Hearts on Fire (The Hunter Family) (6 page)

“Yeah, what were you listening to?”

“Some new underground band Aaron told me about.  They’re pretty good.”

Both Claire and I quickly glanced at each other as my mouth suddenly went dry. 

“Oh, yeah?  What’s the name?”  I tried to sound nonchalant as my heart banged against my chest.

“The Blitz.  Do you want to listen?”  He handed the buds to me and I smiled at him as relief enveloped me.

“Maybe later.”

Jonathan loved to sing and he and a group of his friends liked to pretend they were in a band.  Our mom loved it when he would sing for her but our dad made it very clear that singing for him would always only be a hobby.  Dad was grooming Jonathan to take over the family business and he was not going to allow anything to change that.  Jonathan started working at the family company, Hunter International, the day he turned 15, and dad had him go in every Saturday for a couple of hours since then.  There was no question that Jonny would be working for dad, no matter what he might want to do with his life. 

Claire and I felt a little bit sorry for him, but we knew it was the way things had to be.  He was inheriting a huge responsibility, along with our cousins, and he would be rewarded beyond his imagination.  It was hard for Jonathan to see that at his age because all he wanted to do was hang out and do the band thing with his friends.  But I was sure that one day he would see things differently.

“Okay, you guys go wash your hands, your father will be home any minute and then we’ll eat.”  Mom double-checked the table settings as we all quickly went our separate ways.

Just as I was drying my hands I heard mom giggling and I knew that daddy was home.  They had this unbelievable chemistry and dad only had eyes for mom.  I wanted what they had one day.  I had never seen any of my friends’ parents act the way mine did around each other, and I knew what they had was rare. 

  When I walked into the living room, he had his hands around my mom’s waist and was whispering something in her ear.  She was totally glowing and they looked like teenagers in love. It was the coolest thing to see. I cleared my throat so that they knew that I was in the room.

Dad looked over at me and smiled, gave mom a quick kiss on the cheek, and came over to give me a big hug.

“Hi honey, how was your trip?  Are you feeling better about the ex?”

Whenever I broke up with a guy my dad never said his name around me again, he always called him ‘the ex’, and I thought that was so cute.

“The trip was amazing, dad, thank you for sending us.”

“Of course, honey, everyone needs a break from time to time.  You and your sister have been working very hard with the dance company so you deserved a little R&R.”

“Yes, we have been working hard.”  Claire had just walked in.

My dad turned to Claire.  “Claire, honey!  It’s good to see you!  Mom and I are so proud of how well you are doing with the dance company.”

For a brief second I felt a pang of jealousy, which kind of freaked me out.  I had never felt that with my sister before, at least not he way I was feeling it then.  As our dad greeted Claire I tried to figure out the reason I was feeling weird.   It had never really bothered me that I was Claire’s understudy, I knew that she was a better ballerina than me.  And it wasn’t like I never had a chance to have the lead in a production, they were just usually held in small venues.  I was totally fine with that, or at least I thought I was. The whole jealousy thing really threw me off but I decided to push it out of my mind and think about it later, I just wanted to enjoy the night with my family.

We all caught up over dinner and then afterwards we relaxed in the living room for a bit.

“So, girls, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?” 

I almost blurted out to my dad that we both were going out with guys we met on our trip, but the nice evening we were having would have ended right then and there, so I caught myself and I was very vague.

“We have rehearsal tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be exhausted after that.”

Claire and I both looked at each other and I saw my mom see it.  She raised her eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Not going out with friends or anything?  That’s not like you girls.”  For some reason my dad was more interested than normal in our social life.

Claire chimed in.  “Um, Katie invited us to a barbecue Sunday afternoon, so we might do that, but I think we both probably need a vacation from our vacation so I’m sure we’ll just chill.”

Claire didn’t lie about the barbecue, but there was no way either of us would ever go.  Katie was the least trustworthy person on the planet and she was always up our butts trying to be our friend.

I looked over at my brother.  “What are you doing this weekend, Jonny?”

“There’s a dance at school on Saturday night and Colleen really wants to go, so that’s what I’m doing.”

Colleen was Jonny’s girlfriend and they were so cute together.  He really liked her but I could tell that he wasn’t smitten, and that was good thing.  He was too young to get too wrapped up in a girl.

