Forbidden Boy (13 page)

“Oh, honey, I’m hoooome!” She could hear Chloe and her father murmuring in another room, but neither of them called back to her. “Hey!” she called out again.

“I’m home!” Again, there was no response. Julianne wandered into the dining room and found Chloe and her dad sitting at opposite ends of their oval dining table, both looking like they’d just been through a natural disaster.

Chloe’s cheeks were tearstained, and Dad’s eyes looked pale and empty. They were both staring in the general direction of a pile of papers that had been tossed into the center of the table. Julianne hadn’t seen either of them look this lost since the doctors had told them that Mom’s cancer was malignant. Her throat started to close up at the memory. She walked around the table and placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder, careful not to muss the lace of her sister’s puff-sleeve shirt. “Hey,” she murmured. “What’s going on?” Chloe just shook her head.

Finally, their father spoke. “Court papers, Jules.”

Julianne felt all the blood drain from her body and she slumped against the arm of Chloe’s chair. “The Moores’

lawyer served us with papers today. They’re suing us over our property rights.”

“They can’t do that!” Julianne burst out. “I’m sure they can’t. They haven’t even been here two months.

Mom bought this house thirty years ago. The mortgage is paid off. They can’t do that. There’s no way.”

“Jules, I’m not sure we can do anything,” Chloe whispered. Julianne felt her heart plummet from her chest.

They couldn’t possibly have to leave the house where their parents were married, and where Julianne and Chloe were born. The house where their mom had died.

“No. Absolutely not,” Julianne said, rising to her feet.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This couldn’t be happening. “No, they can’t do this. This is ridiculous!”

“Girls, I am so sorry,” their father whispered. “I don’t know if there’s a case here or not, but, either way, we don’t have the money to fight it. I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.” Dad buried his head in his hands. Slowly, Chloe pushed her chair back from the table and went over to wrap her arms around her father.

“Daddy, it’ll be okay,” she whispered. “It’ll all be okay.”

Julianne felt like someone had poured gasoline down her throat and dropped in a match. Her entire body was twitching, burning. She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t just stand there and watch her family hurting.

She raced out of the house—not even bothering to shut the door behind her—and ran down to the beach. The wind off the ocean was cold and sharp, and the sand felt unstable under her feet. She ran all the way down the beach, her feet rolling under her with every step, until she reached the edge of the water. She thought, vaguely, that the Moores would probably try to have her arrested if they found her down here. Silently, she dared them to try it.
Just go ahead,
she thought. Julianne stood there until what was left of the day had slipped by and night had begun to roll down onto the beach. She stared out at the ocean, a mass of darkening ripples against the rising moonlight. The reflection of the moon was tossed off the waves, like someone had drizzled the water with liquid gold.

She sat down at the edge of the ocean as the night sky deepened, her feet tucked under her and her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Almost imperceptibly, she began to whisper. She couldn’t even hear the words forming. She felt ridiculous, but Julianne needed her mother right now, and the beach had always been their special place.

“Mom, please. I don’t know what to do. I can’t let them take us away from you. I don’t know what to do.”

Fat tears started to slip down Julianne’s face and she knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t stop calling out to her mother. “Mom, I don’t know how to make it better. I don’t know how to keep us together without you here to show me. What do I do?” Julianne put her head in her hands and just sat there, listening to the tide pumping in and out like a heartbeat. She wasn’t expecting to hear from her mother, but breathing in and out in time to the pulse of the tides, she knew she wasn’t alone.

Julianne snapped awake when the weight of a hand touched her shoulder. She looked up to find the tousled brown hair and concerned face of Remi Moore. Silently, Remi sat down next to Julianne.

Keeping her gaze on the ocean, she told him flatly, “I don’t want to see you right now.”

“So don’t look at me. But you shouldn’t be alone.

It’s almost midnight. You’ve obviously been crying.

You’re a total wreck. Someone should be here with you.” Concern poured out of every syllable Remi spoke.

“I came looking for you as soon as I heard about the papers.”

