by Addison Cole
Why did she think she could do this? It was one thing to hook up and then go on with her days like Hunter was any other guy, but he was Sky’s brother! She needed to wipe the fresh glow off her face. How did he do this to her with virtual sex? The man was a master at seduction.
A knock on her window made her jump. She cut the engine and smiled up at Bella, who was holding baby Summer on her hip and balancing a bowl of dry cereal in her hands. Summer had blond hair like her mama and big brown eyes. She reached her pudgy hands out to Jana as Jana stepped from the car, and as she took the sweet girl in her arms, all her worries melted away.
The power of babies seemed to have grown exponentially overnight.
“You’re right on time,” Bella said, pulling her into a gentle hug. “The guys just took off for a run, and Leanna brought her newest jam creation for us to try. Oh my gosh, you should see Sloan! He looks just like Leanna now. It’s amazing how much babies can change in a few weeks, and Dustin? A Jamie mini-me with Jessica’s eyes. Crazy cute, I’m telling you.”
Jana couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but she didn’t care. She was in heaven with Summer pulling on her hair and giggling as she tickled her pudgy belly. They walked across the quad, which is what they called the grassy area between the cottages where they had bonfires and cookouts.
It was a sunny, breezy morning. Crows cawed in the pitch pine trees, and their girlfriends’ chatting and giggling made Jana smile.
“Jana!” Leanna was the first to greet her. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks, and Leanna looked as happy as always. Her dark hair was tousled, and when she drew back from the hug, she slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my goodness. I got Strawberry Spice jam all over you. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m on it.” Jenna pulled Leanna away and began wiping down Jana’s shirt with a wet washcloth. “With babies around, I’m always prepared. I should have had a baby years ago. I could have saved lots of stains from Leanna’s hugs.”
“Thanks, Jenna, but it’s really okay.” Jana set Summer in her high chair and went around the table to kiss the others. “Hannah banana looks just like you, Amy.” She kissed Hannah’s cheek and Hannah held up a fistful of cut-up peaches. “No, thank you, sweet girl. You eat it.”
Hannah shoved the food in her mouth with a giggle.
“Oh my goodness, look at you.” Jana squeezed Jessica’s shoulder. “Can I hold Dustin? Please?”
“Absolutely.” Jessica lifted Dustin into Jana’s arms.
“He’s like a lump of doughy cuteness,” Jana said as she touched her nose to his cheek. “And he smells so…babyish.” She looked from Jessica to Dustin and back. “I hate to say this, Jess, but this baby is all Jamie, from his jet-black hair to that stubborn little chin. He has your eyes, but wow. I’m surprised you didn’t name him Jamie II.”
Jessica laughed. “Jamie is way too modest to ever do that. Besides, we wanted to honor his parents. Dustin Ray Reed. Thank goodness his mother’s name was Rachel.”
Jana kissed baby Bea’s head. “You guys must be in heaven. There’s so much baby love around this table I can barely stand it.”
“Here, sit down.” Jessica pulled out a chair for Jana. “You look so natural holding him.”
Jana rolled her eyes. “I can barely hold my own chaotic life together. The last thing I need is someone else relying on me.”
Bella poured a cup of coffee and set it in front of Jana; then Amy added cream and sugar.
“Thanks, you guys,” Jana said. “Hey, where’s Sky? She usually beats me here.”
“She called a few minutes ago. She said she and Sawyer were up late.” Jenna raised her brows in quick succession. “She’s not going to make it. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you! Lizzie called her late last night from New York! Apparently she got this big offer to sell the rights to her Naked Baker program. She and Blue left yesterday to meet with the network and sign the deal.” Blue and Lizzie were two of Sky’s closest friends. They’d started dating last summer. Lizzie owned the florist shop beside Sky’s tattoo shop in Provincetown, and she also put on a monetized webcast called the Naked Baker, where she disguised herself with a wig and dark glasses and baked wearing only an apron, high heels, and a flesh colored thong.
