Hearts at Seaside (Sweet with Heat: Seaside Summers #3)

“The bottles!” Amy ran back, gathered the bottles, and joined Bella under her blanket. “So, why did you invite Charlie on the boat, anyway?”

Jenna’s teeth were chattering as she tried to lock the gate. She dropped the lock. “Darn it.” She fumbled in the darkness for it. “Shoot. Oh my gosh. Oh, here it is.” She lifted it with a smile and worked at hooking it to the chain again. “I did it to make Pete jealous.” Jenna felt silly saying it out loud, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. She locked the gate as the beam of a flashlight lit up the center of the road.

“Cripes!” Amy grabbed Bella’s hand. “Run!”

They ran in a huddle behind the cottages on the other side of the road, laughing and shushing one another, then peered around the corner at Theresa as she unlocked the pool gate and walked onto the deck.

“My vote is to show up at Pete’s house wearing nothing but a raincoat tied at the waist,” Bella whispered. “Throw the man on the floor and devour every inch of him. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Leave him begging for more.”

“Bella!” Amy whispered. “She gets flustered around him. How is she gonna…you know?”

“Oh shoot. She found the cookie dough wrapper.” Jenna pointed to Theresa, who stood on the pool deck with one hand on her hip, the other holding the wrapper.

“Quick, into Amy’s!” Jenna took Amy’s hand and pulled her toward her cottage.

“I think Pete’s either trying to pull Jenna out of her stupor when she’s around him, or he’s, you know, laying it all on the table so Jenna can either decide to put down roots or go seed some other lawn.” Bella followed them into Amy’s cottage. They closed the curtains and kept the lights off, while Amy hustled into the bathroom and grabbed towels for all of them except Leanna.

“I’m not seeding anyone’s lawn,” Jenna hissed. “But I have to admit that I’m not over Pete. The man practically gave me the big O with nothing more than a whisper and a hand on my naked hip.”

“You are a naughty, naughty girl, Jenna. I’m kinda jealous.” Amy handed Bella and Jenna towels.

Bella peered out the front curtains. “Shh. She’s standing in front of Amy’s cottage.”

“What now?” Amy whispered.

Bella closed the curtains and waved them all into the room at the back of the cottage. “Now Jenna has to decide if she’s planting roots in Mount St. Peter or playing in the sand with Charlie.” Bella patted Jenna’s shoulder. “Just remember one thing. You’re a woman, and women can be just as fierce as men. You’ve never been afraid of a man in your life, so whatever’s running around in that cute little organized head of yours probably has nothing to do with being afraid of him. Maybe you act afraid of Pete because of what letting Pete see the real you means in your own head. What it means to you.”

“I don’t get it,” Leanna said. “Do you mean like how I was worried that I’d be out of sync with Kurt and how you kept your love of frilly things from Caden? Well, and the rest of the world, but you know what I mean.”

“Maybe,” Bella whispered. “I’m not sure. But Pete’s the only guy Jenna has ever really liked, and he’s the only guy she isn’t able to talk to. It has to mean something.”

Amy yawned. “Jenna, I think you shouldn’t worry about erotic anything, because in my experience, guys are all talk with not nearly enough follow-through. It’s like how they all think six inches is really eight.”

“Right,” Leanna agreed. “You know, guys are so dumb like that. We don’t walk around saying we’re double D’s when we’re C’s.”

“Um…” Jenna looked down at the two bowling balls strapped to her chest.

“You put us all to shame.” Bella glanced down at her own perfect C’s. “But Caden likes mine, so I’m happy.”

“Hey, can we not talk about things we don’t all have?” Amy pointed to her chest. “I think B cup is pushing it over here.”

“I’d give you some of mine if I could,” Jenna offered.

“I know you would. I think you should just follow your heart, Jenna.” Amy patted her own heart. “If it turns out Petey is a perv, you can stop seeing him.”

“We’re not even seeing each other, and he makes my heart go ten types of crazy.” Good crazy. Exciting crazy.

“That’s not a bad thing, hon.” Amy yawned again. “I have to go to sleep or I’ll be whipped tomorrow.”

Jenna scrunched her shoulders and clenched her eyes shut. “Don’t hate me, but I told Charlie I’d go out with him this weekend.”

“Why on earth are you leading him on?” Bella ran her fingers through her hair, which was a tangled mass of wet blond waves.

Jenna shrugged. “Guys lead girls on all the time, and he’s really nice and hot. Who knows? Maybe a zing will appear.”

“Miss Zing Pow Bam, I doubt you’re gonna zing for anyone but Pete. I’ve got to get home.” Bella tiptoed to the front window again and peered out. “Caden has an early shift tomorrow, and I always get up with him.”

“You’re so sweet, Bella. I lie in bed for twenty minutes after Kurt gets up and listen to him typing on his laptop. It’s comforting.”

“I want comforting,” Amy said with another sigh.

“Oh shoot.” Bella closed the curtains and covered her mouth.

“What?” Jenna pulled the curtains back. She spotted the cookie dough wrappers on the porch and slammed the curtains shut. “Shoot, shoot, shoot. She knows it was us.”

“Great.” Amy sank onto her couch. “Now she thinks I’m the bad one.”

“Oh, hush,” Bella said. “No one ever thinks you’re the bad one. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

“Well, girls, are we on for the beach tomorrow?” Leanna asked.

“Yeah,” they all agreed.

On the way back to her cottage, Jenna thought about what Bella said about being afraid of something other than Pete. She thought of her parents’ divorce and her mother floundering to navigate a future that she hadn’t planned for or wanted. She pulled the screen door open and pushed the uncomfortable thoughts away. Maybe Bella was right, and what she was afraid of was staring her in the face every time her mother called. Maybe there really was no happily ever after.





Chapter Seven





PETE STOPPED BY the hardware store early Wednesday morning and found his father in the back office, punching figures into a calculator. He unhooked Joey’s leash. She burst forward and climbed into his father’s lap. He needed a distraction this morning, after Jenna’s reaction—or lack thereof—last night. He focused on his father as he slowly spun his old rolling desk chair toward Pete. His eyes lit up as he petted Joey. He loved that dog as much as Pete did. He greeted Pete with a wide smile.

“Peter, how’s it going, son?” His hair stood on end, and his jaw and neck were peppered with two days’ worth of stubble, an indicator of at least one hard night.

Not for the first time, Pete felt guilt and anger clawing at him. Guilt, because he knew his father needed help and he loved him too much to force him into rehab, and on its heels, anger, for being too weak to do what his father so obviously needed him to.