Coming Home (Vista Falls #4) Page 12

  She wanted to tell him the truth—that her father’s job had been his whole life and it had come at the expense of his family. “Maybe I’d like to have a little more balance in my life than my father had. Is that so wrong?”

  “I don’t know what you mean by that. He had a good family, friends, and hobbies outside of work. If that’s not balance, I don’t know what is.”

  He golfed because he claimed that was where deals happened. He was rarely home with his family for a meal or special occasion, and he’d never attended one of her school plays or sporting events, claiming he was too busy. That wasn’t the kind of life Juliette wanted.

  “Things aren’t always as they appear. He was my father. I knew him better than most, and let’s just say he couldn’t be all things to all people. He took his job seriously, but that came at the expense of other things in his life, I can assure you.”

  “Is that why you’re punishing him by going out with this convict? Because you think he did you wrong while you were growing up?”

  “Not everything I do is about my father,” she said, trying to hold her temper. “Sometimes, it’s just about me trying to have a life of my own. I enjoy spending time with Zeke.” She leaned back, folding her arms. “And I’m not going to apologize for that. To anyone.”

  “When did you get so sassy?” he asked, twisting his lips. “You were always a good girl. Your father told us that nothing was more important to you than this job. That’s why we voted for you, because we thought you’d do a good job, put your duty to this community first.”

  Juliette had two years left in her term, and she knew if she continued her relationship with Zeke, there was a good chance she wouldn’t get the nod a second time. “All you have to do is look at my record, Frank. I have done a good job.”

  “Is he really worth losing your job over?” Before she could respond, he asked, “Have you thought about what you’ll do if it comes to that?”

  Juliette knew even if things didn’t work out with Zeke, the people of this town had a long memory. They would see her relationship with Zeke as a lapse in judgment and hold it against her when the time came to cast their votes. She drew a deep breath. “I can assure you I’ve given this a lot of thought. And whatever the outcome, I’m okay with that.”

  “This is your career we’re talking about,” he said in a hushed voice. “Your life, for Christ’s sake. Are you really going to put everything on the line for some punk who doesn’t appreciate you?”

  Raising an eyebrow, Juliette’s voice remained steady as she stood. “You don’t know him like I do. If you did, this wouldn’t even be an issue. He’s a good man, and whether the people of Vista Falls ever come to that realization is of no consequence to me. I’m not going to stop seeing Zeke just because y’all think I should. If that doesn’t sit well… well, that’s just too bad.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Juliette didn’t want to dump her problems on Gabby, especially since she’d been kind enough to invite her to dinner, so she tried to keep the conversation light, but it didn’t take long for her friend to see right through her.

  “Things not going well with Zeke?” Gabby asked, refilling their wine glasses.

  “Zeke’s not the problem,” Juliette said, swirling the contents of her glass before taking a sip. “It’s the close-minded, judgmental busybodies with nothing better to do than stick their big, fat noses into my personal life!”

  Gabby laughed before covering her mouth. “I’m sorry, but you act like it’s a surprise. The old-timers around here have been doing that all our lives. It’s not as though it’s something new.”

  “True, but I was able to brush it off before. This time there’s too much at stake for me to do that. They act as if I don’t handle my personal life the way they think I should, I’ll pay with my job. And that’s not right.” She sighed heavily, knowing politics wasn’t fair… or for the weak.

  “So a lot of people have been giving you a hard time about Zeke?”

  “Not really. Just my father, and tonight before I came here, I ran into Frank Ramsell. He reminded me that I have a responsibility to the taxpayers.” She rolled her eyes. “Like I didn’t know that.”

  “Enough about them,” Gabby said, on the edge of her seat. “Tell me more about you and Zeke. He must be pretty special if you’re willing to put up with all this garbage.”

  “Let’s just say it’s been a long time since I felt this way.” She could feel the blush creep across her cheeks and knew the wine wasn’t to blame.