“That’s incredible,” Jessica said. “I actually love her show. I get all sorts of ideas and test them out on Jamie.”
“I bet you do.” Bella smirked. “Please don’t share the details. I’ve known Jamie since we were babies. The last thing I need is to think about you guys and whipped cream.”
Jessica laughed. “Icing, too. Lizzie brought a whole new level of enjoyment to baking. Here, Jana, let me feed Dustin and you can fill us in on your life. It’ll be nice to hear about someone else’s chaos for a change.” Jessica lifted Dustin out of Jana’s arms and kissed his cheek. Then she set him in the high chair beside her.
“Yes, do tell.” Leanna leaned forward. “You know I adore chaos!”
“You are the definition of chaos, Leanna,” Bella teased.
“And proud of it, thank you very much.” Leanna smiled at Jana. “Maybe we can help you calm yours, though?”
Jana looked around the table at their eager, empathetic faces. They always made it easy to air out her thoughts. “It’s nothing new. You guys know I love teaching dance, and you know my stupid boss has taken off to Plymouth and basically left me holding down the fort.”
“Yeah, the jerk,” Bella said. “I don’t know what makes him think he can treat you that way.”
“Because he can,” Jana answered. “I’m tired of being so crazed all the time. I run from boxing, to dance, to Undercover whenever I help out Colton. I love everything I’m doing, but I wish I could figure out a way to manage it better. And I miss doing theater so much.” She hadn’t realized she felt so frazzled until the words left her mouth.
“So, you want help figuring out how to manage it?” Amy asked.
Jana shrugged. “Honestly? I’m not sure what I want. I miss theater, and until Marco left to open the other studio, I was able to manage my life just fine. But now…I don’t know. Maybe I need some kind of change.”
“What are the three or four things you like doing the most?” Leanna asked. “I mean, I had eight jobs in four years before I settled on my jam business. You can’t be half as crazed as I was.”
“What do I like to do? That’s easy. Dance, act, box, and…” She wrinkled her nose, knowing the girls would laugh, and said, “Have sex.”
Jenna and Bella threw their heads back in laughter, earning a loud wail from Bea. Amy and Jessica covered their mouths and giggled as Jenna tried to soothe Bea.
Leanna’s eyes went serious. “Well, we can’t let you become a boxing, pole-dancing call girl, now, can we?” Which only made the girls laugh harder.
Amy reached out and touched Jana’s hand. “You are not going to pole dance or be a call girl. Jana, if you don’t want your boss to keep taking advantage of you, then don’t let him. Can’t you teach dance somewhere else?”
“Not on the Cape. There are only a few studios, and they each only offer certain types of dance. I don’t want to give up teaching different styles. I don’t want to settle and miss out on teaching the classes I enjoy, so I’m staying, but what I really want…one day…” She focused on a spot on the table, trying to gather the courage to voice what she’d been thinking about recently.
“What?” Jenna pushed.
“What I really want is to open my own dance studio, but I can’t seem to make the numbers, or the time, work.” She nibbled her lower lip, waiting for them to tell her she was right. There was no way she could do it.
“You should do it,” Leanna said with wide eyes. She kissed Sloan’s forehead and said, “Why not do it?”
“What’s involved? Why don’t you have the time?” Amy asked. “We’re really good at figuring things like this out. We helped Bella with her work-study program at the high school, and—”
“We were right there in the thick of it getting Le
anna’s business started,” Bella said. “Well, we didn’t know Jessica then, but Jess is incredibly organized. She rivals Jenna, so I know she can help, too.”
“Help? Wait…” Jana saw the gears churning in their minds as they began talking among themselves.
“We can totally do this,” Jenna said. “Ames, get your notebook and let’s figure this out.”
Amy dug around in her baby bag and pulled out a notebook and pen.
“Wait, you guys.” Jana looked around the table in shock. “You don’t even know the situation yet. I only have a few thousand tucked away, maybe four or five. And my time? Well that’s a whole other story. I’m not a big boxer or anything, but Brock is training me, and I love it, and I help Colton when I can for extra money, and I have all this responsibility at Marco’s studio. Time is one thing I don’t have.”
