“Jules.” Turning, he crushed her to the wall, her wine splashing everywhere as he kissed her stupid while the sun set in a glorious blaze at his back.
Three weeks later, when Coach Graves announced the team for the next major international series, Jake wasn’t too concerned. He was in peak condition, and he was playing the best he’d ever done. The selectors would be idiots to drop him.
Still, his stomach was tense on the day. Juliet woke to tell him she’d taken the day off. After they walked Esme to school, Juliet took him home, cooked him a great breakfast, then sexed his brains out.
Grinning in the aftermath as he lay there, spent, his body slick with sweat, he said, “I like your remedy for nerves.”
“No talking. I can’t breathe yet.”
He laughed, and that was when his phone rang. Sitting up, he saw it was from Coach. The news the other man had for him had his smile fading.
Juliet was sitting up, sheet clutched to her chest and her eyes worried when he turned to her. “Jake, what’s happened?”
He stared at her. “Our vice-captain is out for the first game of the series as a precaution after suffering a possible concussion in an accident at home, and now Coach is having Oliver sit out the game too. He’ll be coming back for the rest, but he’s got a niggling injury that needs more downtime. No point losing our captain because of what will effectively be a warm-up match.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Juliet frowned. “Why are you so shocked?”
“Coach wants me to be acting captain for that game.”
Shrieking, she jumped on him. It was her excitement that finally had the news sinking in.
“Holy shit.” Squeezing her close, he tried to calm himself down. “As long as we don’t fuck up royally, it should be an easy game—the other team’s at the far end of global rugby rankings. It’s no risk on anyone’s part.”
“But Jake”—she took his face in her hands—“it’s obvious they’re taking the chance to try you out in the position, see how you do.” A triumphant kiss. “I know you’ll be amazing!”
She twisted to get his phone. “Call your parents! And your brothers!”
“No, I have to wait until the team is announced.”
“Why?”
“Because Danny’s waiting too. Coach only gave me a heads-up because he knows the media barrage will start the instant the appointment is announced.”
Juliet’s face softened. “Oh, of course.” Brushing his hair back from his forehead, she said, “Is it hard? Being part of a sports family with three of you in the same game?”
“Gabe was way ahead of us, so it’s just been me and Danny waiting at the same time.” He ran his hand down her back. “It’s not hard, but we hurt for each other. When Gabe got injured… He was devastated. I’ve never seen my big brother that broken.” Jake shook his head. “But then I saw him build himself back up, and now he owns half the city.”
His phone buzzed. “It’s Danny. Team news must be out.”
“ACTING CAPTAIN! FUCKING LEGEND!” Danny’s yell blew out his eardrums.
And Juliet’s kiss was everything. But he still couldn’t look full on at the realization in the back of his mind, a stab of terror closing his mouth when he tried to speak. If he didn’t look at it, if he didn’t acknowledge his love for Juliet, maybe he could keep her safe.
It was an irrational thought, but he couldn’t stop it.
At least Juliet didn’t seem to hold his lack of a response to her declaration against him. She just loved him, his Juliet who had never been told that she was loved.
Fuck. He had to get over this. He was not going to be another person in her life who shortchanged her.
Juliet had to work after hours two days later. She’d called Jake to let him know, and he decided to take Esme with him to training. It wasn’t one of the hard-core closed sessions but a warm-up where no one was going to worry too much about a rugby-mad little girl in the audience.
“She knows all the team people,” Jake told her over the phone. “She’ll sit with the nutritionist and the physio and discuss plays like she’s sixty, not six. They love her.”
Later, after reaching the field, he messaged to say that the assistant coach had brought along his son, who was of a similar age, so Esme had a friend to play with. I think they’re plotting Esme’s rise to rugby domination.
Juliet laughed. Messaging back that she’d be home by eight thirty, she began to clear her backlog. It was dark outside by the time she shut off her computer. Iris’d had to leave at three to catch a flight to an important work meeting, but Everett was just finishing up too, and she poked her head into his office. “Want to walk down together?”
“No, you go ahead. I’ll be ten more minutes.” A warm smile. “Thanks, Jules.”
“Hey, I own part of the company remember?” Everett and Iris had given her company shares two weeks earlier, following her annual pay review. They’d also given her a significant pay raise after the three of them went over her duties and realized exactly how much more she’d taken on over the past year.
Jake had whooped and spun her around in his arms at the news, then insisted on taking her out to a champagne dinner to celebrate. At which point he’d put his strategic mind to creating a ten-year plan that’d leave her CEO of her own major corporation. He’d only been half joking. Because this time around, Juliet had found herself a lover who was jubilant at her success and ready to back her all the way to the top.
Smiling within at the thought, she waved goodbye to Everett and headed downstairs. She didn’t bother to put on her coat since she’d soon be in the car. Hers and Everett’s vehicles were the only ones in the lot, but it was plenty bright enough with the external lights Iris had insisted be installed before they moved to these premises, and there were cars passing by on the street just beyond.
She’d opened up the passenger door and put down her satchel and coat when she heard a scrape behind her. Spinning around, her heart in her throat, she groaned. “Reid, what are you doing here?” She’d thought this was all behind her—he’d gone quiet soon after her and Jake’s return from New York.
He lifted a bottle in the air. “You made me… laughing… laughingstock.” Alcohol fumes wafted off him, his feet not exactly steady.
Juliet wasn’t afraid. Reid might be psychologically toxic to her, but he’d never been physically violent—toward her or anyone else. “You’re drunk and you’ll be embarrassed by this in the morning. Go home.”
“I loved you,” he wailed. “Why? Why?”
She had no idea what he was on about, but she took out her phone, intending to call him a taxi.
He lurched forward, staggering toward her. “Juliet, why did you leave me?” A wobble as he tripped on his own feet and into her.
Her phone dropped to the asphalt as she slammed her hands into his chest, trying to keep him from falling onto her. She heard something smash with a corner of her mind and winced because her phone wasn’t that old… Then she felt a numb kind of pain in her side. Her foot was wet too. Strange.