“Today?”
“Yeah. Not more than an hour ago. And it wasn’t some peck on the lips.” She kicked my leg to start the swing again. “I didn’t know Juliana had it in her to be so public. I thought clothes were about to start flying.”
I leapt from the swing and chugged the rest of my beer. We’d made love this morning. She’d made me feel like I was the only one that mattered. Like it was just us again.
More than that, she acted like she cared, mentioned our future. And now she was out kissing some other guy?
“You going to do something about it?”
I whipped around and faced my sister. “Like what? Sounds to me like she’s made her choice.”
This was worse than when she’d left me the first time.
“Now, hold up.” Stone pointed his bottle at Mulaney. “Feels like you’ve skipped over some stuff.”
I almost missed the flare of irritation in her eyes, but I spoke before she could. “I’ve heard enough.”
She released a long breath. “I know y’all think I like being the bearer of bad news, but I swear I don’t.” She hesitated. “Was I supposed to keep this to myself?”
After a long minute, I finally answered, “No.”
“She come here to break things off for good this morning?” Stone asked. “Mama said Jules was supposed to come back in for breakfast but she never did.”
“I didn’t think so.” I plowed a hand through my hair. “Hell, I don’t know. But if it’s like you say, then we’re done.”
“You’re just gonna let that California pretty boy have her?” Mulaney asked as if I’d lost my mind.
“How am I supposed to trust her? First, she runs off to Paris for all practical purposes without telling me. Bails on us living together at the last minute. And now she’s with another guy. One she brought home for Christmas.” I sagged against the porch railing.
“I don’t know how you’re going to avoid her at Smokey’s tonight.” Stone tugged on his ball cap.
I groaned. Christmas Eve had become an event at the only bar in Burdett. All the town folks got together to celebrate, dating back to the Depression. I usually looked forward to this event, but I sure as hell didn’t feel like going this year.
“I’m not going,” I decided on the spot.
“Yes you are. If she’s going to act like that, you can’t let her think it bothers you. You don’t show up, and she’ll know.”
Damn it. My sister had a point, but right now, I wasn’t sure I cared.
Grandmama came out on the porch, taking a quick peek behind her into the house. She produced a small jar of moonshine. “If your mama sees this, I’ll deny everything.”
When she offered me the first taste like she knew I needed it, I readily accepted. After a long swallow of liquid fire, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and passed it to my sister.
After we’d all had a drink, Grandmama screwed the lid back on the jar. “Supper’ll be ready in twenty minutes.” She nudged me in the ribs. “And if you think you ain’t going to Smokey’s to face that girl, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Chapter Thirteen
Juliana
For the thousandth time since we’d gotten to Smokey’s, my eyes darted around the bar and came up short. The place was crowded, and the Jacobs were nowhere to be found.
I tried to reach Mitch earlier, but Stone said he was busy and he’d tell him I called. That was hours ago, and there’d been no reply. I was probably overreacting. A ranch the size of theirs was a big undertaking. I knew very well that nobody sat around much during the waking hours. With all the kids home, there was probably a lot of work to catch up on.
The jukebox switched from an upbeat song to a slow one by Brooks and Dunn. “She Used To Be Mine” had the people on the dance floor switching from the two-step to cheek-to-cheek.
“I can’t come to a shindig like this and not dance.” Alfie grinned at me. “Did I say that right? Shindig?” He enunciated the word, and I smacked him in the arm.
“Show the boy how to do it,” Nana encouraged, nudging me in the back.
I set my beer on the table and stood. “Come on, California.”
Once we found an empty spot on the dance floor, Alfie pulled me into his arms, his expression serious.
“You look happier today,” he observed.
“I am.” My cheeks heated as the memory of this morning flashed through my head.
“I’m glad, Juliana. You deserve it.” He spun me around. “Just make sure he treats you well.”
“We both made mistakes.” Ones I hadn’t had the chance to fix. Yet. But at least Mitch and I were talking again.
“Thank you. For letting me come home with you.”
I tilted my head back to look at him. The sadness in his eyes was almost more than I could bear. I placed a hand on his chest.
“I’m glad you’re not alone.”
His mouth flattened. “I’m used to it.”
“You don’t have to be anymore. My family loves you. They’d be thrilled for you to come around anytime you like.” I leaned in close, and lowered my voice. “As long as you promise not to tell Mama you slept on the air mattress.”
“Deal.” He glanced down between us. “Are you sure I won’t be imposing tomorrow? Christmas is usually family time.”
I shoved at his chest, though not too hard. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that. Besides, if you aren’t there, how am I supposed to give you your present?”
“You got me a gift?” The surprise on his face broke my heart a little more.
“You didn’t get me one?” I asked, pretending to be insulted.
“Of course, I did.” He hugged me close. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”
“It hasn’t even happened yet.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I pushed up on my toes to kiss his cheek at the same time Emily called our names.
Alfie’s head turned.
Our lips touched.
We froze.
A bottle shattered.
