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Hunter’s mouth gaped. Snow laughed, throwing her arm across her friend’s shoulders. “Give him time; I bet he’ll come up with those names.”
The two women walked toward the stage’s exit and out into the rest of the studio. While May and another man were talking in one of the wings, for the most part, the studio had emptied and was lit only by the stand-by lights in the hall.
“You know he’s crazy, right?” Juliet whispered as they walked.
“I think he might be onto something.”
“Me, a bodyguard? Snow. Come on. Something like that might fit you, the running goddess who lives a life of fitness incarnate. But me? I live for the couch cushions, a book, and a package of Oreos.”
Snow lowered her hand and looked at her friend. Hunter was a few paces away, giving the two women some space to chat as they left the building.
“You’re smart,” Snow said. “People can trust you. The fitness and self-defense moves can all be learned.”
Juliet gaped at her. “I can’t believe you’re going along with this.”
“And I can’t believe you haven’t completely shot me down. Which means you’re considering it.”
Juliet released a noise. “I—”
Snow folded her arms and jutted out her chin. Hunter joined the two women’s sides, looking between them expectantly.
“I—I am not.”
“Whatever you say,” Snow said, smiling at Hunter. He didn’t smile back—but his eyes did. Snow was learning that about him. Within his stoic, gruff exterior, Hunter had a marshmallow interior.
* * *
Snow bent tolace up her tennis shoes. She was in her second favorite exercise pants and tank top—neon green with bright orange accents. Hunter wore jogging shorts and a fitted shirt that did him all kinds of favors. He had one foot on the bike rack just off from the boardwalk and was staring out at the glittering Pacific Ocean.
“Ready,” she said, rising.
“Let’s do this.” Hunter began jogging, and Snow fell into step beside him.
“I live for this, you know,” she said, letting her lungs acclimate and get into their usual rhythm.
“What, running?”
“By the beach, especially. And you know what? I’m glad I can do this here just as well as in Florida.” And that she had a man who could keep up with her. Hunter did. He pumped his arms, and though she could hear his breathing elevate, he was right in step with her.
“I thought you might want to get back home right away,” he said.
She jogged a little slower to move behind him and out of the way of a pair of roller bladers before returning to his side. “Actually, I’m not sure I’ll go back to Clearwater.”
“No?”
“No.”
Silence and more breathing and footfalls along the boardwalk planks. “Where are you planning on going?”
“Nowhere,” she said.
Hunter gazed at her. He stopped running for a moment, and she did too, meeting the confusion in his gaze. “Snow—”
She took his hand. “You’re here. You can’t uproot Kassie, not when she needs to be close to her grandparents. I have nothing in Florida, not now that my best friend has married and moved so far away. I’m staying here. Besides, I need to see how Juliet’s bodyguard training goes.”
Hunter laughed. “I really meant it as a suggestion and nothing more.”
“But you sparked something in her. You have that effect on a lot of people—though I’m betting the flicker I’m feeling is different from hers.” Snow’s newfound fetish wasn’t for bodyguarding in general, but foronebodyguard.
