Chasing Julia (Rhode Island Romance #2)

by Sophia Renny

  “East Providence, Troop number four seven three.”

  He was still laughing when he walked into Pauline’s Cookie Bar next door a minute later.

  His sister glanced up from the cash register. “Tony! What brings you this way?”

  “Busy?”

  “We were this morning. Enjoying some quiet before the afterschool rush.”

  He braced his elbows on the glass display. “Willa around?”

  “She left about ten minutes ago.” Sylvie closed the register drawer and gave him a speculative look. “So, what are you doing here? This is out of the way for you.”

  He gave her a sly grin. “Cookies?”

  She rolled her eyes. “What kind do you want?”

  His eyes gleaned over the trays of cookies beneath the glass. “How about the macaroons.”

  He helped himself to a cup of coffee from the self-serve area along the side wall and brought it to the bar counter along the front window. Joe had built that as well as the cabinet that was anchored to the wall behind the food display. The cabinet, with its pretty stained glass center door, had once been part of the wall unit from Willa’s old kitchen. Now its open shelves held framed photos of Willa’s Aunt Pauline, the woman who’d inspired Willa’s love of baking.

  Tony pulled out the stool next to him for Sylvie as she approached with a plate of cookies. “How’s business?” he asked.

  “Good. It was a little slow over the summer, but things are really starting to pick up now that the college students are back.”

  They dug into the cookies and sipped coffee and watched passersby on the busy sidewalk. “This is strange,” Tony said after a while. “We live in the same house. But I hardly ever see you anymore.”

  Sylvie looked remorseful. “I know. Sorry. I’ve been busy here. And I like hanging out with my friends. You remember Katie, right? I stay at her place sometimes. She’d got a really cool apartment near Hope Street.”

  “That’s cool. I’m glad you’re having fun.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Any boyfriends I need to beat up?”

  She blushed. “Nothing serious.”

  He gave her a speaking glance. “You’re being careful?”

  She smacked his arm. “Yes, dad. Geez, between you and Joe…”

  He grinned. “You’ll always be our baby sister, even when we’re all hobbling around with canes.”

  Her face softened. “I know.”

  When the cookies were consumed, he swiveled his chair around to face her directly. He cleared his throat. “There’s something I want to run by you.”

  “Okay.”

  “It’s about the house.”

  His sister frowned. “What about it?”

  He cleared his throat again. He hadn’t expected the words to be so difficult to say; he’d been reciting them in his head for weeks. “Joe’s moved out. You’re not there much. It’s feeling pretty empty.” He rubbed his jaw, hesitated a moment before barreling on. “I think it’s time to sell the place. I haven’t talked with Joe about this yet. I wanted to feel you out first.”

  She gulped. “Sell? You mean, move away from there…forever?”

  He nodded. “You’re going to leave permanently someday anyway. Get married.”

  “That’s a long ways down the road.”

  “What if Joe and I helped you get set up in an apartment closer to here? You could walk to work and downtown. Wouldn’t you like that?”

  Her mouth turned down. “But that’s the house we grew up in. The memories…”

  He swallowed. “They’re weighing me down, Syl.”

  She rested her hand on his arm. “I didn’t know. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s not like I’m depressed. It’s just…lonely there for me. The memories, even the good ones… I think they’re just holding me back.”

  “You’ve never said…”

  He shrugged, striving for nonchalance. “Yeah, well there it is. I’m a grown man. It’s time to move out of the parents’ house and get my own place. I’ve been looking at a couple houses in the Cumberland Hill area. It’ll be an easy commute.”

  Sylvie considered his words. “Wow. This is a shock. I mean, I’m happy for you, I guess. I kind of get what you’re feeling.” She squeezed his arm. “Let’s talk to Joe. But what do you think about renting the place instead? We could fix it up into three separate units, split the income between the three of us. The housing market here is still pretty bad. Besides, you could use the extra income to help pay the mortgage on your new house.”

  It felt like a giant weight was lifting from Tony’s shoulders. He flashed a teasing grin at his little sister. “Huh. Guess you learned something in college after all.”

  She punched his shoulder.

  He ruffled her hair, a gesture that had annoyed her when she was a kid. She gave him a baleful look, but he could see that she was secretly pleased. “Are you sure, Syl?” he asked softly. “You’ll be okay with leaving that house?”

  She nodded. “My memories aren’t the same as yours and Joe’s. I was only seven when Mom and Dad died. I don’t remember them in the same way you do. I missed them. But I think it was a little easier for me to adjust. You and Joe and Julia made sure I never felt abandoned.”

  “You were easy to love.” His voice was gruff.

  “Were?”

  He ruffled her hair again.

  She scooted her stool away. “Knock it off.” Then her expression turned coy. “Speaking of Julia…”

  Tony rose to his feet in preparation to leave. “Not you, too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He gave her a warning look. “Sylvie…”

  Her cheeks flushed. “It was Audrey’s idea.”

  “Yeah, and I just chewed her out. You all need to back off. Things need to happen naturally.”

  “I just want you to be happy.”

  Tony pulled her into his arms for a bear hug. “I am happy. I’ve got a sweet little sister and a good brother.”

