From Temptation to Twins(64)

Melissa found her voice first, and spoke haltingly. “That’s ridiculously generous.”

“No,” Jules said.

Melissa shot her a look of disbelief.

Jules answered her sister with a hard look. They couldn’t stay here. She was pregnant, and Caleb was the father. There was no way she could stay in Whiskey Bay and let him find out.

Caleb gaped at Jules in clear astonishment. “What do you mean no? It’s everything you wanted. You can finish rebuilding. You can run the place. I’m not going to interfere.”

“We can’t,” Jules said.

“Jules,” Melissa pleaded.

“It’s perfect,” Caleb said with what looked like mounting confusion. “You get your dream. We all make money. Noah doesn’t have to follow Melissa to Portland.”

Melissa looked up at Noah. “What? What does he mean by that?”

Noah gave her a sheepish smile. “I can’t be without you, Melissa. You’re amazing.”

She gave her head a swift little shake. “You’re coming to Portland?”

He put an arm around her. “You don’t think I can get work in Portland?”

In return, she leaned into him and smiled. Jules was forced to quell a surge of jealousy. Caleb standing just a few feet away made it all the worse. She wanted to go to him. She wanted to lean into him. She wanted to wake up from what had become a nightmare of errors and secrets.

“So you see,” she managed to say without her voice cracking with emotion. “We’re all good. We’re looking forward to Portland.”

“What are you talking about?” Caleb demanded.

Her stomach was churning with guilt and nervousness. “I’m saying thanks, but no thanks. Our minds are made up.”

“You should at least hear what he has to say,” Noah put in.

Jules looked to Melissa for support.

“It’s almost too good to be true,” Melissa said.

“It is too good to be true.” Jules couldn’t believe she was losing her sister’s backing. Melissa knew the stakes. She knew why Jules couldn’t accept Caleb’s offer.

“It’s not too good to be true. It’s just flat-out true.” Caleb directed his attention to Melissa, too. “We’ll draw up a contract. You get half of Neo. I get half of the Crab Shack. It’s as simple as that.”

“It’s not as simple as that.” Jules’s hand did go to her stomach. There was nothing remotely simple about the situation.

“What is wrong with you?” Caleb moved even closer to her.

“With me? There’s nothing wrong with me.”

He reached for her. “Jules, you know—”

“No, I don’t know. I don’t know why you’re doing this.” She looked at Melissa, trying hard not to feel abandoned. “And you, you know this won’t work.”

“Jules, just listen. Let’s consider—”

“I can’t.” Jules was mortified. Tears threatened and she swiped them away. She’d made a mess of her life. Melissa’s, too. And now...now, she... “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, rushing from the restaurant.

“Jules!” Caleb called as she passed through the doorway.

She started running. She reached the mini pickup truck, wrenched open the door, turned the key and peeled down the driveway. In the rearview mirror, Caleb was standing in the middle of the driveway watching her roll away.

* * *

“What was that?” Caleb asked to no one in particular as Melissa and Noah arrived behind him on the driveway. Jules was disappearing in a cloud of dust.

What had gotten into her?

“She’s afraid,” Melissa said, coming up beside him.

That didn’t make sense. Jules wasn’t fearful. She was tough and she was brave.

“Of what?” he asked, trying to wrap his head around the strange turn of events. Jules should be thanking him, not running away.

“Of you,” Melissa said.

“Jules isn’t afraid of me. She’s anything but afraid of me.”

Melissa sent him a look of disbelief.

“What?” Caleb repeated. “What am I missing? I gave her exactly what she wanted. I made an impossible situation work. It was a solid plan. It was a brilliant plan.”

“She’s afraid of her feelings for you,” Melissa said.

His brain instantly switched gears. Jules had feelings? Scary feelings? For him?

“What feelings?” he asked Melissa.

Melissa gave her head a shake of disbelief. “Well, it’s not that she doesn’t like you.”

He worked his way through the oblique sentence.

Jules liked him. That was good. She was behaving strangely. But at least she liked him. Maybe there was hope.