Reality set in, and I tore my lips from Alfie’s. Mitch stood at the edge of the dance floor, broken glass at his feet. His muscles were tense, jaw tight, as his eyes flashed daggers at me. He whirled around, shoving Stone out of the way.
Mulaney stared in disbelief. The bar went quiet except for the song that hadn’t yet come to an end.
“Mitch!” I called, chasing after him.
I bobbed through the crowd and ran out the open front door just in time to see his truck back up before he flew out of the parking lot, leaving a cloud of dust.
I threw my hands up. They landed on top of my head as I watched him drive away. We’d been okay. That wasn’t even a kiss. It was an accident.
A hand touched my shoulder.
“Juliana. You okay?”
I shook my head at the compassion in Alfie’s tone. “I don’t think so,” I whispered.
Mitch hadn’t looked that hurt the day I’d told him about Paris. As sweet as he was, he would only tolerate so much. Me kissing another guy was over the line. Except I hadn’t, not intentionally anyway. But that didn’t matter. As long as Mitch believed he saw what he saw, he’d never hear me out.
I couldn’t blame him. If the roles had been reversed, I wouldn’t have either.
“Why aren’t you going after him?”
I turned around to find Mulaney underneath the one working light on the building, hands on her hips.
“I don’t know where he went.”
“This town ain’t that big,” she pointed out.
“He won’t listen to me when he’s this upset.” I’d never seen him this mad, so I didn’t know that for sure, but during our last argument, there’d been no reasoning with him.
She dropped her hands by her sides and took a step toward me. “I swear I was only trying to help,” she muttered, looking down at the gravel parking lot. An innocent weed that had somehow managed to grow through the rocks took the brunt of her frustration.<
br />
“What did you do?”
When her eyes met mine again, they were determined. “Tomorrow. One o’clock. The tree behind my house. You know the one.”
“Tomorrow is Christmas,” I protested.
She walked back toward the bar. “Be there,” she called over her shoulder as Stone and Mr. Jacobs came out of the bar. Mulaney smacked her hands on both of their shoulders. “Hope y’all don’t mind a long walk, ‘cause our ride just took off.”
Chapter Fourteen
Mitch
“Mulaney, it’s colder than all hell out here. Why couldn’t you drag Stone to mend fences?”
She’d burst into my room going on about some emergency with a broken fence that had to be fixed immediately. I wasn’t into it. After last night, I didn’t care much about anything.
“Stone can’t fix this one.”
Somehow I’d found myself going to help her. The truck jerked to a stop. I glanced out the window and ground my teeth at how close we were to the spot where Juliana and I had had our first kiss. No broken fence was in sight because there was no fence right here.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but take me back to the house.”
“Can’t do that.” She opened the door and grabbed something from the side pocket. “Get out of the truck, Mitch.”
I sat there for a second. She slammed the door and took off in a direction I didn’t want to go. It hurt too much. Yesterday at this time, I’d believed Juliana and I could get through anything. Now, I realized I’d been deluding myself.
Mulaney didn’t turn around as she went deeper into the scattered treeline. She’d almost disappeared when I shoved out of the truck and hurried after her. When I’d almost caught her, I wished I’d stayed behind.
Juliana stood not too far from our tree, arms wrapped around herself with her back to the trunk as if she couldn’t bear to look at it.
“Mulaney,” I warned under my breath.
She yanked on my arm and dragged me forward until I was close enough to catch a lungful of Juliana’s sweet scent. My anger flared, licking through me at the thought of her lips on someone else’s.
“Before either of y’all start, hear me out.” My sister didn’t let go of me, not that her grasp was enough to hold me if I wanted to leave. “I did some meddling—well, you two were just too stubborn for your own good. I only wanted to give you a little nudge to go after Jules. She makes you happy, and you haven’t been for months without her.”
“What kind of ‘little nudge’?”
“She wasn’t kissing the kid in the parking lot yesterday at the market,” Mulaney admitted in a rush.
“You told him I was kissing Alfie?” Juliana gaped at my sister like she’d heard her wrong. And then those livid eyes landed on me. They softened. “And then last night happened.” Her shoulders dropped, along with her chin.
“I didn’t know y’all had worked everything out yesterday morning.”
“How do you know that now?” I hadn’t said a word to any of my family about the temporary reconciliation.
“I found some panties in the barn I’m pretty sure don’t belong to me or Mama.”
Juliana blushed furiously. I just shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter now. I saw what I saw at Smokey’s.” I caught her gaze. “Thinking about you with someone else was one thing. Seeing it?” I couldn’t finish the thought. It hurt too much.
“It wasn’t what you think,” she defended.
I balled my fists at my sides. “No? You telling me you didn’t have your lips on his?”
Mulaney stepped between us and put a hand on my chest. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” Coming from my sister, those words were the equivalent of seeing a polar bear in Texas. “I did it because of the fire truck.”
“Come again?” What the hell did that mean? For the first time I could recall, she wasn’t flat out saying what was on her mind.
“Never mind.” She waved me off. “I only wanted to help.”
“Well, you didn’t.”
