Bella smiled and waved to Caden and Evan as they drove by on their way out of the community.
“Can we circle back to my issue for a minute, please?” Jenna waved her hand. “I’m in serious agony here. I’ve reorganized everything in my entire house, and I’m about ready to start on each of yours.” Jenna tugged at her bikini top, which was headed for a wardrobe malfunction.
“Yes. Focus. I just got my cabinets back to the way I like them after the last time she got ahold of them.” Leanna brushed her dark hair from her eyes.
“Kurt loves when I organize your cottage.” Kurt was as organized as Leanna was disorganized. When Jenna had organized the cabinets in their cottage after Leanna had spent the weekend there while Kurt attended a writer’s conference, he’d praised Jenna for a week.
“Yes, that he does. Thank goodness he didn’t rescue you from the water.” Kurt and Leanna met on a stormy night when Kurt rescued Leanna’s dog, Pepper, after he’d been swept out to the deep water.
“Oh, please. We’d totally knock heads. He likes quiet, and I’m anything but quiet.” And he’s not Pete. Jenna pressed her palms on the table. “Okay, so here’s the deal. I have a confession.”
“You love Pete; we already know,” Amy said as she nibbled on a piece of scone.
“No. Maybe. I don’t know. The truth is, Charlie asked me out for tonight, and I really liked him, but Pete showing up got me all confused, so I told Charlie I had plans.”
“Face it, girlie. You’re hooked on Petey,” Amy said in a singsong voice.
Jenna groaned and buried her face in her hands. “No, I kind of regret telling Charlie no. And if I am still hooked on Pete, then I’m an idiot.”
“No. He’s the idiot for waiting so long to really take notice,” Bella said.
“Yeah, but who hangs on to a crush for this many years? I think I have to go out with Charlie again, don’t you? I mean, to be fair, he really was pretty great.” Jenna ran her finger along the edge of the table, remembering what it felt like to be with Charlie. “He was attentive and not at all like I expected. I thought he’d be rough around the edges, which I know is a gross generalization because he’s a construction worker, but he wasn’t at all. He was easy to talk to and fun and…” Not. Pete.
“So, what’s the issue?” Amy leaned her elbow on the table, her chin in her palm. “Did you kiss him?”
Jenna smiled.
“She did,” Bella said. “And?”
“And he kissed me good night despite my being a mute bimbo…It was nice. He’s a good kisser.”
“Therein lies the problem,” Bella said. “Nice? Really? Nice?”
“It was. He was sweet and kind, and—”
“Come on. Your first kiss should never be nice. It should be wild, passionate, intense.” Bella slid her eyes to Leanna. “Right, Lea?”
“Absolutely.” Leanna glanced at her cottage. “Your first kiss should basically suck the air from your lungs and leave you mindless.”
“Spineless,” Amy added.
“You’re such romantics. It should leave you wanting to rip his clothes off and take him right there and then.” Bella raised her brows in quick succession. “Listen, Jenna. Your first kiss should leave you hot and flustered. Anything short of that? Or nice?” She wrinkled her brow. “No one wants to take nice to bed.”
Jenna rested her forehead in her hands. Maybe Pete thinks of me as nice.
“I would take nice to bed,” Amy said.
Jenna turned her head, looking up at Amy from her bent-over position. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Well, I would. I like nice. I like hot and sexy, but nice is…nice.” Amy glanced at Tony’s cottage.
“Geez, Ames.” Bella rolled her eyes. “There’s no way Tony is nice in bed. With a body like that, my money’s on animalistic. Pure passion. Take-me-to-the-moon-and-back passion.”
Jenna shot to her feet. “Okay, well. I think I need to give Charlie a second chance. I’ll bring him with me tonight. Is that all right, Amy?”
“Sure. Blow me off for a nice kisser.” Amy shrugged one shoulder.
“You could set him up with Amy, and then you could ask Pete out,” Leanna suggested.
“No sloppy seconds for me.” Amy pushed to her feet. “I need to go take a shower.”
“And I need to bonk my head against the wall about a hundred times before going to the library. Anyone want to join me?” Jenna arched a brow in Amy’s direction. Amy never turned down a trip to the library.
“I’m in for the library, but you can head bonk by yourself.”
The roar of a motorcycle drew their attention back to the road.
“Holy cow. Who is that?” Amy’s eyes widened as a muscular, tanned man parked by the laundry room and stepped from the motorcycle.
He pulled off his helmet and Jenna gasped. “Charlie? Still think he’s nice in bed?”
Bella grabbed Jenna’s hand. “Nice just got a whole lot hotter.”
FRUSTRATED, EDGY, AND still confused over the way his body and mind were reacting to Jenna, Pete put the cleaning supplies in the pool house and forced a smile for Vera. She often sat down at the pool in the morning, before the sun got too hot. She’d tried to spark up a conversation with Pete when he came down, but he was in no mood to chat, and he was in no better frame of mind now.
Today marked one of the very few times that Jenna had been home when he was cleaning out the pool, and she didn’t peek at him from her deck or happen to walk by with Amy, Leanna, or Bella. Not only did she completely ignore the fact that he was there, but she’d fricking turned away from him when he stopped by in his truck. She might be shy around him, but she’d never before intentionally turned away. She did at the Bookstore Restaurant.
He’d taken it as a good sign that she’d come home last night. At least that indicated that she probably hadn’t slept with Doophus.
Who was he kidding? It indicated exactly nothing.
Stop thinking about her.
Yeah, that’s not happening anytime soon.
He waved to Vera. “Have a nice morning, Vera.”
She smiled and nodded as he climbed into his truck. A motorcycle roared into the complex as Pete started up his engine. Seeing Jenna with that guy last night should have been enough to quell his attraction to her. Instead it fueled his passion for her and made him realize how close to losing her he really was. Caden had invited Pete to a documentary at Town Hall tonight, and he thought he might use that as a chance to get closer to Jenna. Until now Jenna had been insanely sexy, confusing as rain on a sunny day, and safely nestled in the friend zone. Pete was about to kick the stupid friend zone into oblivion.
He was going to drive by Jenna’s cottage one last time. If she ignored him again, he’d forget her altogether. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment after all. That’s exactly what he’d do. Forget that she was ever interested in him. He’d drive out of Seaside, and the next time he returned, his mind would be solely focused on his duties as related to the cottages and pool maintenance.
Jenna crossed the road in front of his truck wearing her red bikini top and a pair of too-short cutoff shorts. Pete’s eyes lingered on her butt.