“I don’t need you trying to take care of me right now.” Julianne’s tone remained completely flat. She was shocked to hear her own voice sound so dull. “You’ve done enough already,” she finished.

“Julianne, I … I don’t even know what to say.”

Remi’s voice was tinged with regret.

All of a sudden, Julianne’s voice came coursing back into her body. She turned to him. “I don’t want to hear how bad you feel, how sorry you are. I don’t want to hear any of it. I am just so tired of this. I’m done. I can’t walk around with all of this negativity and worry all of the time—it’s going to consume me. I can’t care anymore. I just can’t.”

The sand looked blue-gray, spilling out under the night sky. Julianne stared absently out at the ocean.

“I hate this.” Remi’s voice sounded like it was choking in his throat. “I … I hate this.”

“What?” Julianne finally turned her head toward him and stared at his profile.

“I hate this. I hate everything about this situation,”

Remi repeated. He was tracing tiny circles in the sand.

“There is nothing about this that feels okay to me right now. I mean, I love my dad. I know how important these plans are to him. He’s a great architect and I hope I can be as successful as he is some day. But I don’t want it to happen like this. It’s not right. I hate looking out the window of my bedroom and seeing the landscape being chipped away every day. I hate that I can
already
see that, and I haven’t even lived here three months. I hate what it’s doing to you and your family. I hate that every time I see my parents, I think about what they’re doing to you. I know it’s not enough, and I know it probably doesn’t matter, but Julianne, I am so, so sorry.”

They sat there for a while, staring alternately at the ocean and the sand. Julianne didn’t know what to say, but somehow, hearing Remi apologize made everything feel a little bit better. She knew it wasn’t his fault—he was just as powerless as she was. Nonetheless, hearing him say the words meant something. It felt like there was
possibility
buried in there somewhere, like she had been right when she defended him to Chloe. She turned and looked at him, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Julianne, I …” This time Remi was the one to stop himself. Starting again, haltingly, he looked down at the sand. “I wanted to give you something that wouldn’t change. That you could have forever and no one could take away.” She looked up at him, not understanding.

“That’s why—” He cleared his throat and tried again.

“That’s why I talked to the owners about commissioning you for the mural. I wanted you to have something perfect, and I couldn’t think of anything more perfect than your art.” He reached out and brushed a tear off of Julianne’s cheek with the side of his hand. Julianne’s eyes widened and the slightest hint of a smile flashed across her face. He rested his hand on the nape of her neck, buried under her hair, and pulled her close to him for a kiss. It was slower and sadder than their other beach kisses had been, but Julianne still felt the same electricity crackling between them.

“Remi, I …” Julianne put her hand on his chest, pushing him back. “Thank you. That’s the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s amazing. But …” Her voice faltered and threatened to break. “Remi, I can’t. I can’t be with you. Not with the house and with work. I can’t do this to Chloe and my dad. I can’t lie to them. I mean, I won’t. Why does it have to be so complicated?”

Before Julianne could finish her sentence, Remi leaned over and kissed her again. For just a second, his warm lips on hers made the entire world dissolve into nothing more than the lapping of the ocean. And this time, Julianne didn’t push him away.

“Julianne, you have no idea how special you are,”

Remi said, gazing at her adoringly as she settled into his arms. “You’re smart; you’re funny. You’re more talented than you think you are. I’ve never met someone who just …”

“You get me.” They finished the thought together.

“I know. You understand me like no one ever has before …” Julianne trailed off.

“It’s like we’re meant to be together,” Remi offered, his shining eyes fixing her gaze. Julianne leaned in and kissed him again.

Lucy’s advice in the art store came rushing back to Julianne
. If you’re meant for each other, all the pieces will come
together somehow.
And Julianne knew it was true. She was meant for Remi, and he was meant for her. Really, truly, and absolutely.

“Remi,” Jules said with renewed determination.

“Everything that’s going on with the building and the beach—it sucks, but it’s not about us. It may be our families, but it’s not us.” She looked over at him and knew he understood. She leaned her head against his strong shoulder, shut her eyes, and listened to the ocean’s heartbeat mixing with his.

