Project Runaway Bride(42)

“Where have you been?” she wanted to know. “We’ve been worried sick.”

“Well, until Reid McCormack called to say he’d located you and that you were okay,” Zoe supplied. “Then we were just plain worried, especially when he wouldn’t tell us where you were or when you planned to come home.”

“I know. I’m so sorry,” Juliet said, reaching for their hands and giving them each a squeeze so they would know just how sincere her apology was.

“There’s...a lot going on, and I promise to tell you everything now that I’m back. But I couldn’t go through with the wedding and needed some time to myself to think about what I was going to do before I came home.”

There was a heavy pause while Lily and Zoe considered that. And then Lily leaned in to give her another quick, hard hug.

“We’re just glad you’re all right. And we’re ready to listen whenever you’re ready to share. Whatever it is that sent you running...” Lily gave a low chuckle. “Well, I’ve been there, done that. You forgave me for keeping secrets, and I’m sure Zoe and I can forgive you for yours. Right, Zoe?”

Their youngest sister got an elbow to the ribs, which she took like a drama queen—yowling in feigned pain, rubbing her side, hitting Lily back. But under it all, Juliet knew that Zoe was equally happy to have her back and every ounce as there for her as Lily was.

She made that clear when she grew serious and turned sky-blue eyes on her. “Girls in glass slippers shouldn’t throw stones. As long as you and Lily keep putting up with me, I’ll keep putting up with you.”

Juliet gave her baby sister a watery smile before pulling her close. “Deal.”

After a few more minutes of excessive hugging, Lily carried Juliet’s things farther into the apartment and said, “We were just fixing dinner. Do you want to go upstairs and unpack or maybe take a nap before we eat?”

Juliet rolled her eyes in self-deprivation. “I’m pretty much napped out for the time being, believe me.”

Lily and Zoe both gave her odd looks, but she waved them off. She would explain everything soon enough.

“Let me take my stuff to my room, and then I’ll come back down and help. What are we having?”

“Pizza,” the two of them singsonged at exactly the same time.

“Perfect,” she said, and meant it.

The scent of baking crust filled the loft. There would be mile-high veggies in deference to Zoe’s vegetarian preferences, and wine or soda or sometimes even beer while the three of them cozied up on the couch to watch a movie or talk about their weeks. In this case, she suspected she would be doing most of the talking while her sisters listened eagerly. And, boy, did she have a tale to tell!

While Zoe and Lily returned to the kitchen, Juliet carried her overnight bag upstairs and put a few items away. Makeup bag on the bathroom vanity; dirty laundry in the hamper. She changed out of her lake house clothes and into a more comfortable pair of yoga pants and a soft, roomy cotton tunic top, the better to lounge around in while she caught up with her sisters.

Heading back down to the main living area of the loft, she joined Zoe and Lily at the island, offering a hand wherever necessary. They made small talk the entire time, keeping things light. Juliet let Lily and Zoe fill her in on what they’d been up to since her failed wedding ceremony, saving her own long and winding tale until they were settled in with their meal and she could tell them everything they needed to know without interruption.

An hour later, all three of them were perched cross-legged on the sofa with small plates of salad, large plates of piping-hot pizza and glasses of fizzing cola on the coffee table in front of them.

It took five, maybe ten seconds from the time their butts hit the cushions for Lily to cock her head, pull a chunk of broccoli from the top of her slice and say, “Okay, spill,” before popping the green floret into her mouth.

Taking a deep breath and realizing she was probably going to be doing a lot more talking than eating, Juliet started at the beginning and didn’t stop until she was well and truly finished.

She told them about the first time she’d met with Reid at his office to discuss Lily’s disappearance, when she’d run off to Los Angeles to find out who was stealing her designs.

She confessed her instant attraction to the too-handsome-for-her-own-good investigator, and the guilt she’d felt over thinking about him at all when she was already engaged to Paul.

From there, she knew it wouldn’t be a terribly big leap for Lily and Zoe to see where the story was going. But she’d promised all, and so she told them. About Paul’s slowly increasing abuse, Reid’s discovery of bruises and his anger at her fiancé’s treatment of her, of that first night they’d spent together and how she’d broken up with Paul immediately afterward only to carry on a clandestine, nearly forbidden affair with Reid for the next few months....