Seaside Embrace(20)

Hunter grabbed his leather apron and gloves and put them on. “Nothing is bad about it. I just don’t need to be given shit about dating her.”

Grayson’s eyes widened. “Wait, so now you’re dating Jana? As in, going out in public together on a real date, not just to meet with friends and leave together for the night?”

Hunter slid him an annoyed look and put on his safety goggles. “Yes. We’re going to dinner tomorrow. On a real date. My first one in, what? A decade?” He picked up a piece of metal with tongs and headed for the forge.

“You know, she’s actually perfect for you.” Grayson followed him over.

“Yeah? Why’s that? Because she’s smart as shit, sexy as hell, and a big pain in the ass sometimes?” Even as he said the words, he smiled. He loved when she was a pain in the ass. That’s what made her Jana.

“Those things, sure. But she calls you on your shit every time we’re out, just like you call her on hers. You two are like male and female versions of each other. You’re both stubborn as hell.”

Hunter turned the metal over as it reddened above the hot coals. “We’re both sexy as hell, too,” he teased.

Grayson grabbed a hammer and handed it to Hunter as Hunter rested the red-hot metal on an anvil. “So where are you taking her?”

“I was thinking about going to Undercover, because I know she loves to dance and she’s comfortable there.” He’d already nixed the idea of Undercover, because he wanted Jana all to himself, but he wanted to get Grayson’s take on the idea. He began hammering the metal into shape.

“You mean you want to stake your claim where she works.”

His brother knew him so well.

“Is that a dick move?” Hunter asked, already knowing the answer.

“Depends. Are you seriously going to date her? Do you even know if you want to? Because I’m pretty sure she’ll know exactly what you’re doing if you take her there.”

Hunter smiled. “Yeah, I definitely want to date her. And claim her. But I’m not taking her to Undercover. I just wanted you to weigh in on the idea to see if I was off base.”

“Trust yourself, Hunter. Even if you haven’t dated in a long time, you know how to treat a woman right. It’s who you are, man. You and me both. We know what to do; we just choose not to. We fight it.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m done fighting it.” He turned the metal over and hammered it flat, then set it aside and picked up another piece with the tongs. “Well, we’ll see. I’m taking her to the Wicked Oyster.”

“Wow, you’re pulling out all the stops. That place should be called Wicked Expensive.”

“She’s worth it.” The answer came without thought and, he realized, laced with pride. He was taking Jana Garner out on a date, and that made him feel good all over. “By the way. Shaving? Turns out she totally digs it.” And it turns out that I like making her smile rather than seethe.





Chapter Thirteen


JANA STOOD AT her kitchen counter the next evening with her cell phone pressed to her ear while she looked over the notes she’d been jotting down since her meeting with Theresa.

“I am so sorry I missed the breakfast when all this went down,” Sky said. “Bella said you had her get the answers you needed for the insurance company, so what happens next?”

Jana glanced at the notebook. “I’m compiling a list of things I’ll need for the studio, and Amy called earlier. She needed the class descriptions and details about what should be on the registration forms. Jamie hooked me up with sites where I could get templates for the other legal waivers I’ll need, too. She said Jamie has the framework for the website almost done, even though we haven’t nailed down the location. Those girls, and Jamie, are incredible. They move at lightning speed. How could Jamie possibly do it that fast? All he did was ask me what I wanted on it, and I showed him a few examples.”

“Jamie’s incredibly smart and talented. Think about it. He invented One Click, Google’s rival search engine. Who does that? The man’s a genius. A website for him is probably as easy as me tattooing a straight line.” Last year Sky had opened her own tattoo parlor, Inky Skies, in Provincetown.

“I guess you’re right.” She flipped the page and saw where she’d scribbled, Give notice to Marco? and underlined it about fifty times. “If this really comes through, I’m not looking forward to giving my notice to Marco. He’ll shit a brick.”

“Good. He deserves it.” Sky said. “I don’t understand why you put up with his crap anyway.”

“Because unless I want to wait tables my whole life, I have to play the game until I figure something else out.”