Mulaney held up a photo of me and Jules when we couldn’t have been more than eight or nine. Juliana had a grin on her face as I offered her my piece of cake.
“Remember this?” Mulaney stepped back and showed the picture to Juliana. Confusion clouded her face before nostalgia took over.
“I’ve never seen this,” I said.
“I was going through some stuff and found it.” She turned her attention to Juliana. “Stone didn’t want to invite girls to his birthday party. Not even me. He pitched a temper tantrum when Mama laid down the law. It was Mitch who convinced him that there was one girl who would be cool to have there. Any idea who that was?”
Juliana looked at Mitch with glassy eyes. “I’d dropped my cake, and there wasn’t any left,” she whispered.
“I couldn’t stand to see you upset.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.
Mulaney pointed at the picture. “You see that look right there? He’s loved you for as long as I can remember.”
A choked noise escaped Juliana. I stared at the old photo. My sister was right. My instinct had been to do whatever it took to make Juliana happy, even at that young age.
Mulaney held up another photo, this one a couple of years later at a summer barbecue in town. This time I was staring after Jules, who was laughing at something Emily had no doubt said. I looked like a love-struck fool.
“Just friends at this point, right?”
I was anything Jules wanted me to be back then. She’d been my sun for as long as I could remember. Seeing it in black and white drove the point home.
“I never knew.” She touched her throat. “I had such a crush on you, but I thought you didn’t see me as more than a friend.”
“Honey, he’s been stealing looks like that at you for forever.” My sister produced another picture.
This one was at a bonfire out in the woods after a football game. I’d finally gotten the courage to ask her out. I sat on the back of the tailgate. She stood between my legs, her back to my front. My arms were wrapped around her middle as she leaned her head against my shoulder.
“That was the first time you asked me out,” Jules said.
“Not much of a first date,” I muttered.
“It was perfect.” She sank her teeth into her lower lip.
My anger surged. She’d taken all this away from us. Given it up for Paris and another guy.
“Enough of the walk down memory lane,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I’m not finished.”
A picture of us just a few months ago at a cookout we’d had here at the ranch was like an arrow to the heart. I’d gotten my great-grandmother’s ring from Grandmama that day. I’d wanted to propose as soon as I’d gotten the ring, but I’d found it was no small thing to build up my courage.
As she’d smeared pie on my cheek, all I’d been thinking was, Will you marry me? Knowing that was part of the reason for my smile in the photo nearly sent me to my knees. And Jules? Over the years she’d become more and more beautiful. She could be as playful as she was intense. Smiles like the ones in these pictures were what I lived for.
Last night, I’d sworn I wouldn’t love her anymore. But it was I lie. I couldn’t stop it, no matter how I wanted to. What if I’d asked her to marry me that day? Where would we be right now?
“It’s constant,” Mulaney said. “All these years, the way you feel about each other steadily grows. If you throw this away,” she tapped the picture, “you’re both fools.”
“I love you.” Juliana’s voice was quiet, yet strong. “I always have, and I’ll never be able to turn it off.”
“Then why are you with him?”
Mulaney slinked back, and I edged closer to Juliana.
“I’m not. We’re friends. Only friends. Ever.”
I fought the urge to smash something, namely my fist into his face as I imagined them gallivanting all over the place I’d wanted her to see first with me.
She placed a hand on m
y arm. Her touch burned and soothed. “He doesn’t have any family. They closed the dorms for the holiday, and nobody should be alone on Christmas.”
I let out a long sigh. Her compassion was one of the things I admired most about her. She was a friend to anyone who needed it. As much as I hated her newest one, I wouldn’t change that about her.
“I never kissed him. Never dated him. He’s rooting for us. Got me a ticket to the Sugar Bowl to see you play.” Her face was earnest as she spoke. “And I’m sorry for the way I told you about the trip.”
“You mean the way you didn’t tell me?”
She nodded. “It was wrong. And if you’d done that to me, I wouldn’t have handled it nearly as well as you did.”
“You didn’t trust me to support whatever you want to do. I’m always behind you.”
“I know.” She touched my cheek. “Yesterday morning was the first time I’ve felt whole in months. I’ve missed you like crazy.”
I leaned into her palm. Could I let this go? Get past the knot of hurt tangled up inside of me?
I gripped her hips. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Is this still what you want?” I pointed back and forth to her and then myself.
She clutched the front of my shirt. “Yes.”
I narrowed my gaze. “No one else, Jules.”
“There couldn’t be.”
“Right here on this spot, you showed me what the future could be, showed me what I’d known I wanted all along,” I lowered my head and brushed my lips against hers. She shivered and pulled me closer.
I dropped to one knee. “My sister just showed you I’ve loved you my whole life. And I always will, even in the next one.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“I don’t even have the ring with me, but I can’t wait any longer.” I took her hands in mine. “Will you marry me?”
She threw her arms around my neck and sank to the ground in front of me, pure joy radiating from her. “Yes. A million times yes.”
Epilogue
Righting Our Wrongs (Paths To Love) Page 6