Star-Crossed(140)

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running. She walked fast, and Romeo stayed with her. By the time they got to Hal’s, Tino and Chuito had already pulled a table up next to the booth Clay, Melody, and Wyatt were sitting at.

They were drenched. They couldn’t have gotten any wetter if they’d stood in the shower fully dressed for an hour, and Jules shivered once they hit the air conditioning.

“You want me to see if I can find you a towel?” Romeo asked in concern.

“You need one as badly as I do.” Jules stomped her feet on the mat to get the mud off her sneakers, but the entire diner was filled with soaked, muddy runners and the floors had long since been ruined. She leaned back into Romeo as they walked to the booth. She ran a hand down his chest, admiring the outline of his muscles through the thin, white T-shirt that was clinging to him like a second skin from the rain. “It’s like a show.”

“I’ll give you a show.” Romeo gave her a wide, amused smile that lit up his face.

“All you gotta do is ask.”

Jules giggled as they came up to the table. “Hey, y’all.”

“You look like you just took a bath with your clothes on,” Melody said with a laugh. “You wanna towel?”

“If it ain’t too much trouble,” Jules agreed as she sat next to her brother. Romeo sat on her other side at the table next to Tino and his precious trophy. Romeo scooted his seat close to her as Jules looked around the diner with trepidation. “You’re gonna have to smuggle that towel out here. Looks like plenty of folks could use one.”

“If they take a towel from a woman pregnant with twins, then they’re gonna have me to deal with,” Wyatt said darkly as he took a bite of his meat loaf.

Wyatt’s words were punctuated by his sheriff’s uniform. He was the only other person at the table without a 5k shirt. He’d left after the race to get ready for work rather than enjoy the festivities. Even Melody had earned herself one. She and Clay looked adorably coordinated as they sat side by side.



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“I’ll sneak it.” Melody slid out of the booth and headed to the back of the diner despite being off work.

Jules winced. “I feel guilty ’cause there is certainly a high demand for towels. I ain’t never seen so many wet and dirty folks shoved into one place.”

“Anyone’s got a problem with it, they can talk to me.” Wyatt reached over and patted her stomach affectionately. “We got to take care of my retirement plan.”

“You call my sons your retirement plan one more time and I’ll—” Jules was cut off when Romeo leaned over and kissed her. Then he smiled against her lips. “Stress isn’t good for you. I read—”

“I’m gonna take those books away from you.” Jules huffed. “Stealing my tea and—”

Romeo just kissed her again.

“We got an heir and a spare,” Wyatt went on, capitalizing on Romeo’s distracting actions. “One of ’em’s got to have the sheriff gene. I’ll be retired by sixty. That ain’t half bad.”

Tino laughed. “That would be the funniest shit ever. One of Romeo’s kids being the sheriff of Hicksville.”

“They’ll be built for it,” Clay added, frowning at Jules across the table. “Have the doctors given ya an idea how big these babies are gonna be?”

“I hear that question all the time.” Jules sighed. “I ain’t even sure it’s all that polite.”

Melody came back before they could answer, and Jules dried off with the clean kitchen towel. Then she worked on her hair, squeezing the water out of her pigtails that she’d started wearing to combat the heat rather than her usual ponytail. She was still self-conscious about the long, pink scar on her neck, even if Romeo kept telling her it was fading.





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Once she was done, she handed the towel to Romeo, but it was already so wet it did little good. They should have come in earlier like Clay and Melody had, but it’d been so nice to just enjoy the day and appreciate being together when they’d fought so hard to get here.

“This is a terrible mess,” Melody was telling Clay. “They’re swamped. They still ain’t come to take an order. I should’ve worked today.”

“You work every holiday,” Clay reminded her with a growl. “You’re allowed time to yourself. Not like you have to work. You do it ’cause you like it, and Hal knows that.

He should be treating ya right.”

“No, it ain’t like that. Hal told me to take the day off,” Melody argued. “But I just hate seeing ’em in the weeds like this. Not to mention starving a pregnant lady.” Jules laughed. “I ain’t that starving.”