Julianne popped her head around the corner, checking to see if the coast was clear. Turning her head so quickly that she was whipped in the face by her own curls, she decided she was good to go and shimmied up the ladder. Halfway up, she heard a low wolf whistle from below and looked down.

Beau and Randy, two of the guys she worked with, were standing at the base of the ladder, smirking.

“Now, where would you be going in such a hurry, Jules?” Randy teased as Beau sang, “Jules and Remi, sitting in a tree …” under his breath.

“Very mature, you guys.” Julianne grinned. “So glad to have such evolved, professional role models to look up to around here.”

Ever since Mitch had spotted Remi kissing Jules outside the trailer a few days earlier, the news that they were a couple had spread like wildfire. Now it seemed like their relationship suddenly included two dozen construction workers. The “little sister” dynamic Julianne shared with them was now extending to Remi, who couldn’t walk by a member of the crew without a friendly punch to the shoulder or tousle of his hair.

Julianne had never heard someone called “champ” or

“pal” by so many people in such a short span of time.

“Eh, we do what we can.” Randy winked at her playfully before lowering his voice conspiratorially, “Just so you know, Bill’s not in until after lunch today. Just sayin’.”

Beau shook his head at Randy and then turned to Jules. “We should get back to, um, building something.

But you have a
great
morning, kiddo. If you happen to run into our favorite project manager, do give him our best.” He tipped an imaginary hat at Julianne, then strode off with Randy, chuckling.

Julianne laughed as they walked away, then took one last look around and scooted back up the ladder. She pushed the flat wood panel that separated the crawl space from the rest of the house aside and pulled her body up through the trap-door slat, into the makeshift attic. The wood and plaster for the walls had been filled in over the past few weeks, and Jules was glad to use the space to its full advantage. After a moment of panic, where Julianne’s legs seemed to want to stay downstairs, acting completely independent of the rest of her body, she half-tumbled into the space. Wiping away sawdust, she turned to Remi and smiled. “Good morning.”

Remi was sitting in the crawl space on an old tarp with boxes of Pop-Tarts on either side of him. “Good morning.” He yawned, before reaching for the red ther-mos of coffee just beyond his right hand.

“Ooh, Pop-Tarts!” Julianne laughed, looking over at the boxes. “I just love a man who can cook.”

Remi half-blushed as he ripped open a silver foil pack of Frosted Strawberry. “You’re just lucky it’s not some sort of special occasion. I don’t think you could handle my cinnamon toast.”

Julianne imagined Remi in a chef ’s hat and a checkered apron and had to suppress a giggle. “I think you’re right. I’m not sure I’m ready for that. I may need to work up to it.”

Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of work boots clomping underneath them. They both froze, holding their breath out of habit. The footsteps lingered, and Julianne was afraid she would pass out from holding her breath so long, but she was more afraid of making any noise by breathing out. Next to her, Remi had frozen in mid-reach, twisted up like some sort of human pretzel.

“Don’t fall!” Julianne whispered under her breath as the footsteps started to fade away.

Remi, already shaking a little from the effort of squeezing himself into hiding mode, did exactly that.

He stayed sprawled out on his back, silently shaking with laughter for the next couple minutes. Julianne crawled over and placed herself gingerly next to him, careful not to make any noise that could draw unwanted attention to the attic, just in case the guys were wrong about Bill.

She knew that the crew had their backs, but she also didn’t want to test that theory. She rolled over in almost mimelike slow motion to look at Remi. “Next time,” she breathed, “I think we should just go out for bagels.”

✦ ✦ ✦

For the second time in one summer, work was turning into
Ocean’s 14
. Jules and Remi spent all day waiting for stolen moments to see each other. Julianne used her well-honed spy skills to scout out any opportunity to catch Remi alone—even for five minutes. Remi requested lots of “consultations” with Julianne to discuss her progress on painting the ivy in the courtyard. Every time Julianne walked into the trailer, the guys hooted and hollered. Most of the time, though, despite the support of the crew, they avoided even looking at each other.