by C. Lymari
“Ooh, but you can help her,” Juliet snapped at me.
“Baby, if you help her, it’s going to be a mess. If I help her—”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes at me.
“Hey, Jake,” Stacy greeted me.
I had hoped she wouldn’t say anything when I saw her looking at me. I smiled back at her because I wasn’t a jerk and we hadn’t ended things on bad terms. I knew she was hoping for more from me, but I wouldn’t feel guilty since I’d made it clear from the beginning that I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I wasn’t an asshole when I had fuck buddies. If a woman was sharing her body with me, I didn’t see why I couldn’t make them dinner or have a conversation with them. It didn’t matter because they always took it as a sign that I wanted more.
“Stacy, how are you?” I asked.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Juliet tense up. She was pretending to look at the ornaments, but I knew she was looking at Stacy and me.
“Good. You haven’t called anymore.” Stacy bit her lip and cast a sly grin toward Juliet.
Man, I hated when chicks did catty shit like that. My brother glanced at me and led Rosie away from me; that was when I noticed Juliet had already walked away behind them.
“Goodbye, Stacy.” I started to walk away, but she grabbed my bicep before I could take another step.
“She’s never going to take you seriously, Jake,” Stacy scolded me.
I looked from Stacy to where Juliet was now holding Rosie’s hand, giving her a small smile. Yeah, she was upset.
“I suggest you take your hand off my arm before you make my woman more upset,” I said stiffly.
Stacy’s eyes flashed with anger, but mostly with pain. I knew I shouldn’t feel guilty, but I still did. I shrugged Stacy’s arm off and walked away. I was making my way to Juliet when I bumped into someone, making them drop their coffee.
“Shit, bro, I’m sorry,” I said to the man I’d bumped into.
He looked like money. I imagined it was one of the investors Max said was going to stop by. He didn’t look like a tourist; we had some, but not many, and this guy didn’t fit that description.
“It’s okay.” His gray eyes pierced me, and it instantly got me in an even worse mood.
He was already judging me. I hated men like him.
“Tell the girl at the counter Bear sent you. Coffee’s on me,” I said.
His lip twitched. “Bear?”
“Nickname. If you’ll excuse me, I’m trying to make it to my woman.” My eyes found Juliet.
She kept walking away and didn’t once bother to look back at me, and that pissed me off.
“The redhead?” the guy commented.
My eyes cut to him. He put his hands up in mock defense.
“She’s exquisite. You’re a lucky man.”
Before I could say more, the man patted my shoulder and walked away. I didn’t have time to think about the bizarreness of it all; right now I wanted to talk with Juliet.
When I caught up with them, Juliet was now buying Rosie some cotton candy.
“There you are,” I said.
“Oh, you looked busy. I didn’t want to disturb you,” she replied coldly.
My brother, who was pretending not to listen, snorted.
“She’s just a friend.”
“Like the type of friends we are?”
“Yeah, except with her I didn’t want more.”
Her eyes widened at my declaration.
“No offense, babe, but we weren’t exactly virgins. You were fucking married.”
And there it was, that bit of truth I hated to think about. No matter how much Juliet was here with me, she had already been someone else’s.
The same thing seemed to sink in for Juliet. She gave me a small smile and walked away.
“Real smooth, brother,” Blake murmured. “Come on, Rosie Posie. Let’s go sledding down the hill.”
I found Juliet sitting on the edge of a bench, lost in thought, and I felt like a dick. I probably shouldn’t have said things as I did, but that’s how I felt.
“I’ve never been in love,” Juliet said as I took a seat next to her. “I married Chad because we fit. Because it was expected of me. I married him because it made my father proud of me… not my degree, not the fact that I graduated with a perfect GPA, not the ideas I had for our business. Marrying Chad made him proud of me.” She took a deep breath, not bothering to turn to look at me. “You know, the factory was my idea. I brought it up, and no one even acknowledged it. Everything I did was never right, only my marriage. I was so scared that day, I cried, and everyone thought they were happy tears… When I’m with you, I feel like I’m sixteen all over again. I feel like I did in art class. I feel like I can do whatever I want. When I’m with you, I forget everything that happened in between.”
A tear slid down her cheek, and my heart broke for her. Fuck, I broke for her.
“Don’t cry, baby. I hate it.”
“About my divorce—”
Someone spoke into a microphone, ceasing all chatter because the mayor was about to give a speech.
“We can talk about it later. Let’s just go try and have a good time today,” I told her.
Our little moment of privacy could wait until later on today when we were both alone. Juliet looked like she wanted to protest, but ended up giving in. The moment we made it to the kiosk, I immediately regretted my decision. All the Dunnetts, minus the woman in my arms, were standing next to Prescott. Having Freya standing up there with Max must have killed something in Juliet, and I fucking hated that for her. I said it wasn’t any of my business before, but her brothers were hurting her, and it was about time I did something about it. After Prescott gave a speech, festivities resumed.
“I want to put my elf up there.” Rosie kept trying to jump, trying to reach as high as she could.
Grabbing her, I picked her up so she could put her decoration toward the top.
