Hearts on Fire (The Hunter Family) (10 page)

“Hey.”

He turned to look at me and I saw a mixture of frustration and sadness in his eyes.

“I don’t want this to change things between us, Zane.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he gently caressed my arm.

“Neither do I.”

“Hey, do you want to come to my parent’s house for dinner next Saturday night?”

He looked surprised. “Really?”

“Yes, I want you to meet them and see that this isn’t a big deal.”

“Okay, sounds cool.”

I smiled at him relieved that our fight did not escalate and I stood on my tippy toes and gave him a quick peck.

“Perfect.  I’m going to call my driver so you don’t have to leave your place.”

“No, I will drive you home, Abby.”

I didn't want to argue with him and make a big deal so I just agreed. When he dropped me off a few minutes later I was exhausted both mentally and physically from the night, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and start over with a new day.  Even though I’d invited Zane for dinner, I couldn’t help but begin to worry what my dad would say when he met him, but I decided that I would just deal with that when the time came.  Claire wasn’t home so I would just have to tell her about my night when I saw her the next day.

Claire finally strolled in around 11:00 the next morning and I nearly pounced on her as she walked through the door.  I was dying to talk to her and tell her that I had invited Zane to dinner.

“Finally!  I thought I would have to call missing persons!”

She rolled her eyes at me and smiled. “Oh, please. You knew where I was.”  She put her bag down on the couch and turned to me as she took off her sweater, slowly looking me up and down.

“Wait a minute. What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I couldn’t sugarcoat it so I just blurted it out. “I invited Zane to dinner with mom and dad on Saturday night.”

Her eyes were wide as saucers. “You what?!”

"When he found out who they were he started acting kind of weird and I want him to feel comfortable about everything so I decided they should just meet him.”

She stomped her foot like a child and whined like crazy.  “Abby, now mom and dad will find out about Logan!  This is going to ruin everything!”

I put my hand on my hip and stared at her.  “Claire, why are you hiding Logan from them in the first place?”

“You know how dad is, and I don’t want to deal with what he is going to say.”

“Well, maybe he will surprise us.”

She rolled her eyes again.  “Yeah, right.”

“So I guess this means you haven’t told Logan who we are.”

She fidgeted with her watch as she looked down at her nails. “It hasn’t really come up.”

"Claire, he's going to find out. I just told Zane last night and they are best friends so you should probably tell him before Zane does.”

She snatched her bag off of the couch and stomped down the hall to her room, yelling at the top of her lungs. "I wish we could just be a normal family sometimes!”

My sister could be so dramatic but this was the first time I had heard her wishing we were normal. Our lifestyle had never bothered her before so I knew that Logan was really having an effect on her.

Claire didn't talk to me the rest of the day, which by the end of the night was pissing me off because it wasn't my fault that she didn’t tell her boyfriend about our family.  She was not going to put the blame on me for this one, so I decided that I wasn’t going to talk to her until she talked to me first.

I called my parents the next day and told them that I wanted them to meet someone and I was bringing him to dinner Saturday night. My mom was always excited when I introduced her to someone new because she knew that he had to mean something to me if I was bringing him around. My dad, on the other hand, was a different story. He was always skeptical from the first second I ever mentioned a new guy.

Claire still wasn’t talking to me so I didn’t tell her that mom and dad agreed to have us for dinner.  We had practice all day and by the time we got home I finally confronted her.

“Claire, when is the silent treatment going to end?”

She gave me a cool stare as she shrugged her shoulders and looked for something to eat in the kitchen.

“Claire, this is ridiculous.  You have to talk to me. It’s not my fault that you didn’t tell Logan who we are, he was bound to find out sooner or later.  By the way, I told mom and dad about dinner Saturday and they are expecting you to be there.”

She stopped fishing through the cabinets and looked at me.  “Fine.”

That was all I got but it was all I needed to know that the silent treatment was over.  Claire had been having little fits like that since we were little girls so I knew that it was just a matter of time before she started talking to me again. 

