“Yup?” Julianne squeaked.
“How would you feel about having a little soiree next week?” Chloe suggested conspiratorially.
“While Dad is in New York?” Jules was hesitant—she already had way too many secrets in her life right now.
“You, my dear, are a mind reader. You know, like a bringing-down-the-house party?” Chloe pressed on, full steam ahead.
“A what?” Julianne had no idea what Chloe meant.
“A bringing-down-the-house party. You know, if the Moores are going to level our house anyway, then we ought to throw it quite the goodbye shindig.” Julianne felt her heart thud to her feet. Her pulse was racing.
“But wouldn’t Dad be pretty pissed off if we get to keep the house after all and there’s nothing left but a post-party pile of stones and beams?” Julianne focused on the mounds of sand she was still transferring from leg to leg.
“Fair enough,” Chloe answered thoughtfully. “I was halfway joking, anyway.”
Julianne rested her head against her sister’s shoulder.
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Her heart was still racing with the stress of being dishonest. “I know,” she said softly.
“So, tell me more about the Fishtail,” Chloe chirped.
“Who was there, who was single?”
“Um, Hunter and Mitch,” Julianne began.
“Yeah, but you run with them. They don’t count.
They’re too sibling-y to make out with. Who else?” Chloe pressed on.
“Oh, I don’t know. Some surfers. Some guys playing pool—Lucy was really into them.” Julianne wished this conversation would just stop, somehow.
“Hmm. Definite potential,” Chloe declared. “Anyone really catch your eye, though? Anyone special?” This was becoming torturous. “No one new.” Julianne answered, choosing her words deliberately so that she wasn’t lying, exactly. She thought she and Chloe had covered all of this already.
“Well, just meeting new guys is half the battle,” Chloe said supportively. “I know it was tough for you to get over McMansion Jr., but I’m really glad you did. It’s good to see you going out and meeting new guys.” Julianne was silent.
“Jules, you know I’m proud of you, right?” Chloe’s words were like salt in a huge cut on her sister’s heart.
“That painting was really amazing, you know,” Chloe said after a moment of silence.
Julianne smiled at her sister. “Thanks.” 182
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“Have you given any thought to applying to schools yet?” Jules could tell that her sister, always the organizer and the achiever, was gearing up for a big Jules-goes-to-college push.
“Sure,” Julianne said. “I mean, you know, some.
Nothing really serious. I’ve been sort of . . . occupied with other things this summer.”
“No, totally. I understand that.” Chloe nodded. “But you should really check out some art schools. You’re incredible—you’ll be beating off recruiters with a stick.”
“Oh yeah. That’s the best way to get a full ride to college, ya know,” Julianne teased. “I’ll definitely bring a stick along to all my campus interviews.” Chloe giggled. “I think that’s what they mean by taking the college application process into your own hands.
Beat them into submission and so on.”
“You never miss a beat, do you Chloe?” Julianne laughed at her own bad joke.
“Oh God, we really are related.” Chloe snorted.
“Please tell me we don’t pun alike. I think we Kahn girls may be genetically not funny.”
“I’m afraid it’s true,” Jules agreed—but she couldn’t help but laugh.
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Chapter Twenty
!
A“w yeah!” Randy called as Julianne and Remi walked toward the staircase to the basement, tiles crammed into their tool belts, cement and spreaders in either hand. “If the bathroom’s a rockin’, don’t come a’knockin’.”
“Oh, stop!” Julianne laughed. “Remi and I are just going to lay some tile.”
“Well that’s a shame, darlin’,” Randy replied. As Julianne followed Remi downstairs, she heard Randy chuckling to himself.
Crammed into the tiny auxiliary bathroom in the basement of the eco-house, safely hidden from the tor-rential rains outside, Remi reached for a tile across Julianne’s lap and (maybe not so accidentally) brushed across her thigh.
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Every time he got anywhere near her, Julianne felt like she’d just walked into a really pleasant bug zapper.
Everything flashed blue and electric and she had to double check to make sure that she was still breathing.
She pulled herself together long enough to raise a sly eyebrow and tease, “Excuse me, Mr. Moore. A responsible project manager keeps his hands to himself.” She laughed at her own mock-saucy voice.
Remi shot back a sexy, “Oh yeah?”
“Definitely.” She pulled the zipper of her gray hooded sweatshirt up to her tanned collarbones.
Somewhere around noon, Julianne reached for the cement. As she stretched across the tiny bathroom, trying to wrap her fingers around the handle of the cement bucket and grab the wooden stirrer, the edge of her hoodie got caught on a loose piece of cabinet that hadn’t been installed yet. She lost her balance and went tumbling into the bathtub, the cement from the stirrer splashing across Remi’s new button-down, and one lone drop landing on his nose. The bucket teetered dangerously on the ledge for a moment before mercifully settling back in place.
Cement-splattered, Remi spun around, nearly as surprised to see Julianne sprawled out in the newly installed bathtub as she was to be there. “Hey, lady, you better watch where you’re splashing that stuff!” Remi scolded in mock indignation.
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“Or what?” Julianne shot back. “You’re going to rap my knuckles with your big bad T-square?” She burst into hysterical laughter as Remi tried to put on his best “I mean business” face.
“You know,” she managed to gasp between bouts of laughter, “it would be a lot easier to take you seriously if you didn’t have cement on your nose.” Remi groped around his face, trying to locate and remove the offend-ing cement. “C’mere.” Julianne reached a hand out to Remi and pulled him into the bathtub on top of her.
She licked one finger like a child’s grandmother in a shopping mall and started to scrub the cement off of his nose. Before Julianne could reach in for a second try, Remi caught her with a long kiss.
“I think I missed a spot,” Julianne breathed between kisses, tenderly reaching toward the remaining cement speckled on Remi’s nose.
“I think I can live with that,” Remi murmured back, winding his hand under Julianne’s tangle of curls and letting it rest on the warm nape of her neck. He pulled her face back to his again.
Julianne eased her lips apart, making room for Remi’s mouth on hers. Every time they kissed she only wanted to kiss more, kiss longer, and memorize the feeling of their lips meshing against each other.
Reflexively, she felt her entire body relax and sink into Remi’s. She pressed her palms flat against his strong 186
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back and pulled herself even closer to him. He did the same.
The outline of his cheek and nose pressed under her ear made Julianne positively giddy. She leaned back and slid down along the bathtub’s flat floor, bringing Remi along with her. She felt free and powerful and so ridiculously alive, in a way that nothing other than making art had ever sparked in her before.
“Stop!” Julianne giggled. “Did you hear something?”
“Probably just the guys upstairs making fun of us for a change.” Remi shrugged before kissing her again.
Before long, Julianne and Remi were too focused on making out to hear the bathroom door open.
Julianne heard a sickeningly familiar gasp. She froze under Remi, who took a few seconds to realize she’d stopped kissing him back. Julianne slowly sat up and pulled her hair out of her eyes. She thought she was hallucinating. Standing in front of the bathtub, slack-jawed in horror, her eyes filling with angry tears, was Chloe.