“You’re next,” was the only warning Juliet got before I lifted her up too.
Her laughter made more than a few heads turn, and I couldn’t blame them. It was rare, but it felt fucking good that I was the one who made her laugh like that. Juliet put our ornaments together along with Rosie’s.
“You sure you don’t want to go get one from Mrs. Riordan? You can put a wish in it,” I said to Juliet.
Mrs. Riordan, our florist, always had little pieces of paper with all kinds of petals and feathers. People liked to put wishes inside her ornaments.
Juliet smiled at me, her hands wrapping around my middle, her head resting against my chest. “I have more than I could ever hope for.”
Fuck, that right there undid me.
“Juliet.”
“Mmm.”
“I’m not letting you go.”
36
Juliet
“I’m not letting you go.”
My head snapped back to look at Jake. Those blue eyes were so intense I almost believed him. I wanted to believe him, but first, I needed to fess up about my divorce. Jake had a right to know. That shit was going to get messy with me before it got better.
“There you are.” Jess saved me from giving a response.
“You’re not putting an ornament up?” I asked Jess.
Jess looked at Jake and me, then at the tree, and shook her head. “Lame.”
I smiled at her; I guessed she was too cool. Me, I was happy. This was my favorite time of year, my favorite town tradition, and I was with Jake freaking Carson. I hugged Jake tighter because he was everything I had once dreamed about.
“I love it,” I said to neither of them in particular, but Jake had his fingers wrapped around my chin so he could kiss me.
Jess groaned. “You guys are so freaking gross.”
“There you are!” Cynthia’s vivacious voice rang out.
“I’m out. My break is over,” Jess said she looked at Jake. “Your mom is always so happy. She scares me… I’d rather be helping Emma.”
�
��Jessamine, I’ll go with you.” Blake threw his arm around Jess’s shoulders. “Come on, Rosie. Let’s walk Jessamine to her booth.”
“Call me that in public again, I will murder you.”
“She’s kidding.” I turned to Jake and his mom.
I knew Jess was dark, but I didn’t want them to think Blake was in any sort of danger. Jess was like all of us—she just wanted a place to belong.
“Oh, honey, Blakey will be good for her. He’ll get her out of her shell,” Cynthia said as we watched the kids walk away.
“Or her clothes,” was muttered behind me.
I turned to give the person behind me a glare, but as soon as he saw my face, Clark started laughing.
“Look at you, going all mother hen,” he chuckled.
“They’re like my sisters.” As soon as I said it, I realized that those two girls were becoming more my family than my actual brothers were.
“You, my darling, are too sweet.” Cynthia wrapped her arms around me, and I could see where Jake had learned to hug like he was trying to take the life out of you. “Did you tell them, Jakey?”
“Ma.”
“Don’t ‘Ma’ me, honey. You and the girls better be at my house from Christmas Eve to Christmas morning.”
Damn. It was Christmas already? Where had the months gone? After my falling-out with Chad, everything seemed like it was going too fast, like life said, “Welcome back and start living.” Last Christmas, I’d attempted to cook the ham, and it had come out too dry. Instead of feeling good about myself for trying, I got cut down.
“Thank you. I’ll run it by the girls,” I told her.
Now that their mother was better, they might want to spend it alone. Mrs. Carson hugged me, and when I hugged her back over her shoulder, I could see my mother. Our eyes met through the crowd, and I held her stare, but in a blink, she looked away and smiled at the person next to her. My heart finished breaking when I saw my mother turn to look at Freya with a smile on her face. I was her daughter, and she was dismissing me for a woman she let her uptight friends talk shit about. Before the speech was over, Blake brought Rosie back to me, which was a good thing because hugging her helped me deal with seeing my family.
“Ma, I think we’re heading out. It’s getting too cold for Rosie.” Jake led me away, holding Rosie in one arm and tucking me under his other one.
“We don’t have to leave,” I told him.
“I don’t want to stay here,” he rasped.
I knew he meant it because of me. Because he noticed how my family treated me, and in the way his jaw was set in stone, I knew it got to the point where my pain was his pain.
Jake
Enough was enough. After we had dinner and I fucked her brains out, Juliet started crying when she thought I was asleep. I was all for staying out of her business with her brothers, but that was before. There was no denying Juliet was deep in me. It was foolish of me to think I could keep her at arm’s length.
“Morning.” I kissed Juliet’s shoulder before going for her mouth. I totally dug the way she gave in to me.
“It’s so early… and it’s Sunday,” she mumbled.
“I know. Go back to sleep.”
Juliet got up, clutching her comforter to her chest. It made me grin. Like I hadn’t been all up on that.
“Where are you going?” Her eyes zeroed in on me.
“Got to help Pops unload some merch.” The lie came easy.
Juliet seemed content and nodded and went back to sleep. Once she was out, I made my way to the B&B.
It was early as hell. Half the town was getting ready for church, and the other half was sleeping in. I guessed Freya and Max were part of the other half, since his car was still parked outside of the B&B.
“Morning, Mrs. Lee, looking lovely this morning.”
