Chapter 2

TWO

Claudia

Anders grins as Hana reaches him, and ignores her outstretched hand, bringing her in for a hug instead.

Then they immediately start talking and joking as if they’ve known each other for years instead of just meeting.

Figures.

It’s a skill I’ve yet to master.

And anyway, Hana always gets the cute guys.

That’s how it’s been for as long as we’ve known each other, which is six years now.

And I can’t even hate her because she’s the best bestie a girl could ever ask for. We live thousands of miles apart—her in Slovakia and me in Pennsylvania—and yet we talk or text every day. The time difference makes it challenging, but we manage. Our bond since college hasn’t wavered, and though it’s been more than two years since we graduated and more than a year since we last saw each other, I can’t wait to spend the next week with her.

The trade off is having to attend this party today, but she’d promised the rest of the week will be the two of us. We’ve made plans to do a few touristy things, as well as have a few dinners with Johan and Sloane and then a spa day for girls. She’s been in Fort Lauderdale over a month, helping Johan and Sloane settle into their new house and spending time with family. The rest of their family has already gone back to Slovakia, but she stayed behind, waiting for me to get here so we can basically end our summer together.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Johan again and meeting his pregnant fiancée but hanging out with an entire professional hockey team makes me nervous. Normally, I’m buried so deep in computers and coding, I don’t spend much time thinking about men. I’m socially awkward and too much of a nerd to worry about dating, so I rarely put myself in a position where I have to deal with it. Of course, I don’t usually have an opportunity to talk to a hunk like Anders either.

He’s been sweet too. All six-foot-something, dirty-blond hair and deep-set blue eyes of him. He’s had a shirt on this whole time, but I can guess what his torso looks like beneath, and I’m grateful I haven’t seen it yet. The last thing I need is to visibly drool over him.

Because he’s beautiful .

I can just imagine the scruff of his beard between my thighs.

His lips on mine.

His much larger body moving over me, touching me…

And of course, because I’m infatuated with him, this is the guy Hana told me has a crush on her.

Johan has shown him pictures of her, and like almost everyone else she meets, he’s into her. Even though they’d never met in person until just now. Even though he spent the last hour or so talking to me in between helping set up.

Until now, I’d been the only unattached female here, so who else would he have talked to? Now that Hana’s here, I’ll probably spend most of the day reading. I’ll never fit in here with a bunch of pro athletes and their gorgeous significant others.

Unless I play with the kids. Kids usually like me, especially once we start talking about video games.

I try not to be too obvious as I watch Hana and Anders flirt without even trying.

I didn’t get that gene.

The one that allows women to be cute and coy and…feminine?

I’m far more comfortable hanging out with men. Well, smart, nerdy guys with glasses and acne.

Not hot guys with piercing blue eyes and scruffy beards that make my lady parts come alive. And that says something, because my lady parts are one hundred percent on lockdown.

“Come on, let’s help set out the food,” Hana tells me, tugging me by the hand.

Johan’s fiancée, Sloane, is carrying a big beach bag that she dumps near someone she calls Decker, and the two hug.

“Brother and sister,” Hana whispers to me.

“Uh huh.” I look at the massive crowd of adults and children, and anxiety begins to creep in.

“Stop it.” Hana gives me a look. It’s the same look she’s been giving me since college when I want to leave a social gathering, but she wants to somehow force me to enjoy myself.

“I’m not doing anything,” I protest.

“You’re thinking about how long until you can escape,” she says knowingly, wagging a finger at me. “You’re thinking about how you just want to go back to your book.”

“I like reading,” I say.

“I do too,” Hana says, “but not at a beach party surrounded by hot guys.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say something about how it’s easy for her to say that when all of them want to sleep with her, but again, it’s not her fault she’s gorgeous. It’s also not her fault that I’m…not.

“You know parties like this aren’t my thing,” I say instead.

“Do this for me today, and I promise, it’ll just be us the rest of the week. Except for dinner at Johan and Sloane’s on Tuesday night. And when she comes to the spa with us.”

We only have a week together before she leaves to go back to Slovakia and I have to head back to Philadelphia to start my new job. We’ve been planning this trip for a year, and we made lots of fun plans.

Well, fun except for today.

Ugh.

Why am I like this?

I should be excited about meeting Johan’s friends and teammates.

Hanging out with a bunch of pro athletes.

Instead, I’m desperate to go back to hiding under my tree with my book.

“When did you get to town?” Sloane asks me as we spread out a massive blanket.

“Yesterday,” I reply.

“Hana said you guys got a suite on the beach.”

“Yup. The room is beautiful.”

“I was going to offer to let you stay with us,” Sloane says, “but I’m guessing a suite on the ocean is a lot more fun than a guest room in the suburbs.”

I chuckle. “We wanted to splurge.”

“I wanted to splurge,” Hana corrects me. “She wanted to stay at a Motel Six or something.”

I snort. “When we started planning, I didn’t know if I would have a job. But I do, so now it’s not an issue.”

“What kind of job?” Sloane asks.

Now I’m in my element and talking about the startup software company is easy.

“I have to be at the office for the first two months, to meet everyone, go on a few client trips, and learn the ropes. After that, I’ll be working remotely ninety percent of the time. It’s a dream job, to be honest.”

“That’s important,” Sloane says, nodding.

“It really is,” Hana agrees. “Because I hate my job.”

I glance at her. I know she wasn’t happy at her last job, but she’d quit to take six weeks to come to the US to visit Johan. I didn’t realize she’d found another.

“You already found something?” I ask. “And how can you hate it if you haven’t started yet?”

She shrugs. “It’s another retail job, working for a big computer store in Bratislava. But I hate retail, so I don’t need to start to know I’m going to hate it.”

“So why take it?”

“I have to work,” she says quietly. “I’m twenty-five. I can’t continue to live off my parents and brother.”

Johan sends her money every month and it bothers her, but we haven’t talked about it in a while so I’m not sure what’s going on. The plan is to catch up on everything this week.

“He doesn’t mind,” Sloane says softly.

“But I mind.” Hana shakes her head. “Anyway, that’s not a conversation for today. Let’s have fun. I’m hot. I need to go for a swim.” She slips off her shoes and shorts, tosses her sunglasses onto the blanket, and runs for the water.

And almost every guy on the beach turns to look.

I mean, why wouldn’t they?

She’s beautiful.

Long, lean, and perfect.

I love her, but there’s no doubt I’m envious.

“Want to go for a swim?” Sloane asks me, taking off her T-shirt and revealing an adorable fringe bikini top that somewhat covers her baby bump.

I gaze in the direction Hana had gone. “No. I’ll stay here.”

Sloane smiles and puts a gentle hand on my arm. “It’s not a competition, you know.”

“Not between us girls, but when it comes to guys? It absolutely is. Did you see the way they all stared at her?”

“We stare at hot guys too. Don’t we?” She pauses, and I realize it’s not a rhetorical question.

“Well, sure, but?—”

“Do you date or sleep with every hot guy you see?”

“Of course not.”

“And it’s the same with her. She’s beautiful. They look. Appreciate. Maybe fantasize for a moment. And then they move on. She’s single too, remember? It’s not because she can’t find a guy, but because she’s waiting for the right one. Just like you should be.”

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t know if that’s in the cards for me. Unless it’s a family member or someone I work with, I’m usually totally tongue-tied and as soon as I start talking about computers, their eyes glaze over and they make a quick exit.”

“Anders was talking to you before we got here.”

“Because there was literally no one else to talk to. The minute Hana got here, he forgot all about me.”

“I don’t think so.” She winks. “Because it’s not her he’s staring at right now.”