  Gabby curled and wiggled her fingers in the universal “more” symbol. “Go on. You can’t say something like that and leave me hanging.” She gasped when Juliette stayed silent. “Oh my God! You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but…” There could be no other explanation for her feelings. She missed him like crazy when they were apart, was willing to risk anything to be with him, defended him to anyone, and felt nauseated when she thought about him with another woman.

  “It doesn’t sound crazy at all.” Gabby smiled. “I’ve seen him around town. He’s hot. And from what I hear, rich.”

  Juliette frowned. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “I guess he and his buddy, the one who’s staying with him, have been spending some time at Rusty’s. He’s got all the local girls panting and chasing him like rapid dogs. Probably leaving a trail of drool in their wake too.” Gabby laughed at Juliette’s look of disgust.

  “He didn’t mention that he’d been back to Rusty’s since the night we met.” She couldn’t help but wonder if there were any other secrets he was keeping from her.

  “I’m sure it was no big deal,” Gabby said, shrugging. “Colt mentioned seeing him in there a couple of times. I don’t think they stayed long. Just long enough to have a beer at the bar.”

  “And long enough to get hit on.”

  “But he always left with his friend,” Gabby said, raising her index finger. “Never with a woman. Believe me—that was the first question I asked Colt.”

  Juliette was glad she had friends looking out for her, but she hated using them to keep tabs on her boyfriend. Zeke had never given her reason to distrust him. He’d always been honest with her.

  “I know I have to trust him.” Juliette took a healthy sip of her wine, followed by another. “Hell, he’s back in Malibu right now, probably partying with his friends. Wherever they are, I’m sure there are women everywhere. Women who’d like nothing more than to hook up with him.”

  “Long-distance relationships rarely work,” Gabby said, sounding sympathetic. “You know that. So what’s the plan?”

  “I’m going to Malibu to spend a couple of weeks with him. We agreed we’d try to figure things out then.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Gabby said, reaching for a stem of grapes from the fruit platter she’d set alongside the pastries on the table. “So why don’t you seem happy about it?”

  Juliette bit her lip. “I want to believe there’s a way to make it work. I just don’t see how.”

  “You love him, right?”

  Juliette nodded as she closed her eyes.

  “Then you’ll find a way.”

  Gabby sounded convinced. Unfortunately, Juliette didn’t share her conviction.

  ***

  Zeke was trying to get some work done, but it wasn’t easy to concentrate when images of Juliette filled his computer screen every time he stopped typing long enough to ponder the direction his work should take. He missed her like crazy, and instead of getting easier with every day that passed, being apart from her was getting harder.

  “Hey,” Branson said, scowling at him from the top step of his sunken living room. “Didn’t you hear me call out to you? I knocked. Why didn’t you answer?”

  “Since when do you knock?” Zeke asked, snapping his laptop shut with frustration. He’d hoped to use these weeks to catch up on the work he’d put off during the renovation, but nothing was going as planned.

  �
��Since you started talking shit about boundaries.”

  Zeke rolled his eyes, feeling a twinge of guilt. The night they’d come home, Branson had tried to talk him into going out partying. When he said he didn’t feel up to it, Branson accused him of selling out. Zeke had had to put him in his place by letting him know there were going to be some new boundaries in their relationship. If he didn’t feel like going out, he wasn’t going to, and Branson was going to shut up and accept that.

  “I’m not up to arguing with you tonight, dude,” Zeke said, reaching for the beer he’d abandoned on the coffee table an hour ago. After taking a warm sip, he sighed. “Just say what you came here to say.”

  “What’s wrong?” Branson asked, walking into the room and sitting on the arm of the chair next to Zeke. “You and Jules get into it or what?”

  “No. In fact, I haven’t been able to talk to her as much as I’d like since I left. She’s been pretty busy with work.”

  Branson grinned. “That explains why your panties are in a twist. She’s been blowin’ you off, huh?” He shrugged. “It was bound to happen. You know what they say, my friend. Out of sight, out of mind.”

