Hearts on Fire (The Hunter Family) by Ashley Blake Read Free Book Online

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