Here goes nothing.
Juliana cleared her throat. “Any questions?” she said.
“Rowan Beckwith?” Jamie said.
“When did all this happen?” Ele asked.
“How did you keep it quiet?” Robert demanded.
On their own, she could have handled the inquiries, but they all came at once, so Juliana had to hold up her hand. “One at a time, please.”
Robert, Jamie, and Ele exchanged glances.
And Jamie took the lead. “Start from the beginning, Jules.”
Juliana took a deep breath, and just like she’d practiced with Rowan, she began. “After the press conference and Ele’s visit to Rowan, I snuck up to his room.”
Robert’s head snapped to Noah, who merely shrugged.
“I apologized, but Rowan was a bit of a jerk.”
“Shocker,” Ele said.
Juliana knew Ele had firsthand experience with Rowan’s assholishness.
“But there was this desire to finish our kiss properly,” she stated. She and Rowan had not rehearsed this, but Juliana felt they needed a bit of a love story, and she was going to make sure her siblings believed it.
“On whose part?” Jamie clipped.
Ele patted him on the arm. “Okay, big brother, let her finish.”
Jamie tapped Ele’s hand. Juliana watched the exchange, the way they could read each other and experienced that stupid pang of jealousy again. She shook it off.
“My part really. I know you all might not believe me, but there haven’t been a lot of kisses. You know, you can never know who to trust.” This was no exaggeration. This was gospel truth. “And that lip-lock during the press conference was …” Jules’s voice faded as she remembered the moment. What Rowan’s mouth had felt like on hers, the tunnel vision so she could only see and hear him, the sensations in her body. Clearing her throat, she went on. “I didn’t know if it was real or just the exhilaration of the moment. Throwing everyone off, Ele getting away. So, I kissed him again. And it was only about that, the kiss, not anything else. So, even when he stopped me, even when he explained he had a girlfriend, that kiss was amazing. So I left, and that was that. Until the gala.”
The gala was an easy sell. Everyone—literally everyone in the kingdom—had been excited about winning the cup, so at first, the attention was on the footballers. Then, everything had happened with Ele, and no one had even known where Juliana was. She could have run through the halls naked, and no one would have noticed.
“After he dropped Tristan off, I met Rowan at his flat. That was the first time. But whenever he was in town and my schedule permitted, we would get together.”
Noah had been a bit of a snag, but Juliana went out enough without him that Rowan and she were able to come up with seven nights when they could have met up.
“Obviously, there weren’t many opportunities. But enough.” She met their speculative gazes. “There were enough.”
“Enough for what?” Jamie leaned forward, so his elbows were on his knees, and his attention was one hundred percent focused on Juliana.
The litmus test.
“Enough for me to fall in love with him,” she said simply, and then she shrugged, like it was no big deal.
Jamie looked over to Robert, and Juliana watched the two of them as they weighed her words. She could tell they were close. Robert and Ele had always been joined at the hip out of necessity. But somehow, Robert and Jamie had developed their own relationship.
Jamie swung his gaze to Juliana’s. It was like a spotlight in a stadium. She couldn’t look away. It was like he had a superpower, like some type of empath who could sway the mood of the room and read the people in it. And when he focused on her, she knew he saw her, who she was. So, of course, it was Jamie who asked the question everyone needed answered.
“Okay, Jules, but is Rowan in love with you?”
“I think that question should be directed to me, Your Highness.”
Everyone’s head swiveled to Rowan, who stood just inside the room. So engrossed in their little family drama had they been that no one had heard him enter. Juliana looked at Rowan and then back to Jamie.
Jamie stood then, and Ele followed, standing a little behind and to the right of him. Literally his right-hand woman. But Robert moved, too, and flanked Jamie on the left. Juliana remained where she was, on her little chair by the window.
“Mr. Beckwith,” Jamie said with not one ounce of shame or embarrassment. “Are you in love with Jules?”
“Absolutely,” he responded. And he said it with such conviction that – in the moment – even Juliana believed it.