Page 154 of Sunshine

“It’s no trouble.” Julian kissed my temple again. “You arealwayswelcome to come here, especially when something terrible happens.”

“I overreacted.” I sighed.

“I doubt that.” Julian frowned. “You’re probablyunderreacting if anything.”

I shook my head. “Do I need to do anything?” I wanted to reach for my phone, but my purse was on the other side of the couch and it felt too far away.

“Logan and Ginny have it handled.” Julian rubbed my hand. He was extra affectionate and touching him made his love and concern pulse through the bond like a second heartbeat. “Do you want to talk about it, or do you want me to distract you?”

I sighed. Might as well get it all out. I told him about the fight and even showed him the text messages that Talia and I had exchanged. I worried that I’d missed something, some important bit of information that would make this situation finally make sense.

Julian smoothed some hair out of my face. “Babe, no. First of all, even if you did ignore her passive aggressive cry for help, which you didn’t, she’s been nagging you for months to use her bakery. She said she could do it, and you even went through the formal booking process.”

Some of the shame eating away at my chest released. There was a hard ball lodged where my heart was supposed to be, but it was getting smaller.

“I don’t understand why she would go off the rails like that.”

“Because she was jealous.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not every fight is girl jealousy.”

“Not every fight, but this one is.” Julian kissed my cheek. “She compares herself to you all the time. Your business versus her business. You got an assistant, and she doesn’t have one. You knew she would be upset that you were bonded before her. She feels like she deserves everything you have, and if she doesn’t have it yet it makes her feel bad.”

I bit my lip. Talia had always reacted with sadness if anything good happened to me or Becca. She would be happy for us, but always made sure to mention how much she wished the same thing would happen to her. If I got an A on my tests, and she got a B, she would be upset that she didn’t do better. Never mind that she got lots of As on other subjects, or that I had studied hard.

“I thought we were past that. When we all got real jobs and became adults, some of that got better.”

“Until you were in a serious relationship.” Julian tucked a blanket around us.

“Yeah.” I sighed.

“Talia does a good job of making you feel valued when she wants to. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay for her to lash out at you whenever she feels insecure.”

I’d thought about the last few months. Crashing my date with Luca. Being mad I didn’t text back right away and brushing off me being bonded. Wanting her cupcakes at our tent at the First Responders’ Festival and being mad when I couldn’t say yes.

“It feels like she’s setting me up for failure. Or making everything about our relationship. If I said no, I didn’t love her anymore, and didn’t care about our friendship.”

“If you behaved in a similar fashion, she would be upset.” Julian added in.

I let out another sigh and rubbed my face on Julian’s shoulder. He smelled like pineapple and coconut, like home. “You’re right.”

“It’s up to you,” Julian said. “You can let her apologize or not.”

“I don’t know if she’s even going to do that.” I muttered. “She probably expects me to.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. It hurts, but maybe this is the break you needed. To show you how she really feels.” Julian patted my back. “You’ve got an amazing new pack. We’re going to go on vacations, maybe get a different house, and start a family someday.”

I liked the sound of all that.

“Your family will settle down with packs of their own and have their own babies. Your business will only grow now that you have time and space for it.” Julian dragged his palm over my cheek in such a soft gesture it broke me a little bit. “The entire time, you’re going to have to walk on eggshells around her. Especially since she seems to prefer to torpedo people around her instead of figuring out what’s holding her back.”

“That sounds like her.” I took another long swallow of tea. The mint soothed my throat, and despite my head pounding, I was starting to feel better.

Julian sounded angry. “She’s supposed to be your friend, not making you feel like you have to make yourself smaller around her.”

All of a sudden, I was exhausted. Of all feelings. I focused on the comfort and love coming from being bonded to men who loved me.

Unconditionally.

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