Jana closed the notebook as a knock sounded at the door, making her instantly on edge. “I gotta go.”

“Why so fast?”

“I have a date. I’ll call you soon. I don’t want to keep him waiting.” She blew a kiss into the phone and ended the call before Sky could ask any more questions. Sky would probably get excited if she knew she was going out on a real date with Hunter, and she didn’t want to give her false hope for something more, even though she couldn’t deny that she’d toyed with the meaning of the date all afternoon.

Hunter had texted her once midmorning to tell her to dress up, and when she’d asked why, he’d replied, Do you have to question everything? She thought of that now as she glanced down at the dress she’d chosen. A midthigh, coral tank dress with a sheer strip along the waist and a lace overlay. Four inches of jagged-edged lace gave it a sexy hemline. She’d taken extra time to weave together a headband made of white flowers from the garden out back. She wore several shell necklaces of varying lengths and colors and a few silver bracelets on her wrist. Her sandals were flat, and she’d worn a piece of jewelry that wrapped around her middle toe and connected with beaded jewels up the center of her foot to an anklet. She felt sexy and cute, perfectly dressed for a night out. But when Hunter knocked again, her nerves came alive, making her acutely aware of exactly how different tonight was going to be.

She inhaled deeply, hoping to calm her racing heart, and finally opened the door.

Hunter’s eyes widened, and he made no attempt to hide his visual inspection as his eyes moved to her painted lips, lingering for a moment before moving to her breasts, then hovering again at the flash of skin at her waist. His eyes trailed down her legs, all the way to her toes. When he finally met her gaze again, she saw his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed, as if it were hard for him to find his voice, which made her feel sexy, and even more nervous.

“Hi,” she said as he reached for her hand.

“Hi. You look…” He laced his fingers with hers, and with his other hand he lifted a lock of her hair, which she’d worn loose and tousled. The appreciation in his eyes was all the proof she needed that she’d made the right choice for everything.

“Incredibly sexy,” he finally said. “And those flowers in your hair? Jesus...” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

The sweetness of that kiss made her cheeks flush.

“You look really handsome, too.” Hunter in jeans was enough to make her head spin, but Hunter in a pair of dark slacks, loafers, and a black button-down shirt could melt her panties right off.

He slid a hand around her waist and leaned in for a kiss. It wasn’t anything like the hungry kisses they usually shared. This kiss was tender and soft and held the promise of more. And by more, she didn’t think it was a promise of anything sexual. No, this kiss, coupled with the way he was holding her hand and keeping his body a safe distance from hers, told her that this was a promise of something important. Her emotions whirled around her, delighting and scaring her at once.

Jana was so nervous on the way to the restaurant that she had to use the old calming technique she hadn’t used since she taught her very first dance class when she was nineteen. She closed her eyes and imagined the song “Let Me Down Easy” by Billy Currington. It was her go-to song for calming down when she was nervous, and now, as she sang the lyrics in her head, lyrics that were clearly not about dance but about love, she opened her eyes and stole a glance at Hunter, who reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, careening her nerves to life again.

Twenty minutes later they were seated at a corner table at the Wicked Oyster restaurant.

“You didn’t have to take me someplace so expensive, Hunter. I would have been happy at Mac’s or PJ’s.” The Wicked Oyster was probably the most expensive restaurant in Wellfleet.

Hunter was seated across from her, and before responding, he got up and moved to the seat beside her, making her feel even more special, and nervous again. He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together.

“I wanted to take you someplace we could talk. I know you love to dance, so I thought we could hit someplace else afterward. Your choice. This way I have you all to myself, without distractions, at least for a little while.”

This type of attention was so different from what she was used to with Hunter that for a moment she couldn’t respond. Luckily, the waitress came over to take their drink order. Her eyes lingered a moment too long on Hunter, whose eyes never left Jana. The waitress appeared to be in her late twenties, with creamy white skin that made her blue eyes pop and shoulder-length black hair. She was breathtakingly beautiful.