Claire smiled at him.  “That sounds like fun, Jonny, I like her.”

I looked at my mom.  “Mom, what are you guys doing this weekend?”

“Your father and I are going to a benefit at the Met with uncle Jake and Aunt Lauren.”

“Yes, and hopefully we won’t be there all night like we were last year at this same benefit.”  My dad winked at my mom, teasing her.

“Honey, we were not there
all
night, maybe just a little longer than we normally stay.  It was fun!”

“Yeah, dad, loosen up and let mom have some fun.  She deserves it!”  I loved to give my dad a hard time about having fun.  He was so serious sometimes and I loved it when he just let loose.  My mom had really helped him soften over the years.  They liked to tell the story of how serious my dad was when he met her and how she was able to help him loosen up.  Their story was really cool and I had never seen two people more in love.

We spent a couple of hours with our family and then we went home and crashed.  We were so exhausted from the trip and we had an early practice the next morning that was scheduled to go all day, so both of us could barely keep our eyes open when we got home.

Practice had been grueling the day before and I could barely contain myself that Sunday as I got ready for my date with Zane.  We were meeting them at the restaurant because it was halfway between where we all lived.  We were running a little bit late because traffic was a nightmare for our driver, so the guys were already at the restaurant when we got there.  Zane’s face illuminated when I breezed into the restaurant and he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.

“Hey, beautiful.”

I was reduced to a shy teenager as I grinned at him.

“Hi.”

Logan’s lips were turned up into a sexy half smile as he looked at Claire.  “Hey there, stranger.”

The way she looked at him was so cute, her feelings for him were written all over her face as she beamed at him. “Hey.”

We all exchanged hellos and, thankfully, were seated right away.  As the conversation flowed, I noticed how we all just slipped into the comfortable rapport we had in Mexico.  The guys had a show in the Village that Thursday and they wanted us to come.

Claire looked at me and her eyes were bright as she told them that we would be there.

“We have long rehearsals this week, Claire, remember?”

It’s not that I didn’t want to go see them play, of course I did, but our next show was coming up and we practiced until 1:00 a.m. some nights.

She looked at me and I could see that she was annoyed.

“Oh, I forgot about that.”  She looked at Logan and furrowed her brow.  “Abby’s right, we might not be able to make your show.  We go until almost 1:00 a.m. most nights the week before a show and we won’t know until that night how long we’ll be.  But if it’s not late, we’ll definitely be there.”

He winked at her.  “All I can ask is that you show up if you can.  I’d love to see you.”

Zane looked at me.  “That goes for me too.”

We had a good time chatting and laughing that evening and after dinner we all went to a bar that was a couple of blocks away.  As soon as we walked in people were saying hi to Zane and Logan.

Claire and I glanced at each with puzzled looks on our faces as we were led to a table in the back corner of the bar.  Was that what I would have to deal with dating a guy in a band?  I looked at Zane.

“You guys must have said hi to almost everyone here!  Are these your fans or something?”

He laughed and gently placed his hand on my shoulder. "No, I work here on the weekends sometimes and most of the customers are regulars.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that you worked at a bar.” I wasn’t trying to sound like a snob, but I was worried that it came out that way.

He looked at me, his eyes dancing a bit as a smirk turned up the corner of his mouth. I think that I offended him. "It's an honest day’s work. Is there something wrong with working in a bar?”

"Of course not, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I'm just surprised because I thought the band was how you made money.”

He smiled at me and then glanced at Logan before looking back at me.  “It is.”

“Oh.”  I felt super uncomfortable so I decided to drop it.  I didn’t want to make a big deal about money, especially because he still didn’t know the whole story about me and Claire, so I tried to change the subject.  I looked around the bar and noticed that the setup was pretty cool and it was packed, especially for a Sunday night.  Before I could say anything else Claire, thankfully, jumped in.

“So is it always this crowded here?  The scene is crazy busy!”

Logan answered her.  “Yeah, it’s a pretty popular bar, for now.”

“For now?”  Claire and I both look puzzled again.  Bars were not really our scene so we were not current on all the bar scene stuff.

Zane looked at us.  “Oh yeah, bars usually have a pretty short shelf life but this one has been going strong for a while, so we’re happy about that.”