Mrs. Lee glared at me. “What do you need, Jake?”
I grinned at her. She had my number.
“Can you give me Max’s room? I need to talk to him.”
“Down the hall. The last one.”
I knocked on the counter and gave her a nod.
“Jake…”
I turned to look at her.
“Freya tends to be vocal in the mornings. Try to stop that from happening today. We do have tourists over, and I don’t want to scare them.”
I choked on a laugh and shook my head. When I got to the door, I knocked, relieved that I didn’t hear just how vocal Max and Freya got. Some things, you didn’t have to know.
Max opened the door wearing pants and a T-shirt. “Jake, is everything okay?”
“Is that Bear? Did something happen? Let me get dressed.”
I heard some rustling around as Freya spoke.
I shook my head. “Just want to talk to you.”
The words made Max cautious. He gave me a cold stare before he nodded, walked out, and closed the door behind him.
I cut right to the point. “You need to stop the bullshit with your sister.”
“Pardon?”
“I get that what she did hurt you, but she was a fucking kid too, man. You got to let that shit go.”
His jaw got hard. “My sister is none of your business, Carson.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I bit out, ignoring his icy stare. “She means something to me. She always has.”
Max’s jaw was rigid; he wasn’t giving up on his grudge against Juliet. That pissed me the fuck off.
“I can’t believe you. Juliet’s in trouble, and you’re holding on to some bullshit grudge. Do you Dunnetts know the meaning of family?”
I was about to turn around and leave when I noticed Max look at the door and then at me. There was agony in his eyes.
“I fucked up.”
“You can go make up with her anytime, man. Your sister’s pretty amazing.”
Max grinned at me, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “She is. And being mad at her was easier than being mad at myself. I fucked up, man, by not going after Freya.”
“Man, you’ve got to let that shit go,” I said. “It’s in the past. You hold on to that shit, it will fester and ruin what you’re building now.”
Max didn’t speak, and since I’d said my piece, I was ready to leave.
“Jake,” he called after me. “Is she okay?”
“She’ll get there.” I would make sure she did.
My neck hurt from where I was bent all day at the store. Restocking was a bitch. I had a box full of notebooks I still needed to put on display. We tended to run out when the semester ended, and people sometimes grabbed them from us. It was easier than going to the nearest Target or Walmart.
When the bell chimed, I yelled, “Be right there.”
I was in a good mood today since my talk with Max yesterday. He didn’t waste time and called Juliet. Of course, she didn’t answer, but it was a start, and once they made up, that would be one burden off her shoulders.
My step halted when I noticed who was waiting for me at the counter. I didn’t think Paul Dunnett had stepped foot in my store before today. He had yet to see me. His back was facing me, so I could observe him while he took in my family’s legacy.
“How may I help you?” I asked and watched as he turned around to look at me with disgust.
Paul’s lip turned in distaste, and his eyes raked over my simple clothes compared to his suit.
“Do you have somewhere private where we can talk?”
I wasn’t all that surprised he wanted to speak alone.
“Give me a second,” I told him and went to put up a sign that said I would be back in fifteen minutes. I hoped that it was more than enough time. “Follow me.”
I didn’t turn around to see if he did as I asked. I walked into the office and turned around once I was in front of the desk. I took a seat on it and motioned for him to speak. If Mr. Dunnett was looking for someone to bend over and kiss his ass, he had the wrong person.
“Talk.” I folded my arms and stared him down.
“I want you to
leave my daughter alone.”
Why wasn’t I surprised he wanted me out of Juliet’s life?
“I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem, since I have no interest in leaving her alone.”
Paul made a point of not making eye contact with me. He looked around my parents’ office—my office now.
“Did you know your parents took out a second mortgage when you went to college?”
Paul didn’t get a surprised reaction from me. I knew my parents did it to help me pay what my scholarship didn’t, and to get current on other bills, and they’d given a little to Clark so he could focus on the academy.
“It’d be a shame if a tragedy would befall on your family. I’m not sure the bank would be very lenient. “
I gripped the ends of my desk to stop myself from physically abusing Paul Dunnett.
“It would be a shame if your family lost the store.”
Composing myself took a minute before I smiled at him. I knew it caught him off guard. Clark and I had the money, but since it was more comfortable to keep the loan, we hadn’t paid it off yet.
“It’s been on my to-do list to go and pay the thing off. I just kept putting it off.” I walked toward him and clapped him on the back. “Thanks for the reminder. Now, I’ve got to take the trash out so I can go home to my girl.”
“You think she’ll stay with you? My daughter loves the finer things in life. Right now she’s throwing a tantrum. She wants to get back at me…but when she realizes she’s the one who’s rolling around in trash, she’ll come crawling back to her family. You will never be good enough for someone like her.”
Now I understood where Juliet was coming from all those years ago. She was repeating the poison she had been taught. I looked at Paul, and I felt sorry for him. He was missing out on his amazing daughter, all because she didn’t follow his logic.
“Get the fuck out of my store before I’ll call the cops on you for harassment,” I spat.
Paul went to open his mouth, probably to tell me no one would believe me.
