Kissing the Shy Guy - Stephanie Street Page 0,38

up for a massive battle that may or may not end with me telling Jenna to take a flying leap.

“Yes,” she sighed. “I’d already thought of it, but I wanted to see if this would work first. It was a lot of work, putting all of this together, and I hate the idea of scrapping it completely.”

Now I felt terrible. “Jenna—”

She waved me off. “No, it’s okay. You told me you couldn’t dance.” She shot me wry look before inhaling a deep, fortifying breath. “We’ll change it. You know the scene. You know the words. We’ll do it more like it is in the movie.” She glanced up, catching my eye, holding it with hers. She really was gorgeous. “Except, you’ll play your guitar.” Tony didn’t play the guitar in the movie.

A slow smile spread across my lips. “Yeah?”

She nodded and sighed again, resigned this time. “Yeah. It’s what you know. And you aren’t really in it for the scholarship anyway. No need to ‘wow’ anybody with your moves.” She lifted her brows. “Which is a good thing since you haven’t got any.”

“Ha. That’s what you think.” Wishing I could reach out and pull her to me, showing her just what kind of moves I had. But we had an agreement, so I settled for a heated look. I could smolder with the best of them. Flynn Ryder, eat your heart out. “I have moves. Just not dance moves.”

Jenna’s breath caught as she fell under my spell, but she didn’t give in to whatever desire burned in her eyes. Unfortunately.

“Get your guitar.” She pointed to my guitar case.

“You got it.”

Jenna couldn’t know, but holding my guitar was my safe place. I’d be infinitely more comfortable with it in my hands than without.

“I don’t have all the details worked out. I’ll have to change the choreography.” She made a face. “Basically, it will be me dancing around you. But I think it will work.” She shot me a grin that could only be described as saucy. “I didn’t know about that smolder thing. We’ll have to use it. The female judges won’t stand a chance against it.”

My cheeks flared, but I didn’t have time to feel embarrassed or awkward. We spent the next hour working out the kinks, singing to the guitar rather than the music Jenna had on her phone. I’d have to practice at home, make sure I knew the song inside and out, that wouldn’t be a problem.

But I’d been right. I remembered the scene from the movie. Maria and Tony sing together on the fire escape outside Maria’s family’s apartment in New York City with a lot of longing looks full of sexual tension. It shouldn’t be hard to pretend.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked as I packed my guitar back in its case. “Do we have a shot?”

I shrugged. “You know better than I do, but I think I’ll like this version better than the other.” Thank goodness she’d been willing to change it. I think she knew if she didn’t, I really would quit. There just wasn’t enough time before I reached old age to teach me that choreography. It hadn’t taken long for Jenna to reach the same conclusion.

Jenna smirked, sliding her feet into a different pair of booties than the ones the other night. “All you have to do is sit there.”

“And play my guitar. And sing. And make smolder eyes,” I said, crossing my eyes and making her laugh. The longer we worked, the easier it became to forget I was angry with her.

“Yeah, but you’re good at all of those things, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” She stuffed her gear into a draw-string bag and slung it over her shoulder.

I did the same with my guitar case and stood in the doorway. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.”

Jenna hesitated. “You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do,” I sighed. “Or I’ll feel guilty. Mom will see it written all over my face when I get home and yell at me for not doing what I should.”

Jenna grinned. “You’re saying if I don’t let you, you’ll get in trouble with your mom?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. So have a heart and let me be a gentleman without arguing about it.” I held my arm wide, gesturing for her to go out the door before me. She giggled a little as she did. I sighed audibly, which only made her laugh more.

“You really are just a big softie, aren’t you?” she asked