  “I want Julia back in our family again.” Her words were muffled against his shoulder.

  “So do I.” He released her and stood back. His voice was firm and confident as he met his sister’s worried gaze. “But it’s going to be a different family. Better than it’s ever been before.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Han, things are getting weird. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Talk to me, sister.”

  “Maybe it’s all in my mind. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, you know? I mean, I’ve always liked him. But now I think I like him.”

  “Him? Who him?”

  Julia wondered if Hannah could hear her gulp over the phone. “Tony.”

  “Tony?! Joe’s brother, Tony?”

  “Yes.”

  “Holy crap.”

  “I know, right?”

  “That man is hot.”

  “It’s your fault. You called him eye candy, and I’ve been looking at him differently ever since.”

  Hannah laughed. “So? What’s the harm in that? Is that all it is? Looking?”

  “It’s the way I feel when I’m with him. Something has changed. I don’t know if it’s just me feeling lonely and insecure. I’m in a very vulnerable place right now.”

  “True. But you need to dip your toes back in the water at some point, girlfriend. Maybe this is just a signal that you’re starting to open up again, ready to get back in the dating pool.”

  Julia cringed at the thought of doing the dating scene again. That was still a ways down the road in her recovery plan. She needed to focus on herself for now; she didn’t have the desire or energy that was required in building a new romantic relationship. “I don’t want to get out there yet. I like hanging out with Tony. But, before, it was just as friends. Now—all this past week—he’s all I think about. And in a more than friends way. It’s consuming me.”

  “Better than thinking about Joe.”

  “True.”

  “So, define what you mean by things getting we
ird.”

  “I catch him looking at me in a different way, in a more…physical way. And he touches me…a lot.”

  “Touches you how?”

  Julia confessed the details of the previous Saturday’s outing with Tony. “I’ve seen him twice since then,” she added. “He’s helping me with this event I’m doing for Audrey King. We went to her factory on Wednesday to check out the space. And then last night I went to his office to look at some designs he put together for these fabric backdrops I’m planning on doing. It’s going to be this ocean theme with lots of swirly fabric in shades of blue to look like waves.”

  “Sounds cool. So…back to the touching…”

  Julia felt a shiver of sensual awareness dart up her spine as she recalled Tony’s touches. “He likes to put his hand on my back.”

  “Down low? Just above your butt? God, I love it when Sam touches me there. It’s so possessive.”

  “And he’ll tuck my hair behind my ear, or brush his fingers across my cheek. Or he’ll just stand real close so his arm rubs against mine. When he hugged me goodbye last night, he put his hand on the nape of my neck and brushed his thumb there, real slow.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I hugged him back and said goodbye.”

  “He hasn’t tried to kiss you?”

  “I think he wanted to last Saturday night when he was leaving. But he just kissed my forehead.”

  “Did you want him to kiss you?” Hannah pried.

  Even though her friend couldn’t see her, Julia nodded her head. “Yes. I think I did.” She released a deep breath. “And that’s just wrong. He’s my ex-fiancé’s brother! He’s almost six years younger than me. That would make me a cougar. I shouldn’t be thinking about him this way. Am I misreading things? Is he just being his usual charming self?”

  “Okay. First, a six year age difference does not make you a cougar. Second, from everything you’ve told me, I think the signals are pretty clear that he wants you.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  “How does that make you feel?”

  “Flattered? Nervous? Embarrassed? Weird? Don’t you think it’s weird? I’ve had sex with his brother!”

  Hannah’s voice was patient. “It’s only weird if you let it be. You wouldn’t be the first woman who’s slept with her ex’s brother.”

  “And what if that does happen? What if I sleep with him and then we both realize it was a mistake? Then I’ll have lost them both. There’s no way I could show my face around that family again if that happened. And that would be heartbreaking. They are my family.”

  “I guess that’s a risk you’re going to have to take.” Hannah’s voice turned strident. “From everything you’ve shared, it sounds like Tony really cares for you. He’s known you all his life, right? You’ve been friends for a long time. Is there anything about him that you don’t like? That turns you off?”

  Julia couldn’t think of anything. Except… “He’s always been a flirt. He’s not a player, but he’s never had a girlfriend for longer than a few months—that I know about anyway. What if I end up being just another notch on his bedpost?”

  Hannah was quiet for a few moments. Then she asked, as if struck with a sudden notion, “Do you think that the reason none of his relationships have lasted is because he’s been waiting for you all these years?”

  Julia’s heart gave an odd little flutter. “If that were true, don’t you think he would’ve said something before Joe and I got engaged? No. Wait. He wouldn’t have. He said something last Saturday about only wanting to make me happy. I’d told him once that marrying Joe would make me the happiest woman in the world.” Julia frowned. Her tone turned bitter. “Just what I need, another noble Rossetti brother hiding his true feelings for the sake of keeping me happy.”

  “It’s kind of flattering that they both think so highly of you, don’t you think?”

  “I’m not a princess. I don’t want to be put on some pedestal. I just want honesty.”

  “Do you think you’d have broken up with Joe if Tony had told you how he felt?”