  Zeke glared at him before setting the bottle on the wood table with a thud. “You enjoy pissing me off, don’t you, asshole?”

  “Hey, I’m just trying to help you see reason, man. You knew she was a workaholic when you met her.” He reached for the remote on the table and turned on the TV, settling on sports highlights while turning the sound down. “Vistas Falls may be some little backward Podunk town to us, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot of shit to deal with as mayor.”

  “Vista Falls is my hometown,” Zeke reminded him, folding his arms as he fixated on the screen. He loved sports, but right now, he couldn’t care less whether his favorite teams won or lost.

  “Yeah, but you hate that place. You’ve told me that a dozen times. That’s why I was so surprised when you told me you were going back there to renovate the old house after your mom died.”

  Zeke still wasn’t sure he’d made sense of it himself. “I needed to make new memories there.” Being in that house had helped him to remember some of the good times they’d shared there as a family. And tearing up his brother’s room had given him a lot satisfaction. Now he could see it as something other than the scene of the crime.

  “Oh yeah, and how’s that working out for you so far?”

  Zeke thought of the nights he’d spent with Juliette in his bed. The sight of her making muffins in his kitchen, showering in his bathroom, sipping wine on his patio. “It’s working.”

  “Because of Juliette?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “But what happens if you break up with her? It’s gonna be filled with a whole new set of bad memories… of her.”

  Zeke knew that no matter what happened, he’d never regret a single second of the time he’d spent with her. “So what? You expect me to stop living, stop taking chances just because I might get burned?”

  “You think you know it all,” Branson said, staring at the screen. “You don’t. Women can turn on you when you least expect it. And turn your whole goddamn world upside down.”

  Zeke suddenly got the uneasy feeling he didn’t know his best friend as well as he thought he did. “What are you talking about?”

  Branson stared at him for a full minute before he said, “My high school girlfriend.” He cleared his throat before looking back at the TV. “I was crazy about her. Not to mention young and naïve. She’d spout all this bullshit about wanting to marry me, and I believed her.”

  Zeke knew his friend wasn’t the type to take anyone at their word, and he’d always wondered who or what had made it so hard for him to trust. He suspected, after all these years, he was finally about to find out. “What happened?”

  “I didn’t know it at the time, but she was pregnant.”

  Zeke let the air seep slowly through his teeth while he waited for the rest of Branson’s story.

  “It was during the summer. She told me she was going to stay with her cousin out of town for a couple of weeks. I went to her house on the night she was set to return, and her old man told me to get the hell off his property and stay away from his daughter. He was half in the bag, screaming about how I’d gotten her knocked up and almost ruined her life… until he took matters into his own hands.”

  “Wow.” You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what that meant, but still Zeke asked, “You had no idea she was pregnant?”

  “No.” He closed his eyes briefly. “Apparently she didn’t tell me ‘cause she wasn’t even sure the baby was mine.”

  “Ouch. She was messin’ around on you?”

  “With one of my best friends. He knew she was pregnant and encouraged her to ‘take care of it.’ The bastard.” The muscle in his jaw jumped as he curled his hand into a fist. “She told him but not me. He got a vote, but I didn’t. Maybe the baby wasn’t mine, but it could have been.”

  “You think you would have married her?” Zeke asked, unable to imagine his friend as a husband and father now, much less all those years ago.

  “I don’t know, but I do know I would have figured out how to be a father to my kid. I wouldn’t have left them high and dry.”

  Zeke believed that. Branson had always been loyal. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this.”

  “I guess it’s because you’ve never seemed this serious about a girl. You’ve never been willing to uproot your entire life to be with someone. I just…” He shrugged. “I want you to be careful. Sometimes people aren’t what they seem. You think you can trust them, and you can’t.”

