Page 14 of Hearts at Seaside
Jenna wanted it to be so much more. She wanted a kiss that made her mindless.I want Pete to make me mindless.
Being mindless would be so much better than being mindful while kissing. So mindful that she couldn’t put her finger on what was missing.A great kiss should steal my ability to think.She sighed loudly, and then she went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She’d give this one more shot.Dress sexy, act sexy, and darn it, no more evaluating.And she was going to kiss sexy! When had kissing become such a pain?
She stepped into the shower and relaxed her head back—until the water turned ice-cold. Jenna screamed and scrambled from the shower. She wrapped a towel around herself and pushed the lever all the way to hot. She stuck her finger under the stream of water and still it was ice-cold. She turned it off, stomped out of the bedroom, yanked a picture off the wall, and flipped open the fuse box. No fuses were tripped.Great. Now what?She threw open the door and ran over to Bella’s cottage.
“Bella? I need Caden,” she said as she breezed through the cottage door.
Bella ran her eyes down Jenna. “He’s not here. What’s wrong, and why are you in a towel?”
“My hot water isn’t working. If Caden’s not here, and Tony and Jamie aren’t here, what the heck am I going to do?”
Bella grabbed her keys and dragged Jenna outside. “You have to call Pete. He’ll come fix it. But I have to leave. I’m meeting Caden. Now. I’m meeting him now.”
“Can I use your shower?”
Bella’s eyes widened. “Um. Of course, but you need hot water. You should call Pete.”
“But—”
“Call him. He’ll come fix it, and you never know. If the hot water doesn’t work, the toilet could be next.” Bella climbed into her car.
“The toilet? Why?” No toilet? Overnight?This cannot be happening.
“Plumbing,” Bella said out her car window as she backed out of the driveway. “Call Pete before he goes out for the night.”
“Ugh!” She waved to Bella and turned to go to Amy’s, but she was backing out of her driveway, too. Darn it. Jenna wanted to cry. She glanced at Vera’s cottage, but what could an eighty-year-old woman do to help? Maybe she should just shower at Bella’s, then not worry about the stupid hot water.
Or the toilet.
She dragged herself back to her house and called Pete. She hadn’t exactly been nice to him lately, and she wouldn’t blame him if he ignored her call. She hadn’t tried to be a jerk. She was afraid that if she fell into their normal friendly pattern, her crush would seize her and she’d never get over him. She’d spend every summer in the future longing to rip his clothes off and acting like she didn’t know how. She knew how. Oh, did she know how! She was no stranger to being the aggressor in a relationship, but with Pete, her stomach got all fluttery, and she spent more time staring at him than anything else. It was ridiculous, really, and it kind of pissed her off. She was a grown woman, not a teenager. She should be able to walk right up to him and say,Pete, let’s go out for a drink.Then make a move during the evening. But they were friends, and they’d gone for drinks plenty of times with the rest of their friends, and she’d never once made that move. Neither had he.Maybe he doesn’t feel the same.
Her call went to voicemail. She tapped her foot as she waited for the beep. “Pete, this is Jenna, over at Seaside.”Duh. Like he doesn’t know that? Even on the phone she was a nimrod around him. “My hot water isn’t working. Would you mind coming over to fix it? I’m sorry. I know it’s late, but Bella said the toilet could go next, and—” The voicemail recording cut her off. She stared at the phone.Stupid phone. Stupid shower. Stupid Peter Lacroux.
This summer was supposed to be about Jenna finally taking charge of her life and finding her own happily ever after—with someone other than Pete. She’d found a really great guy. A really hot one, too, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it was Pete that was messing with her ability to detect zings in their kisses. She’d spent too many years ogling him, hoping and praying to make something happen, and all the while, turning into a shrinking violet around the one man who did more than make her body zing.
She hurried back over to Bella’s house and showered, only realizing after she stepped from the shower that she’d forgotten to grab her clothes to change into. This was totally not her night. Wrapped in her towel, she hurried back outside and across the quad to her house, stopping cold at the sight of Pete’s truck in her driveway.
Oh no.
She’d had so many fantasies about Pete in her house when she was naked, but absolutely zero of them had anything to do with him repairing anything. Maybe breaking a bedspring or two, or crashing into a wall with her in his arms—Oh my. She needed another shower. A cold one.
Jenna fanned her face as she took one hesitant step after another across the deck to her screened door, where she peered inside. Pete was nowhere in sight.Thank goodness. He must have run down to the pool or over to Theresa’s. She could run in and dress quickly. She pulled open the door and ran through the living room, looking over her shoulder in case he showed up—and she slammed into a wall.
“Ack!” Jenna screeched. Her hands flew up to push her cheek from the wall—a wall with legs. Shoot. Double shoot—as her towel fell to the ground. She clenched her eyes shut and ran her hands over the wall of muscles she’d smacked into, then fisted her hands in the soft cotton shirt that covered them.
Nonononono.
Please be a stranger.
Please, please, be a stranger.
“Hi, Jenna.”
Zing! Pow! Bam!Pete’s deep, sexy voice slid through her ears straight to her toes, leaving a trail of fire on everything in between. She clenched her eyes shut tighter. “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me. Right? Please lie to me.” His chest felt amazing. Spectacular.Lickable.
She felt him lean forward a little, as if he were looking over her shoulderat her bare butt. He laughed, a low, sexy, zing-inspiring laugh that shot right to her naughty parts. Jenna heard a whimper slip through her lips.
“You’re sadly mistaken, Jenna. I can see a whole heck of a lot of you right now.” He whistled. It was the type of whistle construction workers sounded off as women walked by.