  “No. I don’t think so… I don’t know. I was so immersed in Joe, so focused on marrying him.” She sighed. “In hindsight, I can see that my head was in the clouds. I was living someone else’s dream more than my own.”

  “You mean your mother.”

  “Yes.”

  Hannah’s voice was gentle, coaxing. “Maybe it’s time you had a chat with her. I think you’ve been angry with her for a while, and you just didn’t know it. You need to get that out of your system.”

  In the end, Julia couldn’t do it. As she shared a pot of tea with her mother in the Kelly’s cozy kitchen the following morning, she found herself reflecting on her growing up years and what truly wonderful parents she had.

  They’d only wanted the best for her. Sure, she’d been a little spoiled. Her mother hadn’t been able to have any more children after Julia, and she’d lavished all her motherly love and attention on her daughter. But her parents had also taught her to be industrious and self-sufficient, instilling in her the desire to make a success of her life.

  She supposed it was normal for a mother to hope and dream that her daughter would find her own prince charming and happily ever after one day. Julia envisioned her mother and her mother’s best friend, Sarah Rossetti, sitting at this same table years ago, drinking tea and sharing their dreams for their children. They’d both been pregnant at the same time. How sweet would it be if one of them had a boy, and the other had a girl, and that boy and girl fell in love and got married someday.

  Had her mother’s dreams gotten out of hand? Yes. But that didn’t mean that Julia had been obligated to go along with them. Yes, her mother and Joe’s mother had planted the seed. But Julia had allowed it to grow. Especially as she grew older. She could’ve said no. She could’ve done more to make her own fleeting dreams a reality. She could’ve ventured beyond her neighborhood, beyond her comfort zone.

  Things might have turned out differently between her and Joe if his parents hadn’t died. She’d been placed—albeit, willingly—in the role of pretend wife and helpmate to a young man who’d been obligated to take on the role of head of household and family provider far too soon. Although she knew that Joe loved her, she wondered if that love might have stayed platonic, if maybe they had initially fallen into the physical part of their relationship simply because it had been a kind of healing for them both, not to mention convenient.

  He’d been her first. In hindsight, that had been part of the whole mess, too. She’d always thought that the man she gave her virginity to would be the man she married—a notion in this day and age which she acknowledged most people considered old-fashioned.

  When she and Joe had split up for three years, she’d dated other men. She’d had a long-term relationship with one of them. She’d never shared the details with Joe. She’d just assumed he would realize that the relationship had included sex, just as she’d assumed that she wasn’t the only woman Joe had ever been with. In the end, that guy had proven to be too immature and lazy, riding on the coattails of his father’s success. Maybe if she’d never known Joe she wouldn’t have harped on those faults as much; when it came to hard work and integrity, both Joe and Tony set the bar.

  Funny, she’d almost overlooked Tony in that regard these past few years. Peeling back the layers of his boyish charm and easy manner revealed a man who worked just as hard as his brother, a man who’d stepped up to the plate to help keep the family business going and who’d had the foresight to move it a step further. It had been Tony’s idea to send in audition tapes to the HOME network for the television series, Tony’s ambition that had finally pulled the company out of the red once and for all.

  He was a good man.

  She felt something change inside of her, as if a slate covered with the bitter words of all her pent-up feelings about her mother and about Joe had suddenly been washed clean. She smiled across the table at her mother, who’d been watching Julia
with a searching expression. “How’s retirement so far?” Julia asked.

  Her mother made a face. “Your father is driving me crazy.”

  Julia laughed. “Yeah? How?”

  “He got too used to being the boss at the office. Now he wants to boss me around the house. I can’t do one simple thing around here that he doesn’t have his nose in it.”

  There was no venom behind the words. Her mother’s eyes were twinkling, in fact; she loved her husband to pieces.

  “Where is he now?” Julia asked.

  “Next door helping Tony move some boxes and things down from the attic.” Her mother hesitated. “They’re turning the house into apartments, did you know?”

  Julia felt her heart clench. “No. When?”

  “Soon. Tony’s been packing boxes for the last week. Sylvie was over yesterday going through her things. She said Joe and Tony are going to help her get set up with her own apartment.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “I was shocked at first,” her mother confided. “That house carries a lot of memories. It’ll be sad to see the Rossetti’s go.”

  “I knew Joe had moved out. But where is Tony planning to go?” Julia hoped her mother didn’t hear the fear in her voice. Where was he going? Would he be moving far away? That didn’t make sense, not with the business and the television series…

  “He’s been looking at houses.” Her mother grimaced. “He promised he’d find some good tenants. I hope so. Last thing I want is a bunch of college kids next door, partying to all hours.”

  “I’m sure he will,” Julia replied vaguely.

  “You haven’t been here since…” Her mother shrugged. “Maybe you should go over there now, take one final look at the place. That might help with…things.”

  “Closure, you mean?”

  “That’s the word I was looking for. God, this menopause is making my brain foggy.”

  Julia stretched her hand across the table to touch her mother’s. “I’m okay now, Mom. Really. I can finally talk about Joe without feeling angry or sad. I think I’m finally over that whole mess.”

  Her mother turned her hand over to grip Julia’s tightly. “Are you sure, honey? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better? I just want you to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”