“I will hit the phone and see who I can get. What do you want them to do? Hutch will come and do a rap show I’m sure, but what else do you want?”
“I’m going to have Jen Miller choreograph a dance show that will run on Saturday night. I want to showcase everything the club has to offer.”
“Okay, that’s not a problem,” Nate said. “I’ll let you know in a few days who can make it. Are we still talking about Memorial Day weekend? “
“Yes,” Cam said. “I am meeting with an event planner next week to approve invitations and coordinate our print media for the event. It’s important that the Latin community feels a part of this. When you are at that event tonight, Justin, will you see if you can get some volunteers to help with this? “
“I will do that. I talked to our merchandise department and they are going to go ahead with the commemorative cigars. I got the final legal wrangling taken care of so we can use the old labels from this place along with our logo.”
“That’s going to be great,” Cam said. “Boys, I can’t believe we’ve been doing this ten years.”
The rest of the meeting went by rather quickly and Nate found himself reluctant to leave. He wanted to talk to his brothers about their mom. For the first time in a long while he wanted to discuss her and figure out if his impressions and beliefs were the same as his brothers’.
Justin got up to go but Nate stopped him. “I … I went out on a date with Jen last night.”
“Our employee?” Cam asked, his eyebrows furrowing in a way that Nate knew from his youth meant trouble.
“Yes. I didn’t do anything inappropriate like threaten her job security, so chill out.”
Cam stood up and leaned over the table. “Did you sleep with her? “
Nate didn’t answer. Jen was private. What had happened with her wasn’t for public consumption. “That’s neither here nor there. I was letting you know because I might go out with her again.”
He wanted to say she was different and see if his brothers had any clue as to why she would be the woman to make him react like this. But he would never ask them about that. He would never really be able to talk about her because that wasn’t the kind of thing a man did.
“Good for you,” Justin said. “I don’t really know her, but if you are thinking of dating her, I say go for it.”
Nate glanced at his middle brother. Justin looked the most like their mom out of the three of them. “Legally that’s okay?”
“As long as you don’t put her job on the line I think you’re fine. I can draw up an agreement for you both to sign …”
Nate shook his head. “That doesn’t sound good to me. Jen’s different. She lives with her sister and her nephew.”
Cam came around the table and sat down in the chair that Justin had vacated. “Family is important to her. She’s not like the kind of girls you usually hang out with.”
“I know that,” Nate said. Cam was falling into big-brother mode. It didn’t matter that he and Justin were adults now; Cam still felt that he had to watch over them and give them advice. “I can handle this.”
Justin nodded. “He’s a big boy.”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t care too much about that. I’m more concerned with the fact that I don’t want to lose a valuable employee. She took my dream for the rooftop club and made it viable.”
“You did that,” Nate reminded his brother. “She’s just talented enough to know how to get people up on their feet.”
“Which is what makes this club so successful. Just play it cool, Nate. Don’t let this get to be more than she can handle. I don’t want to have to replace her.”
Cam walked away before Nate could say anything else and he just watched him leave. Justin stood there for a second but Nate got up and left as well. He walked out of the club and started down Calle Ocho. He stood on the corner and looked back at Luna Azul.
He wasn’t going to do anything to ruin the success he’d found here. He was too old to find another new career, especially since he really liked this one.
And he refused to be the man who stole this from Jen. She had a life here with Riley and her sister and he didn’t want her to have to move on. He saw how much not being a competitive dancer had affected her and he knew she was putting her life back together piece by piece. The very last thing she needed right now was a man who was just looking for fun.
No matter that he wanted to be more than just a casual guy in her life, he knew he couldn’t be. Because even though what he felt for her was intense, he knew it would burn out eventually and they’d both have to move on.
Jen woke Monday morning to the sounds of Riley and Marcia getting ready to leave. One of the nice things about her job was that she didn’t have to rush out of bed every morning. She got up and put on her robe before going downstairs.
She hadn’t heard from Nate yesterday but she knew that she wouldn’t. They were both feeling their way through this thing—she was reluctant to call it a relationship because she wasn’t sure she was ready for it yet.
“Morning, Auntie Jen,” Riley said, giving her a hug.
“Morning, Riley.” “Mommy, I’m ready.”
“Great. I need to talk to Auntie Jen. You head out to the car.”
Riley nodded and went out the front door. Marcia stood in the doorway so she could remotely unlock the car and keep an eye on Riley.
“I left the newspaper out for you.”
Jen glanced at her sister. “I don’t read it.”
“You’ll want to this morning. There’s a picture of Nate in it with some woman—a Spanish royal or something.”
Jen nodded. She’d just said they weren’t dating so why would this news hurt. “It’s fine. We’re just friends.”
Marcia reached out and hugged her. “I can come back after I drop Riley off if you want to talk. I’m not due in court today.”
“No, don’t do that. I have a meeting at eleven at the club to talk about the tenth anniversary celebration. Besides, it was just one date.”
Jen didn’t want to talk about this. She wanted to hide away until she figured out why she felt so hurt. She knew he wasn’t the kind of man who was going to give up his jet-set lifestyle for her after one date.
“I’ll be fine. Have a good day.”
Marcia pursed her lips. “I know you’ll be fine. But that doesn’t mean this won’t hurt. You didn’t need this now.”
“Marcia, stop. I’m trying to get it under control in my head. Don’t make me hash it out or I’ll start crying.”
Her sister hugged her again and then turned to leave. “Call me if you need me.”
“I will.”
Jen closed the door on her sister and nephew and leaned back against it. She didn’t want to go and look at a picture of Nate with another woman. Especially since she’d dreamed about his arms around her all night. She’d dreamed of them being on that yacht of his together and making love on the sundeck.
She put her hands in her hair and stood there for a minute trying to get her head around the idea. It didn’t matter that she’d already thought he might not be serious about her. She didn’t want to see the proof that the very next night he’d gone out with someone else.
But she wasn’t a coward and she never ran away from anything. She