Claire looked at him.  “We?”

Zane glanced at Logan again and I was starting to get the feeling that there was something they weren’t telling us. 

“Yeah, we both work here sometimes so it’s good that the bar is still around.”

I looked at both of them.  “Wow, you guys are full of surprises!”

I took a sip from my drink and I was going to ask how long they had been working there when two really pretty girls walked over to our table, completely ignoring me and Claire.

“Hey Zane, hey Logan, it’s good to see you guys.”  The brunette bimbo flipped her hair over her shoulder, placed her hand on Zane’s arm, and zeroed in on the guys, trying to give them her best sexy look.  I knew girls like her and I knew their game.  I wasn’t going to let her disrespect me and Claire.

I looked right at the vocal one and narrowed my eyes at her.  “Are you serious right now?”

She looked totally confused and annoyed that I spoke to her as she put her hand on her hip.

“I’m sorry?”

That pissed me off.  “I know you didn’t just walk over to this table of four and only acknowledge two people.  My sister and I are obviously here with Zane and Logan.”

I could see a gleam of appreciation in Zane’s eyes as I glanced at him before returning my focus to her.  She looked totally taken aback by my bluntness and then switched on the saccharin.

“Oh, how rude of me.  I’m Amber and this is Nikki, and you girls are?”

Really?  Amber and Nikki?  With the napkins they tried to pull of as dresses barely covering their asses, I thought they were more suited for the strip club and their names matched them perfectly.

“I’m Abby and this is Claire.”  Claire barely acknowledged them as she whispered something to Logan.

“It’s nice to meet you.”  Amber stuck out her hand to me and I looked at it for a full five seconds before dragging my eyes to meet hers.

“Have a nice night ladies.”  I turned my back to them but not before I saw the pissed look on Amber’s face as they walked away and smiled to myself.  I looked at Zane, Claire and Logan.  “I’d love a drink, how about you guys?”

They all burst out laughing and Zane put his hand on my knee and gave me a quick kiss. 

“I knew you were my kind of girl.  She was rude and I was going to say something, but I saw that you had it covered.”

Claire looked at Logan.  “Who were those girls anyway?”

He waved it off.  “Just some girls who hang out at the bar.  We’ve seen them a few times.”

Claire’s gaze was steady as she questioned him.  “They sure seemed overly friendly toward you guys.  Ex-girlfriends?”

He seemed to be annoyed by her question.  “No, Claire, I told you we know them from the bar.”

Claire pouted as she sat there, I mean full on pouting like a child, and Logan’s tone softened.

“Baby, you have nothing to worry about.  Chicks come up to us all the time, it’s been happening for years.  We have to be nice to our fans because without them we’re nothing, but I don’t want anyone but you.  You believe me, don’t you?”

His eyes were sincere as he held her gaze and I felt like I was intruding on a private moment between those two, so I turned to Zane who was checking his phone.

“Did your little girlfriend send you a text?”  My tone was teasing and he cracked that sexy smile at me.

“No way.  Our manager sent me a list of tour dates.”

“Tour dates?  Like out of town?”

“Yep.”

I looked at the ground and then looked up at him, trying to hide how bummed I felt.  “You guys just came back.”

“I know, but it’s part of the gig.  We won’t be gone long this time, just a couple weeks.”

My heart sank.  A couple weeks?  I was going to miss him like crazy.

“How often are you guys out of town?  What’s the norm?”

“It depends, I’d say we’re on the road 60% of the time, but Abby, I make time for the things and people I want to make time for.  We’re not usually gone for more than a month at a time.  The average is probably 4 to 5 days.”

That’s not so bad, I can deal with that.

"Oh, okay, well that's not so bad. So what is it that you guys want from this whole thing? Are you looking to be the next Coldplay?”

"We've had some interest from a few record companies but nothing really serious yet. Yeah, we would love to have that kind of success, but we also love what we do.  So, to answer your question, of course we would love to be as big as Coldplay and be able to make good money doing what we love, but we’re pretty happy with where we are right now, too.  Our time is coming, I just know it.  I really do feel that it’s going to happen for us one day.”

I gently held his face in my hands.  “I believe it too, you guys are extremely talented.”