Sunsets at Seaside(92)

The other girls jumped up and followed them. Amy sensed Tony’s eyes on her before she caught sight of him watching them. It made her nervous and excited at once. The music blared with a fast beat. Amy’s head was spinning from the alcohol, and as Bella and Jenna dirty danced up and down her body, gyrating with their hands in the air, Amy tried to ignore the rush of anticipation mixing with nervous energy inside her. Leanna and Jessica danced beside them in a far less evocative fashion that was more Amy’s speed, but she could no sooner disengage from being the target of Jenna’s and Bella’s sexy dancing then she could ignore Tony as he moved to the edge of the dance floor. His eyes raked slowly down her body, making her insides twist in delight. His jaw muscles bunched as he slid his eyes around the bar and leveled the leering men at the table a few feet away with a dark stare.

The sexy dancing, the alcohol, and the way Tony was guarding her like she was a precious treasure—his precious treasure?—boosted her confidence. Amy rocked her hips to the beat. She closed her eyes, lifted her hands above her head, and let the music carry her into what she hoped was a plethora of tempting moves.

“You go, girlfriend,” Jenna encouraged her. “He’s not going to be able to resist you. You’re drunk, sexy, and ready for action. What man could resist that?” She wiggled her butt against Amy’s hips.

“Oh, please. He’ll probably never reciprocate my feelings, which is why I’m seriously considering the job offer from Duke Ryder.” Never again, anyway. Her chest tightened with the thought.

“No, you are not.” Bella’s eyes widened as she froze and pointed her finger at Amy, right there in the middle of the dance floor. “You are not going to move to Australia for two years. You’ll never come back to Seaside in the summers if you’re in Australia. Can’t you tell Duke you’ll consider nine months out of the year instead of twelve?”

Duke Ryder was a real estate investor who owned more than a hundred properties throughout the world. He was also Blue and Jake’s older brother. Blue Ryder was a specialty carpenter who had renovated Kurt and Leanna’s cottage and built an art studio for Jenna and Pete. He’d since become one of the gang and hung out with them often. Jake was an Army Ranger and mountain-rescue specialist. Amy had dated Jake briefly last summer, but he was younger and too wild for her. And…he wasn’t Tony.

“No, I can’t,” Amy answered. “It’s a full-time position heading up the creation of the new Ryder Conference Center. The conference center is going to be the focus of international meetings with major corporations. I think I need to be on-site full-time.” Amy had worked with Duke on a consulting basis for several years. When Jessica and Jamie had said they were getting married at the Ryder Resort in Boston, Amy had jumped at the chance to help plan the event and work with Duke and his staff again. Amy had known that Duke was negotiating on a property in Australia, but she hadn’t realized he’d sealed the deal until she’d arrived at the resort two days ago and he’d offered her a full-time job as director of operations for the Conference Division Center. She’d never been to Australia, and between all of her friends getting engaged and summer after summer of wasted energy spent on a man who treated her more like an adoring brother than a potential love interest, she decided it was high time she made some changes in her life.

Amy tucked her straight blond hair behind her ears and moved her shoulders to the slow beat of the music. “I’m not sure being here for the summer is smart anyway. It’s like torturing myself.” She stopped dancing at the thought of not coming back to Seaside for the summers. Could she really do that? Would she even want to? Could she survive not seeing Tony even if she knew for sure he didn’t want her?

This was why she had to figure out her life and make a change. She was becoming pathetic.

She sensed Tony’s eyes on her again and forced her hips to find the beat as Bella and Leanna danced closer. “It might be time I move on,” she said more confidently than she felt.

“Move on from Tony?” Bella took her hand and dragged her back toward the table with the others on their heels.

Amy saw Tony’s eyes narrowing as they hurried past. Why was he so angry all of a sudden?

“He’s so into you, he won’t let you go.” Bella elbowed her as they took their seats. “He texts you almost every day.”

“Yeah, with stuff like, Won another competition and Check me out in Surfer Mag next month! He texts me when he’s going to miss an event at Seaside. He doesn’t text me because he misses me or wants to see me.” Tony had started texting her during the summers when they were teenagers, because Amy was the only one who checked her cell phone when they were at the Cape, and at some point, those summer texts had turned into a year-round connection. He’d stopped texting her for a few years when she was in college and he was building his surfing and speaking careers, although she knew the real reason he’d stopped, and it had nothing to do with either. After she’d graduated from college, he’d begun texting again. She hadn’t known why he started up again, and after losing that connection for so long, she didn’t ask. She was just glad to have him back. Since then, she’d become his habit, but not exactly the type of habit she wanted to be.