Star-Crossed(91)

“Stay the fuck away from my sister!” Wyatt growled without hesitating. “And get the hell out of my town while you’re at it!”

Jules walked to her desk. She opened a drawer and threw her purse in it. Then sat numbly, staring at her desk calendar, the numbers and endless things to do becoming a watery blur. Wyatt shut the door once the sound of the Ferrari starting up announced Romeo’s departure.



234



“He calls you Juliet? Are you shitting me, Jules?” Wyatt barked. “I noticed you ain’t been texting half as much since he got here. Is Wellings Las Vegas?” Jules’s face scrunched up as she remembered Las Vegas. Then she covered her face with her hands once more and let out a sob she couldn’t hold back.

Wyatt groaned, obviously realizing he’d said the wrong thing. “This ain’t happening.”

“Just shut your trap, Wyatt,” Clay said softly. “You dunno all of what went on.

Ain’t fair to just jump to conclusions.”

“Darlin’,” Melody whispered, coming up behind Jules and rubbing her back. “Are you okay?”

Jules shook her head and squeaked, “No.”

Melody hugged her, smelling like cookies and sweetness, and for once Jules reached out for the female companionship when she’d never known what to do with it before now.

“Why don’t y’all go get something to eat,” Melody suggested gently. “Give her some space.”

“I’m definitely going,” Chuito said, his voice already near the door. “I’ll drive.” Alaine jumped up from her spot on the floor sorting files. “I’ll ride with you.”

“No, I’m driving,” Wyatt announced, sounding like he needed to take his stress out on the road.

“I think we’d rather live instead,” Clay said drily over the click of the office door being opened.

The silence of the room was deafening once they left, leaving Jules to try and sort out what had just happened to her fairy-tale romance. She wasn’t totally certain, but it felt like Romeo had asked her to marry her and somehow it led to them breaking up.





235

Jules decided she didn’t want to try and sort that out. She certainly didn’t want to get to the part where Romeo threw the fight with Clay. Instead she leaned her forehead against Melody’s shoulder and cried her heart out.



* * * *





Wyatt and Jules ordered pizza from the new place that delivered and then camped out in the living room watching old Bruce Lee movies. The food was good. The entertainment was top-notch, but the company was depressing to say the least. This was ranking up there with their most miserable birthday. Considering their mother had died on this date, that was a real special trick on Jules’s part.

Wyatt stared at the back of her head as she sat cross-legged in front of the coffee table, picking at a piece of pizza she still hadn’t eaten. “Jules—”

“No.” She tore off a piece of her crust and dropped it in a little pile of butchered pizza on the side of her plate. “I don’t wanna talk ’bout it.”

“You think I ain’t been there?” Wyatt asked her darkly. He really hated to go there with his sister, but something about the slump of her shoulders and the dull sound in her voice had him reaching out to her. “Like I dunno what it feels like?”

“No offense, Wyatt”—Jules dropped another chunk of pizza crust onto the growing mountain—“but that ain’t making me feel a whole lot better. The last thing in the world I wanted was to emulate your love life.”

“You knew Wellings a few months.” Wyatt couldn’t keep the defensiveness out of his voice. “I loved Tabitha my whole life. Relax, Jules, you ain’t there yet. You got to bleed a lot more than this to be in a league with me.”

“I loved him,” she whispered vehemently. “I still love him. Just ’cause he’s made some bad choices ain’t changing how I feel…no matter how much I want it to.” Wyatt rolled his eyes and bit his tongue rather than say what he really felt. Instead he settled on, “I think you just love the idea of him.” Jules turned around and glared at him. “What are you implying?” 236



“Romeo and Juliet.” Wyatt pulled a face and considered it a minor miracle he didn’t physically gag. “That’s a fantasy—that ain’t real. This is some sort of midlife crisis bullshit. It’s gonna pass, Ju Ju Bean.”

“Midlife crisis,” Jules repeated, her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “Are you insinuating I’m middle-aged?”

Wyatt held up his hands, giving her a look. “You ain’t twenty anymore.”