Princess conviction Dean laughed too, in spite of
himself. Being in Jane’s waking presence was, in itself, such a comfort to him
that he could feel the tension of the past hours start to fade. “So, what
happens now?” she asked. “It’s late, I would imagine there’s someone waiting up
for you.”
              “My brother
actually, I’m staying with him and his family while I’m here in Chicago.” He
had pushed Nate, not to mention Tucker and Alec, out of his mind while he
waited in the hospital. “He’ll probably be expecting to hear from me. Excuse me
a second.”
              Dean stepped
out into the hallway, feeling a surge of reluctance to leave Jane alone for
even a minute. He was afraid to break the spell of comfortable companionship
that had been suddenly woven around them. Pulling out his phone in the darkened
hallway, he saw a dozen missed calls from Nate and Samantha. He must have
turned it to silent as some point in the endless hours of yesterday. He debated
calling so late, but eventually decided it was worth the risk of waking them.
              He called
Nate’s cell, and was answered on the first ring.
              “Dean?! Are
you alright?” Nate’s voice was choked with emotion. It broke Dean’s heart anew
to hear how he had worried his little brother. How could a moment of his
carelessness cause such a ripple effect on the people he loved?
              “Nate, I’m
here. I’m okay. I’m still at the hospital.”
              “You sound
exhausted. Do you need me to come get you?”
              “No, Nate,
it’s okay, everything’s fine, I’m fine. How are the boys?”
              “Well, they
were understandably pretty upset, but they’re both safe, which is most
important. And kids are resilient to being frightened. They were both shaken up
when I got them home, but Samantha worked her mom magic to take care of them.
She finally got them both to sleep in our bed, then I finally got her to sleep
in there with them.”
              “And you
Nate?”
              “I wanted to
be up in case you called. Sam’s got the boys under control. I’m worried about
you, Dean.”
              Dean took a
breath. This was it, the moment of truth. “Nate, I… I am so, so sorry. I took
my eyes of Alec for a second to help Tucker with his laces and he must have
wandered off the curb and by the time I saw him he was in the street and I
can’t even think about what might have happened and you need to know I love
those boys more than anything in the world and I will never forgive myself for
letting Alec into harm’s way…” Now that he had started he couldn’t stop. Tears
were welling up in his eyes as he saw again in his mind the slow-motion replay
of Alec’s brush with death.
              “Dean, stop!”
Nate yelled into the phone. “Not now, not like this. We can talk about this
later. Pull it together, brother.” Dean