  “I appreciate the advice, but I honestly believe Jules is the real deal.” He may be naïve, but something told him she’d never lie to him or deceive him. And he’d make damn sure she never had reason to cheat on him.

  “Okay, but how will she feel once she learns your story?”

  Zeke swallowed, averting his eyes to the TV. He tried not to dwell on the conversation he knew they’d have to have. Whenever he allowed himself to think about it, fear tightened his chest, making it tough to breathe.

  “I have to believe she’ll understand why I waited to tell her. We were just getting to know each other. We didn’t know where the relationship was going. Technically, we still don’t.” Branson shook his head, letting Zeke cling to that lie. “Just know you’re making it harder on yourself, waiting to tell her. Every day that passes will feel like more of a betrayal to her.”

  “You don’t know that,” Zeke said through clenched teeth. The last thing he needed was someone feeding his fears. Those thrived just fine without any help.

  “Okay, put yourself in her position. Imagine she told you her life story and it turned out to be a total lie. How would you feel?”

  “I didn’t tell her anything. She knew the story and drew her own conclusions. I didn’t lie to her, not really.” But he’d had the chance to tell her the truth about his brother’s death and hadn’t taken it. He’d regretted that every day since.

  “You think she’ll see it that way?”

  He prayed she would. “How the hell should I know? I don’t have a crystal ball.”

  “I get that you don’t want to lose her, but Jules doesn’t seem like the type who would stay with a guy she can’t trust. Especially in a long-distance relationship.”

  “Are you trying to make me crazy here?” Zeke asked, glaring at him. “Because if you are, it’s working.”

  “You’re making yourself crazy. You don’t think I can see that?” He picked up Zeke’s cell phone from the table. “Don’t wait any longer. Just tell her now. Get it over with already, man.”

  Zeke swiped the phone from his hand. “You don’t get into shit like this over the phone. I’ll tell her when she’s here, when we can talk about it face-to-face.”

  “Don’t you mean when it’s harder for her to get away from you?”

  “Are you implying I’d try to hold a woman against her will?�
�� Zeke asked, staring at him incredulously. “What the hell do you take me for? Some deranged, pathetic—”

  Branson raised his hands. “I’ve seen people do some crazy shit in the name of love. That’s all I’m saying.”

  Zeke thought back to the night she’d suggested they end it and the way he’d changed her mind. Sex wasn’t the answer to every problem, but he knew their physical connection could see them through a lot of challenges. “I’ll deal with it when she gets here.”

  Branson stood. “See that you do, buddy. I’m worried you’re setting yourself up for a fall with this one. I’d hate like hell to see that happen.”

  ***

  Juliette couldn’t sleep, so she’d been up working half the night. It was already late on the west coast, but Juliette needed to hear Zeke’s voice before she could call it a day. She held her breath as the phone rang. Just as she was about to give up, he answered, his voice gruff and laced with sleep.

  “Hey, babe. I’m so sorry I woke you. I’ll let you get back to sleep. I just wanted to tell you…” I love you. She’d planned to wait until she saw him to tell him how she felt, but the time seemed right now.

  “You wanted to tell me what?” he asked before clearing his throat.

  “That I miss you.” She licked her dry lips and pulled her feet up under her. She’d been sitting on the couch and enjoying a glass of wine while poring over work when she’d felt compelled to call him. “And I…” She closed her eyes and forced the words past her lips. “I love you, Zeke.”

  “What did you say?”

  Her voice was shaky when she tried to laugh. “I’m pretty sure you heard me.”

  “Say it again.”

  She smiled. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, baby. So much it scares me sometimes.”

  She finally felt free to breathe, knowing his feelings hadn’t changed even though he’d returned to his “real life.” “Don’t be scared. You’re supposed to be the confident one who believes nothing can shake us, remember? I’m the paranoid one.” She was teasing, but his silence stretched on, making her uncomfortable. “I’m joking, you know. I believe in what we have. I don’t need you to convince me we have a good thing.”