“What?” I blinked and stared at her. “Julie, what are you talking about? What happened?”
“What happened?” Julie scoffed. “As if you don’t know.”
“I thought everything was fine,” I said quickly. “Last time I was here, you kissed me and said we could make this work. You said we wouldn’t let Josh come between us and now—”
“That was before,” Julie interrupted. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from me.
I still didn’t know what was going on. I watched Julie as she stared into her kitchen, looking anywhere but at me. With a sigh, I set down the gift I’d brought and walked slowly over to her. I was scared to touch her, but I knew I had to try. I couldn’t just leave without understanding what had upset her so much.
Gently, I ran my fingers down her arms.
“Julie…”
She jerked away from me, jumping forward and spinning around to glare at me. I immediately held up my hands and took a step backward
. Touching her was obviously a mistake. Her pale blue eyes, usually so soft and kind, flashed with rage.
“Don’t touch me,” she growled.
“Okay,” I said, losing my patience now. “What the hell happened?”
“I had dinner with Joshua,” Julie said.
When the words left her mouth, my heart stopped. My worst fears had been realized. She went to dinner with Josh. She still cared about him. She still loved him. They were going to get back together.
“You had dinner with him?” I asked. “Why?”
“He texted me,” Julie said simply. “Said he wanted to meet up and talk.”
“And you actually went?” I asked in disbelief. “After everything he put you through?”
Julie shrugged. “I figured it couldn’t hurt, especially if you and I were going to try and make things work.”
“What does that have to do with Josh?” I snapped.
“He’s your brother,” Julie said. “In my head, I thought he and I should smooth things over if we were both going to be in your life.”
“And?” I asked. “Did you smooth things over?”
“Well, it was a real eye-opener, that’s for sure,” Julie said.
I tried to keep my anger in check. I couldn’t believe Julie would have dinner with Josh without telling me, that she would sneak around behind my back with my brother. Still, that didn’t explain why she was acting so cold. Unless she and Josh…
“Are you getting back together with him?” I asked bluntly. “Is that what this is about?”
“Are you kidding?” Julie’s eyes flashed. “How the hell could you even ask me something like that?”
“Well, I don’t know!” I threw my hands up in frustration. “I came over tonight to see you, and you’re practically throwing me out the door. Julie, what’s wrong? What happened at that dinner?”
“Josh and I talked,” Julie said. Her voice was low. Eerily calm. “He told me he still loves me and that he wants us to try again.”
Again, my stomach tightened with rage. I knew Josh would pull something like this. I’d never felt so ready to hit someone in my life. If it weren’t for Julie, I would have jumped in my car and driven to Dallas just to take a swing at my brother.
“Is that what you want?” I asked softly, terrified to hear her answer.
“No,” Julie said. “Just like I told him, that’s not how it works.”
“Good,” I said firmly. “He doesn’t deserve you.”