Amy waved a dismissive hand. “Goodness, sweetie. We’ve heard it all before. You want your own dance studio? We can make it happen. A little grassroots marketing goes a long way.”
“You just gave me an idea. What about using the community center for the classes?” Jessica suggested.
Bella’s eyes widened. “Yes! Perfect! But we’ll need Theresa’s approval.” She turned to Jana and explained. “Blue renovated the laundry building over the winter, so now we have the laundry area separate from the storage, which was really like a big empty barn since we hardly store anything now that we all live down here and have other houses. He made the storage area smaller, and now we have a recreation area for the community. It’s gorgeous, of course, because Blue made it with hardwood floors and everything.”
“We renovated it so when it rains the babies don’t have to be out under umbrellas,” Leanna explained. “It’s one thing to get together as adults under umbrellas in the rain, because, you know, we never mind that stuff.”
“But with the babies,” Amy said as she touched Hannah’s cheek, “we don’t want them to catch colds. So now we have this amazing space. It’s definitely big enough for dance classes.”
“Theresa’s approval.” Jenna narrowed her eyes at Bella. “We should have asked over the winter, when the threat of another one of Bella’s pranks wasn’t hovering.”
“Sky told me about your pranks,” Jana said. “They sound hilarious.” Every summer Bella pulled a prank on Theresa, who was the property manager, and fairly straitlaced.
“Theresa and I came to an agreement at the end of last summer. No more pranks. I’m done,” Bella insisted. She wiped Summer’s mouth and said, “I think she’d love to help you out. She might have to charge a nominal fee because of the association rules or something, but we can ask her.”
“No more pranks?” Amy shook her head. “I don’t believe it. You’ll have withdrawals.”
Bella laughed. “I think Summer will keep my mind occupied enough to take care of that. Besides, we have a dance business to plan.”
They spent the next hour planning and strategizing every aspect of Jana starting her own dance studio. Midway through their planning session, with Jana feeling like she’d just been scooped up by the most amazing team of planners she’d ever met, she called Brock and explained what she was thinking about doing and that for the first time ever she’d have to miss their training session. Brock started to give her a brief lecture on commitment, then, being the incredibly supportive big brother that he was, told her he was proud of her.
“I think we have a solid plan.” Amy flipped through the pages of notes she’d taken and read off their to-do list. “Bella, you’re going to help Jana design flyers. Leanna, you’re going to start getting contacts together that you used for your business to help spread the word, like that woman at the Cape Codder newspaper and the other media outlets we talked about.”
“Yup. I’m excited,” Leanna said. “You should have seen how happy they were when I brought them each a case of Strawberry Spice jam.” Strawberry Spice was Leanna’s newest flavor, and all the girls agreed it was the best yet.
Amy continued doling out assignments. “Jenna, you’re on list duty. You get to make lists of places for Jana to hang up flyers. And Jessica and I will work with Jamie to develop a website with online registration forms, directions, class descriptions, which Jana will need to help us with.” She set down the notebook and grinned. “I’m so excited I feel like I could burst!”
“You guys, my boss would have a fit if he saw flyers going up in town.” Jana tried to quell the worry in her stomach, but everything was happening so fast.
“Listen, that’s his issue, not yours. He’s not even here to see what you do at his studio. Do you think he’s going to worry about yours?” Jenna reminded her.
“Besides, competition is what makes a business thrive,” Jessica said. “Do you think Jamie worried about what Google would think when he unveiled his search engine?”
“Well, no. I guess you’re right.” A lump formed in Jana’s throat. “You guys…I’m so overwhelmed. You haven’t known me that long, and you’re willing to help me do all this stuff?”
“It’s not about how long you’ve known someone,” Jessica said. “Gosh, I knew Jamie was the man for me from almost the very second I threw my phone at him when I was renting the apartment above Theresa’s house.”
The girls all laughed.
