Chapter Four
JANA HAD CONVINCED herself that Hunter’s goal last night had solely been to mess with her head, but when she’d come out to her car in the morning to go to the dance studio, she’d found a handful of tiger lilies that looked like they’d been picked from the side of the road beneath her windshield wiper with a card from Hunter. She was pretty sure he’d gotten a free card in the mail with those return address labels that were mass-marketed right before the holidays, because it had a picture of a cute white puppy wearing a Santa hat—and it was only June. Inside, he’d written, How’s this for romance? Hunter.
At the time she’d laughed it off as him messing with her again, but now, as she had discussed it with Harper over lunch during her break from work, she had to wonder why he’d go to such lengths.
“Want to know what I think?” Harper asked. They were sitting on the Wellfleet Pier eating lobster rolls from Mac’s Seafood and watching a family with three young boys fish a few feet away. Well, that and checking out the hot guys docking the boat at the end of the pier.
“Sure.” Jana picked at her lobster roll.
“I think when you go to the bonfire tonight you should ask him. Right there in front of everyone you should bring it up. Call him out on it.” Harper tucked her long blond hair behind her ear and straightened her red plastic sunglasses. Jana couldn’t see her expression behind the lenses, but she knew her older sister well enough to picture her blue eyes, alert with surety and confidence.
“Call him out on it?” She shook her head at her sister’s ridiculous suggestion. “This is Hunter we’re talking about, right? Big guy, speaks his mind no matter what? Sky’s brother? Can you imagine what type of comeback he’d have and what Sawyer would do if he knew Hunter was messing with my head?” She laughed, but inside her stomach knotted at the thought. “And Brock? He told me that if Hunter hurt me he’d kill him.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Brock is not going to hurt anyone. You know that. Besides, Hunter’s not hurting you. He’s playing with you. Just like you play with him.”
Jana finished her lunch and pushed to her feet to throw out her trash. Nothing was as relaxing as sitting on the pier with the gentle breeze blowing in off the bay, but she had a class to teach, and she didn’t want to respond to Harper’s comment about her playing with Hunter.
She shifted her eyes to the hot guys who had docked their boat, hoping for a distraction from Hunter, but they didn’t do anything for her. Not even a tingle of excitement. Not to mention that they were openly ogling Harper, who probably didn’t realize her short summer dress was rising with the breeze.
“Harp, you’re giving those hotties an eyeful.”
“Ohmygosh.” Harper jumped to her feet, holding down her wayward dress. She turned away from the guys and laughed. “There are benefits to working by the pier, aren’t there?” Harper was a screenplay writer, and last summer she’d been hired to write a racy sitcom for cable. She mainly worked from home or coffee shops.
“Heck, yeah. Hot guys at every turn, the beach, the theater, and our friends.” Jana sighed. “I just wish my life weren’t so crazy. I feel so scattered these days. Working for Marco is a bear. He was supposed to bring in clients, but since he moved to Plymouth, it’s all on my shoulders.”
“I thought that was temporary,” Harper said.
“Yeah, me too.” Jana had taught dance for Marco Luger, the owner of Cape Dance, for the past two years. When she’d first begun working for him, he’d handled the business end while she taught, but now that he was busy opening the other studio, Jana was overloaded. When she’d happily accepted the extra work, it was with the understanding that it would be for only a month or so while he got the other studio up and running. Months later, she was not only still doing the work, but when she’d requested a raise, he’d claimed he couldn’t afford it.
“You’ve got to ask him for a raise again if he’s going to keep relying on you to grow the business. You know that, Jana. Usually you’re so aggressive. Why are you so careful with him?”
“Harp, how many dance studios are there on the lower Cape?”
Harper shrugged. “I don’t know. Two? Three?”
“Exactly. And I love teaching everything. I want to teach hip-hop to teenagers, ballet to sweet little girls with big dreams, and, well, everything to adults. No other dance studio does it all.”
“Maybe you need to compromise. Give up some of what you want for what you can get.”
“You’re always so practical. I don’t want to give up anything. I love it too much, and besides, I’ll lose those skills if I don’t use them.” She needed to change the subject, because they’d just argue about how Jana should try to focus her efforts on one thing at a time. It was a sore subject for Jana, especially since, for the first time in years, she’d had to forgo the theater work she loved so much. But until Marco came back or hired someone else, she couldn’t spare the time.
