Star-Crossed(50)

I’m gonna be guilty of killing my own brother. Thank God we’re outta here tomorrow. I can’t wait for California.”

“I wish I could come visit you. I love Los Angeles. Rodeo Drive is my Mecca.” Romeo pulled a guilty face. “It’s my Mecca too. It’s a sure bet Tino and me are gonna put a serious dent in it.”

“Maybe you can take Clay and get him a real suit for once. Melody’d surely appreciate it.”

“There is no help for that guy,” Romeo said firmly. “We all went out to eat at a five-star restaurant and I shit you not, Clay wore jeans and tennis shoes.”

“Oh, I believe it,” Jules said with a laugh. “Wyatt’s the same. He owns one suit for weddings and funerals, and it’s a sad-looking suit at that. I don’t get it, ’cause it ain’t like he can’t afford to dress nice.”

“How’d you come outta the same womb as that guy?”

“Past life sin,” Jules said, though she felt mildly guilty about it because she did love her brother. “He’s a pain in that ass, but it’s not totally his fault. He used to be more fun. I told you, we’re cursed.”

Romeo frowned. “Why do you think you’re cursed? You keep saying that.”

“We’re just really terrible at love,” Jules said softly. “We’re talking generations of epically bad luck here.”

“You can’t fall in love?” Romeo asked curiously.

“Oh, we can fall in love. Trust me, when a Conner falls in love it’s usually a terminal condition. Nothing cures it but death. We just can’t hold on to it. For some reason or another it just slips through our fingers and the end result ain’t pretty. My daddy used to talk to a picture of our dead mama every night before he went to bed. It was so sad. Can you imagine what it was like to leave the hospital with two newborn babies and your wife’s death certificate? I dunno how he survived Wyatt and me being toddlers all by his lonesome. My mama didn’t have any family, and he didn’t have

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much either. All he had was my grandfather, but really, that’s like the blind leading the blind.”

“Where’s your grandfather now?”

“He died when we were eight. Heart attack. It makes me think they dropped from broken hearts. Once they get their kids raised and their duty passed on, they just go like it’d been what they wanted all along. I worry ’bout Wyatt. I worry ’bout me too.” Romeo tilted his head, a look of concern passing over his handsome face. “I don’t want you to be lonely.”

“I don’t want that either,” Jules said with a miserable laugh. “Anyway, I’m being a stick-in-the-mud. I got into a fight with Wyatt, and I’m having a hard time snapping out of it. Tonight’s probably not the best night for—”

“What can I do to make you forget that fight?”

Jules leaned in closer to the camera, unable to help the smile tugging at her lips.

“What’re you offering, Mr. Wellings?”

Romeo smirked. “Exactly what you think I’m offering.”

“Are you sure?” Jules laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “I think it’d be weird performing for a camera. I dunno if I can do it.”

“Performing doesn’t really bother me.” He quirked a dark eyebrow in challenge.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Juliet.”

“Tell me,” Jules said instantly because she liked secrets.

“Back when I was young and wild,” Romeo started, looking a little bit hesitant as if he shouldn’t reveal this particular side of himself. “I used to be a stripper.” Jules squealed and cupped her hands to her mouth in shock. She’d been born and bred in a town that loved gossip, and that was the mother lode of all secrets. When she did find her voice, she dropped her hands and smiled at him. “No, you didn’t! ”

Romeo laughed. “I did, yeah,” he said, the tension seeming to seep out of his shoulders. “I was stuck with two kids to feed after my mom died, and I tried working 130



construction and other crappy jobs. It just wasn’t cutting it, not even close, so I started stripping rather than let Tino and Nova starve. Not for nothing, but I made a lot more money doing bachelorette parties than working construction. I did it for about year before other shit came up.”

Jules knew what other shit came up. She had looked at his record at least a thousand times since Las Vegas. Now she wondered what had happened to his brothers once he’d gone to prison. If they’d been depending on him to keep food on the table, what kept them from starving? How did Romeo feel about being forced to leave them all alone? So many questions, but he hadn’t told her that particular secret, and she wasn’t ready to push him when it was obviously a painful memory.