Hot Item (Hot Zone 3)

“It’s really the fact that Atkins is gay that is causing an uproar.”

“Mom didn’t know, so that should minimize the impact.” Neither had Riley, and now that the news was public, he’d have to deal with the fact on a more personal level. One he had pushed to the back of his mind.

“No matter how you look at it, there’s an embarrassment factor for her, but she’s a strong woman. She’ll survive and do it well,” Harlan said with pride.

Riley smiled. “You love her,” he said, not realizing he’d spoken aloud.

“Since the day I laid eyes on her.”

“She was lucky to have found you. We were lucky.” Funny, he thought, how in times of crisis, a person came to appreciate the things he had in life all the more.

A long pause followed. “I feel the same way, son,” Harlan said. “Believe it or not, I tried to spare all of us this pain. And not just because of my position and career.” Emotion caused Harlan’s voice to crack.

Riley’s throat filled as well. “I need to make sure Lizzie’s doing okay with the fallout, but give Mom a kiss for me and tell her I’ll call later.”

“I will,” his stepfather promised. “I’ll also make damn sure I find out who leaked this scandal and see to it that they pay.”

“It was bound to come out. Secrets can’t stay hidden forever.”

“Some can and should,” Harlan said.

A click followed. Harlan had disconnected the call.

Knowing the older man, he was already on to other things, handling the crisis in a way only he could.

Riley closed his eyes and thought about his daughter. Adults handling the news were one thing. A thirteen-year-old being publicly humiliated was quite another.

He grabbed his keys. Next stop Lizzie and Lisa’s house.

SPENCER STARED out the window of his expensive penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His life had been a jumble of contradictions and clichés.

A gay man marrying to hide his secret. Although at first he hadn’t hid his sexual orientation so much as wanted to change who he was. The late 1950s wasn’t a time when homosexuality was accepted or even understood. Hell, he thought, it wasn’t like his lifestyle was accepted everywhere in this country today. He didn’t regret trying to assimilate into the mainstream. He only regretted the hurt he’d caused Anne at the time.

Because if he could have loved any woman in that way, it would have been his son’s mother. Anne was his Doris Day, a soft-spoken, sweet-natured woman who would bring any man to his knees. He’d loved her in his way and he’d wanted to make their life together work. Especially when he’d found out she was pregnant.

Unfortunately, that was when things had started to shatter, both in their lives and inside Spencer. It had been difficult enough being with a woman when she couldn’t fulfill his emotional and physical needs but once she was pregnant, he had immediately felt himself grow distant. He’d started spending nights out at underground gay bars, stopping for an hour at a sports bar on the way home as his cover.

Anne had hated the barrier he’d erected and he’d hated the lie he was living. The more he’d thought about how unfair he was being to her, the more he’d realized how much worse things would be when his baby was born. The decision to leave her had been the most difficult he’d ever made, but he consoled himself with the belief that she’d be better off without him.

Spencer had come home drunk late one night and told Anne that he hated being tied down in any way. With Yank Morgan as his best friend, Anne hadn’t had to look far to see another example of what Spencer claimed to be: a man happier single than married.

She’d moved back with her parents, who’d made it impossible for him to stay in touch with her, not that he blamed them. He’d been torn up inside already and he’d backed off, intending to let some time pass before trying once more to

be part of his child’s life. But soon after, Anne had met Harlan Nash, a successful man with a law degree and political aspirations, an upstanding man who wanted to marry her and raise her child as his own.

Spencer and Harlan had met one night at the other man’s request. In that moment, Spencer had known his wife and child could have a better life, a normal life, without him in it. He’d shaken Harlan Nash’s hand and agreed not to contact either one of them again.

However, he hadn’t promised not to watch from afar. He hadn’t sworn not to pull strings and make sure his son—an athlete as it turned out—had the benefits of having a father in the business. He’d steered the appropriate college coaches toward Riley—not that they wouldn’t have recruited the talented young man anyway. And he’d pushed Yank toward representing Riley Nash, making up a bullshit excuse for not going after the Heisman winner himself.

If Yank had known or suspected the truth, he’d never let on. And as the years had passed on, Spencer had come to realize Yank was as much in the dark as everyone else. Keeping his secret had been the only way he knew to live and succeed.

Until Lola had finally left Yank and come to him for a shoulder late one night and discovered him with the man he’d been seeing on and off for the past ten years. Bless Lola, who reminded him so much of Anne, she’d quietly accepted, without passing judgment, and hadn’t revealed his secret—until it had slipped out when Yank had broken his hip in an angry tirade, thinking Spencer and Lola were a couple. Then somehow, the news that night had leaked out, though, for whatever reason, the timing of the big reveal had been delayed until a couple of weeks before the draft.

But as much as that news had sent Spencer into a tailspin, it was nothing compared to this revelation. This one had the potential to destroy other people’s lives. Including the life of the son he’d given up in order to protect him from precisely this secret.

“THE IMPROMPTU MEETING of Athletes Only and The Hot Zone partners will now come to order.” Uncle Yank whacked his gavel hard against the table. “Now who the hell’s responsible for this?” He waved today’s paper in his hand.

Sophie took a sip of her coffee. “What’s going on?” She hadn’t slept well last night and, instead of getting to the office in time to read the morning papers before the meeting, she was about to receive her information from Uncle Yank—when he stopped carrying on, she thought.