The rest of the week passed pretty quickly and Claire and I were able to see Zane and Logan’s band play one night after rehearsal.  Our show was starting that Sunday with a matinee so our practice times were letting up a bit. Weeks before the show we always had practice until at least one o’clock in the morning, but the week before the show practice times were cut and ended at about 6:00 PM each night.

Saturday came before I knew it and I was a nervous wreck all day.  Claire was no help at all.  She was more nervous than I was and Logan wasn’t even going to be there. I think she was thinking that whatever my dad said about Zane would apply to the way he felt about Logan, so she was terrified. I had never seen her like that, ever.  I told Zane not to mention Logan because I wanted Claire to tell them in her own way.

Dinner was at 7:30, so Zane came over to our place at 7:00 and he was wearing a nice pair of jeans and a button down shirt.  He looked more conservative than I had ever seen him and I could tell that he was nervous. 

“You look great, Zane.  Don’t worry, this will be a piece of cake.”

Claire snorted and smirked at us.  “Yeah, right.”

I shot daggers at her and she ignored me and went to her bathroom to finish getting ready.

I gently rubbed his arm.  “Don’t listen to her.”

“I’m good, I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.  Your brother will be there too, right?”

“Yeah, he’ll be there.” 

“Cool.”

Claire was finally ready a couple of minutes later and our driver took us over to my parent’s townhouse.  Zane was a little taken aback by the fact that we actually had a driver but he seemed to quickly get over it.

As soon as we approached the door it swung open, my mom stood there with a huge smile on her face and she pulled me and Claire in for a double hug. 

“Hi Girls!”

I couldn’t help but smile.  Every time she saw us, even if it had only been a couple of days, you would think it had been months since she’d last seen us.

“Hi mom.”

She smiled at us, kissed us on the cheek and then she looked at Zane and stuck out her hand.

“You must be Zane. I am Mrs. Hunter, it is so nice to meet you.”

Zane smiled at her and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Hunter, thank you for having me over to your home for dinner.”

“You’re more than welcome, dear. Girls, your father will be home in a few minutes so will one of you please call Jonathan down for dinner while I help Francesca set the table?”

“Sure thing, mom.”  Claire ran upstairs calling Jonny’s name.

Zane turned to my mom. “Mrs. Hunter, can I help with anything?”

“No dear, thank you.  Abby, why don’t you and Zane relax in the living room until your dad gets here.”

Zane and I settled onto the couch and he looked around, admiring the art work.

“This place is gorgeous, Abby.  Did you guys grow up in this townhouse?”

“Yes, we did.  My parents have good taste.”

“Yeah, they do. “

Just then I heard my dad come in and my mom walked over to him to greet him.  I heard her giggle and looked over at them as he was nuzzling her neck.  I smiled to myself because they were like lovesick teenagers.

I grabbed Zane’s hand.  “Come on, let me introduce you to my dad.”

His hand clung tightly to mine as we walked over to interrupt my parent’s little love fest.  I wanted so badly to make him feel relaxed because I could tell that he was a nervous wreck.

I whispered to him.  “Just be yourself.”

“Hi, daddy.”

My dad smiled at me and kissed me on the forehead.  “Hi, sweetheart.”

“Daddy, I’d like for you to meet my friend, Zane.”

My dad quickly sized up Zane and after a few seconds he extended his hand to him.

“It’s nice to meet you, Zane.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Hunter.”

Dad turned to mom.  “Is dinner ready?”

She smiled at him.  “Yes, we are ready to sit down.”

“Okay, I will go wash my hands and will be there in a minute.”  My dad went upstairs while we all went to the dining room.

Claire and Jonny were already seated when we entered the dining room and I could hear Zane suck in air as we walked in.  I forgot how impressive the room was because I was used to it.  The ceiling was at least 20 feet high and my mom had a mural painted years before which was breathtakingly beautiful.

We all sat around the table waiting for my dad to join us and as soon as Jonny saw Zane, he freaked out.  I should have known he would recognize him because he was such a music lover and he wanted to be in a band just like Zane’s band.  My dad happened to walk in the room at the exact moment Jonny had his mini freak out.

“Oh my gosh!  Dude!  You’re the lead singer of Kisses on Fire!  Your band is
awesome
!”