Hearts on Fire (The Hunter Family) (19 page)

            “Oh, okay honey, who are you bringing?”

            I hesitated before answering her.

            “Zane.”

            My dad’s voice bellowed through the phone.  “
What
?!”

            “I ran into him a couple of weeks ago and we talked for a long time.  We’re back together.”

            “Abigail Hunter, that man is no good for you.”

            “Daddy, things are different now, he’s not in a band anymore.”

            “I don’t care what he’s doing!  You were devastated by that man and I do not want him in our house!”

            “
Mom!” 
I could always count on her to be the voice of reason.

            “Joshua, calm down.  Abby, honey, of course you can bring your friend.”

            I was so relieved.  “Thanks, mom.”

            “Sarah…”  My father’s voice was stern.

            “Joshua, she said they had a long talk so I’m sure everything has been worked out.  Abby is a smart girl who we raised to have common sense.”

            He couldn’t really argue with that and I could hear the defeat in his voice.

            “Fine, your friend can come, but one sign of him disrespecting you and I will have him escorted out!”

            My dad was a bit over protective but it was sweet.

            “Okay, daddy.  Thank you.”

            “We just want you to be happy honey.”

            “I know mom, and I am.  Zane is different, you’ll see.”

~*~*~

            The rest of the week flew by and we had a super low-key night on Saturday.  We ordered pizza (I had veggie pizza with no cheese) and watched a movie.  I don’t know that I had ever felt more comfortable and secure in my life.  It just felt right to be there with him in his place, on his couch.  I was exactly in the place I was supposed to be.

            We were leaving on Wednesday around noon to head out to the Hamptons, and the night before we were leaving Zane had to do a couple of things at the new bar so I wasn’t going to see him until the next day.

            I had practice all day and I wouldn’t be able to practice again until some time over the weekend depending on what my family had planned.  Our parents had built a small dance studio next to our pool house in the Hamptons years before so that Claire and I could practice whenever we needed to, so I knew that I would use it sometime over the weekend but that all depended on whatever else my family had going on. I would probably only be able to squeeze in an hour or two here and there, so I practiced pretty late Tuesday night before we left.

            I had not seen Zane since Saturday and, even though I was going to be seeing him the following day, I wanted to swing by the bar and just give him a quick kiss good night.  When I walked in, the bar was packed, which was great because it meant that business was good, and I meandered my way through the crowd looking for Zane’s tall, sexy figure.  I finally found him huddled in a corner with what looked to be a blonde woman.  I stopped in my tracks and all of the old feelings of jealousy came rushing to the surface.  I stood there watching them hoping that I wasn't seeing what I thought I was seeing, and then my stomach dropped into my toes when I saw him dip his head down toward her as she placed a perfectly manicured hand of red fingernails on his shoulder.

            Tears welled up in my eyes and I turned and ran out of the bar.  I had to get out of there before the tears rolled down my face and as soon as I was in the car they spilled down my cheeks.  I couldn't believe I was back in the same place again. My driver looked at me in the rear view mirror and asked if I was okay.  I nodded and just wanted to get home. As soon as I was inside my condo I threw myself on the bed and cried like a baby.

How could I have been so stupid?  Did I really miss all the signs?  Was Zane nothing but a huge player?  The more I thought about it the less sense it made. He seemed so sincere. I never thought for a second that he was lying to me.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling thinking about the last couple of weeks and how he had apologized to me. It just didn't make sense that he would lie to me. I had to remind myself that we broke up last time because I didn't trust him, he didn’t do anything wrong, and I didn't want to make the same mistake again.  Maybe I was blowing things out of proportion; maybe I didn’t see what I thought I saw.

            I decided that I was going to wait and see how he acted with me the next day before I asked him about the girl.  I didn’t want to sound like I was accusing him of something, but if I didn’t get the answer I wanted I was done.  I wasn’t going to be treated like a fool.

            The next morning I told my bodyguard that he didn’t have to follow us to the Hamptons, he could just meet us at my parent’s house.  He always rode with me if I was going on a long drive, and if it was a quick trip around town he just followed behind me.  I always tried to have some privacy and my dad never allowed it.  I thought it might work this time since we were driving straight to the Hamptons house, but he said he had to be with me.  He agreed to follow us to give us some privacy so I was happy to have that small victory.

            Zane picked me up right around noon and he acted like he always did, I didn’t feel like he was trying to overcompensate in any way.  He looked a little bit nervous as he put my bags in his car and I, of course, suddenly felt paranoid that he was about to confess something.  But it was nothing like that.  He was totally nervous about seeing my parents.

            “Is your father upset with me, Abby?”

            I didn’t tell him about my dad’s reaction on the phone the other night, and I kind of minimized my father’s dislike for him.

            “Well, he’s just concerned because I was so upset when we broke up.  My parents just want me to be happy and once they see us they will know how happy I am with you.”

            He turned to look at me, his hands lightly caressing my arms, before I got in the car and took a deep breath.

            “You make me happy too.  I’m really looking forward to this weekend.”

            I smiled at him, the smile not quite reaching my eyes.

“Me too.”  I tried to duck into the car but he grabbed my hand and stopped me.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

We had to get going so I didn’t really want to get into it right then.

“Oh, nothing, I guess I’m just tired.  I was out kind of late last night.”

“Oh, you took a well deserved break from practice?”

“Something like that.  We better get going, there’s probably already a ton of traffic and if we wait much longer we will be stuck in even more traffic.”

“Oh, right, good call.  Is Jack following us?”

I glanced at my bodyguard who was in the car behind us and waved at him.

“Yes, he was nice enough to give us some privacy, but not total privacy. My dad would throw a fit if he wasn’t with me.”

“Got it, well let’s hit the road, hopefully we won’t be stuck in traffic the whole way.”

About an hour into the trip, I had to use the bathroom and luckily there was a gas station ahead so I asked Zane to make a quick stop.  We continued to chat about nothing in particular and then after a lot of small talk, I felt comfortable enough to mention to Zane that I was at his bar the night before.

“So, I didn’t ask you, how was the bar last night?  Did you take care of everything you needed to?”  I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Yeah, I did.  It was a crazy night.”

That’s all he said and then he just stared out at the road not offering anymore information.  I could feel my face getting warm because I was getting pissed.  I saw him with that girl and I knew there had to be more to the story about his night, and I needed for him to tell me what happened so I pressed him a little bit further.

“Oh yeah?  Why was it crazy?”  I tried really hard to take the accusing tone out of my voice but I don’t know that I succeeded.

He glanced at me with a curious glance.  “Just one of those nights, you know?”

What’s with the cryptic language?

My cheeks were burning and my patience was dwindling away to nothing.

“No, I don’t know.  Why don’t you tell me?”  I definitely sounded pissed, there was no hiding it.

“What’s with the attitude, Abby?”

I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“I was at the bar last night and I saw you.”

He looked totally confused.

“Well, why didn’t you come say hi to me?”

“Because when I saw you, you were huddled in a corner with some blonde chick all over you.  Who was she, Zane?”

We had just pulled off to go the gas station and Zane quickly pulled into a parking spot, slammed on the brake and turned off the car.  He turned to look at me and he was clearly pissed.