Jessica laughed, too. “It was funny. I also knew instantly that you guys were as kindhearted as you seemed.”
Bella smiled warmly and said to Jana, “You still see yourself as Sky’s friend, but, Jana, we see you as our friend. We’re happy to help. Now all we have to do is check with Theresa.”
“I have an idea!” Leanna jumped to her feet, waking Sloan, who had dozed off in her arms. He began crying and she lifted him to her shoulder and patted his back. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s just excited,” she said in a hushed tone. Once he settled down, she spoke softly. “How about if I make Theresa’s favorite muffins and we bring them to her tomorrow morning? That should soften her up.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bella said.
“Wait, you guys. Everything is moving so fast.” Jana’s heart raced with the idea that this might be able to really happen. “I can’t just stop working and start this. I have responsibilities to Marco, and putting out flyers, getting ready, buying supplies, that all takes time. There’s so much to do.”
Amy waved her hand again. “Pfft. Easy peasy. Give Jerko a month’s notice, tell Brock you’re going to need some time off from training, and focus on making your dream a reality.”
“You make it sound so easy. What if I fail?” Her stomach sank. “There are so few dance instruction positions here that I’d probably end up having to drive to Hyannis, or farther, to find another job if it doesn’t work out. I’m sure Marco wouldn’t take me back after I leave him.”
“You don’t want to work with him anyway,” Bella reminded her.
“I’m the queen of making quick life-altering decisions,” Leanna said as she paced with Sloan, who was now sleeping again. “The way I make them is by not thinking them through.”
“Oh my goodness,” Jana said. “Harper would lock you in a room far, far away from me if she heard you say that.”
Leanna laughed. “That’s probably a good strategy on her part. But what I mean is, don’t think about failure. Don’t even let that enter your mind. Just decide that you’re going to make it work. What’s the worst thing that happens? You have to start over, or drive farther?” Leanna held Jana’s gaze. “Besides, how will you ever know what you’re capable of if you don’t try? It’s like with love. When you know it’s right, why question it?”
“Yeah, well. I’m not very good in that department either.” Jana glanced at the message light blinking on her phone. She must have been so caught up in the conversation that she’d missed a text from DO NOT RESPOND! She swiped the screen and opened the message.
I dreamed about you in that tub all night. It was a very long night.
Jana felt her entire body flush as she turned her phone over on the ta
ble. She had a feeling it was going to be a very long day, too, now that the image of Hunter was in the forefront of her mind again.
She thought about that for a moment. She was already exploring uncharted territory with Hunter. Why not make her entire life a shambles and upend her career, too?
“Okay. You’ve convinced me. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Nine
HUNTER HAD BEEN in a rotten mood all day. It started last night when Jana had ended their FaceTime call without a word. After what they’d done, he’d assumed they’d talk or something. Then he’d texted her this morning, and she hadn’t texted back. Had he pushed her too far? Crossed a line she was too embarrassed to come back from? He hoped not.
Last night he’d realized just how brave Jana really was. Boxing was nothing compared to the trust she’d shown in him, the way she’d completely given herself over to their sexy video call. But what he hadn’t realized until after she’d failed to return his text this morning was that he’d opened himself up to her, too. He’d trusted her and given just as much of himself as she had.
He tried to work out his frustrations through metalwork, but even the pounding, twisting, shaping, and in the end, mangling, just left him even more annoyed. It didn’t help that Clark and Nina were arguing again. They’d had a nice time last night, and when they’d returned this morning it had seemed like they were making amends, but by noon Clark had already taken three calls from Nina, and every one of them had ended in an argument.
What was it about women and arguments?
With one last look around the shop, he grabbed his hoodie from his office and stormed up front.
“Taking off?” Grayson asked as Hunter stalked past the drawing table.
“Yup.”
“Want to grab a beer?” Grayson set down his pen and leaned back, crossing his ankle over his knee. He looked so relaxed it magnified how stressed Hunter felt.
“Not tonight.”
“What’s up?”
Jana’s got me tied in knots. “Nothing I want to talk about.”