“I’m having breakfast at Seaside with Sky the day after tomorrow. Are you going?” Through Sawyer, Jana and Harper had become good friends with Sky and all of her friends in the Seaside community.
“I’m not sure,” Harper said. “I have a lot of revisions to do tonight, which is why I’m missing the bonfire, so it’ll depend on how much I get done.”
Jana walked her back to her car. “What do you really think I should do about Hunter? I mean, why does he care if I think he’s romantic or not? He’s more of a player than I am.”
Harper lifted her sunglasses and Jana saw the seriousness in her eyes. “Jana, I don’t know. I mean, you two are like oil and water one minute and insatiable with each other the next. You’re at a whole different sexual level than I am when it comes to guys.”
“Gee, thanks, sis,” she said with a sarcastic lilt to her voice.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean, you have more experience than me. You enjoy yourself more. You’re freer. I’m not a prude or anything, but you have no qualms about any of it, and I…I’m slower to the finish line, I guess.”
“That’s okay.” Jana sighed. “I’ll figure it out.”
Harper hugged her, then climbed into her car. “You always do.”
Jana wasn’t so sure about that. “Have a great time writing! Make it hot and sexy. Think of me as your character.”
Harper waved and blew her a kiss as she drove away.
The dance studio was located around the corner from the harbor. Jana walked along the road thinking about Harper’s suggestion. There was no way she’d call Hunter out in front of everyone, because she might not like his answer. That thought bothered her. She really did like him as a friend, and as a lover. It was just putting the two together that got messy for them, because it couldn’t lead anywhere.
She gazed at the upper deck of the Pearl Restaurant, where couples were sitting beneath colorful umbrellas. They looked happy, the men and women leaning in close. Jana hadn’t had a real boyfriend since Spencer, and that was five years ago. Relationships petrified her. They made her feel claustrophobic. But it was scenes like these that made her heart flutter longingly and a little voice whisper in the back of her mind about one day…followed by the urge to run in the opposite direction.
She shifted her gaze to the gallery next door and noticed a man carrying a large metal sculpture of a fish. It was nearly as long as he was. The artist, a handsome man in his midthirties who sometimes sat out front of the gallery while he worked, followed him out. The smile on the artist’s face told of his joy of finding a home for a piece of his artwork, and she wondered if Hunter felt that way when he sold one of his pieces.
As she neared the studio entrance, she realized how strange of a thought that was, because when it came to Hunter, she usually didn’t think much beyond his looks, his danger zone, and the pigheaded opinions that came out of his big mouth.
Oh, that mouth.
No, she wasn’t going to stroll down Hunter Road today. She needed to concentrate on her impending meeting with the Cape Cod Times to solidify marketing space, and then she had three more classes to teach.
Her cell phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her purse, and her pulse quickened at the sight of DO NOT RESPOND! on the screen. She stared at the screen for a long time, debating whether she should open it. Who was she kidding? She swiped the screen, unable to resist reading Hunter’s text.
Pick you up at 7 to watch the sunset before the bonfire. Be ready.
She had to read it twice to believe it. What was he up to, telling her what to do? She wasn’t about to be told to be ready for any man.
She typed a quick reply—No, thanks—and pressed send, irritated with him for assuming she would want to go anywhere with him. Seconds later her phone vibrated with another text.
Is that any way to treat a romantic invitation?
Really? Was he that competitive? She responded with, What do you really want?
Her phone rang seconds later, stopping her in her tracks. She accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. Before she could say a word, Hunter’s deep voice flooded her ear.
“The truth.”
She sighed. “What?”
“You asked what I wanted. I want you to admit that you want to be with me.”
“Hunter—”
“I’m not going to be baited into a fight. Just say you want me, and you’ll feel much better.”
He said it so confidently that despite her annoyance, it made her smile. “Oh, will I? Well, for your information, I don’t want you.” If she were Pinocchio, her nose would have instantly grown.
“Now that we’ve established that you’re a sucky liar, I’ll be at your place at seven. I don’t like to wait, so be ready.”
“Oh, that’s super romantic,” she said flatly. “Listen, I—”
“Seven, pretty girl. See you then.” He ended the call, leaving her slack-jawed, annoyed, and slightly turned on.