Always Florence by Muriel Jensen

Author:Muriel Jensen [Jensen, Muriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

NATE BECAME CONVINCED there were alien forces at work in his life when even Hunter was quick-tempered and out of sorts. Nate finally called him into his office after a front-desk verbal melee that had everyone slamming things around.

“Please don’t yell at Jonni,” Nate said, pointing Hunter to the client chair that faced his desk. “She keeps this place together. If she leaves, we’ll have to set sail on a tramp steamer for the South Seas.”

Hunter collapsed into the chair, his brow furrowed. “I don’t see the downside to that.”

“Then let me paint you a picture. I’ll have two kids with me and a very large dog.”

Hunter considered that for a minute, stretching his legs out in front of him. “True. So, no island maidens?”

“I doubt it seriously.”

“I don’t think they still have tramp steamers, anyway.”

Nate sat back in his chair. His personal problems were so numerous, he didn’t know where to start to fix them, so it was better to focus on someone else’s. “What’s the problem today? You need coffee? Maybe with something in it?”

They kept a bottle of Armagnac in the bathroom file cabinet along with paper towels, toilet tissue and the first aid kit.

Hunter expelled air in a noisy growl. “Sandy invited me to dinner.”

“You don’t want to go?”

“No.”

“Can’t you just tell her you have plans?”

“Too late. I accepted.”

Nate sat up and frowned across the desk at his friend. “That makes no sense, Hunt.”

“Yeah, I got that. But what do I do now?”

“I think courtesy demands that you go.”

“What does cowardice demand?”

Really wanting to help, probably because of his own confusion, which he didn’t want to confront, Nate went to his office door and pushed it closed. “What are you afraid of?” he asked as he took his chair again. “I mean, besides the fact that being around her is like being tied to the front of a semi.”

Hunter was uncharacteristically morose. “I think it’s the fact that I kind of...I almost...” He looked into Nate’s face and said with a self-deprecating grimace, “I like her.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. I ran into her yesterday at the grocery store. She had her girls in the cart and she looked so...I don’t know. Alive, I guess. Cheerful, despite all she must have to deal with. And...” He looked suddenly embarrassed and ran a hand over his face.

“I’m the friend,” Nate said, “who saw you fall off your motorcycle into a mud pit and didn’t laugh. Tell me.”

“Okay.” Hunter folded and unfolded his arms, then readjusted his long body in the chair. “Remember the morning of the meeting when you said you thought she had a thing for me?”

“Yeah.”

“I think she does. There’s something in her eyes when she looks at me. I saw it the night of the Monster Bash. I thought then that maybe I was imagining it because we were all being somebody else, you know? But there it was again when she first saw me yesterday at Freddy’s. Something softens and gets a little...I’d say ‘scared,’ but knowing her I can’t imagine that’s it.

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