Foolish Games(98)

He turned to face her, his bland expression returned to his face.

“Will,” she stammered. “Is . . . is he okay?”

She wrung her hands, chewing on her bottom lip as he seemed to take ages to answer her. It was as if he were trying to come up with the words that could hurt the most. And he did.

“No.”

Julianne watched as he walked down the sidewalk, a whimpering Owen swaying by his side. Mercifully, Carly closed the door just as Julianne landed in a pile of devastation on the floor, sobs wracking her body.

“My God,” Carly said as she crouched down and wrapped her arms around Julianne. “You love him. You’re in love with Will.”

Julianne would have laughed at Carly’s incredulousness except she felt as if her body had broken and she’d never feel joy again.

“You don’t know how happy I am to know this,” Carly was saying as she stroked Julianne’s back. “Shane swore you’d told your brother about Will to get back at him for forcing you to marry. But I told him you’d never, ever do that. No matter how mad you were at Will, you’d never sell him out like that. It’s just not in you. It was actually our first big fight.”

Her words propelled Julianne to sob harder. Not only had she torpedoed her own marriage, but she’d caused tension in Carly and Shane’s as well.

“Oh, Jules, I don’t know how this happened, but we’re going to make this right. We have to make Will believe you didn’t do this.”

Julianne shook her head violently. “But I did do it, Carly. I did!”

Carly’s face was incredulous again. Her hand stopped mid-stroke on Julianne’s back. “I don’t understand.”

“It was an accident. I told Stephen, but I didn’t mean to. Honest, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Does Will know this?

“I tried to tell him,” Julianne croaked out. “But he wouldn’t listen. He and his cretin agent found my notes on the new company. It was supposed to be a surprise. For Will.”

“Jules, I’m still not following you. What does one have to do with the other?”

Julianne brushed the tears off her face and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “My new clothing line. It’s for infants. I want to manufacture them in Chances Inlet. I was . . . am going to give the company to Will. He thinks everyone in that town looks down on him because of his circumstances as a kid. It’s his hometown and he feels like he doesn’t belong. This will give him that chance to feel a part of Chances Inlet. Not only will he be giving people an opportunity to work, he’ll get something back: pride in his hometown.”

“Go on. Where does Stephen come into all this?” Carly asked.

“I needed to borrow against my grandmother’s trust. I asked Stephen to facilitate it. While I had him on the phone, he started going off about Will and this Bountygate mess. He played me like a violin, Carly. I defended Will, of course.” She gulped around a sob. “I had no idea he was heading up the Senate hearings. Until it was too late.”

Carly smoothed the hair back from Julianne’s face. “Of course you defended him. Because you love him.” She gave Julianne a knowing smile. “Now we just have to make him see how much you love him.”

“Right now, I’d just be happy if he didn’t hate me,” Julianne whispered.

“Not good enough,” Carly said. “I was almost killed last year before I could tell Shane I couldn’t live without him. If you love Will, Jules, you have to be all in with my plan.”

“You have a plan?”

“Yep. And we have to hurry if we want to get to the media before the hearing tomorrow.”

“Media?” Julianne was stunned at her friend’s enthusiasm for dealing with anyone wielding a press badge. “You avoid the paparazzi. They’ve stalked you most of your life.”

“Mmmm. I know, but I’ve forced myself to swim with the sharks a few times this past year to help the people I love the very most. Don’t worry. It’ll work. I promise. The first step, though, is to get you off the floor. My legs are all tingly.”

• • •

The bourbon no longer burned when it went down. Will wasn’t sure if that meant he was suitably inebriated or the alcohol had eroded the lining of his throat. He was going for mind-numbing drunk, but the fact that he was still sitting upright probably meant he had a few more glasses to go.

A key turned in the lock and Will let out a string of curse words. He tried to get off the sofa to intercept Brody, but his head swam as soon as he stood. Hmm. Drunker than he thought. Good sign. Will slouched back down in a satisfied stupor and attempted to pour the amber liquid into the glass in front of him, but the stupid thing kept moving.