Page 40 of Roman and Jules
She slipped off the ring and handed it to him. His heart sank as she stepped back and threw her hands on her hips. “Ask me again.”
He wasn’t sure what the game was, but he was totally good with playing along if it meant what he thought it did. “Will you and Mercutio come home with me?” he asked.
She giggled into her hand. “Notthatquestion. The other one.”
Jules didn’t have to ask him twice—well, actually, she sort of did because he wasn’t reading her at all. “Which question?”
“Thequestion.” Her eyes widened in that exaggerated way of hers when they were sharing in a joke.
Wait. Was she saying…? His breath caught in surprise. “Jules? We’re already married!”
“Yes, but…” Her attention shifted to the crowd and she lowered her voice, “It wouldn’t hurt to make itmoreofficial.”
He was up for that. “Okay, will you marry me… again?”
“Yes!” She hopped around before he caught her to him in a hug. “Yes, I will!”
“Oh yippee,” Ty muttered. “That’ll have a shorter shelf life than the first one.”
His voice purposely carried over to them. No doubt, Roman was supposed to catch that and beat him to a pulp so Priscilla would cut him off, and he glanced over at Ty’s sniveling face—so punchable, but he was always punchable. That hadn’t changed. His cousin was clearly torn between keeping his distance and challenging him—he’d now see a way to get Roman back for everything, and his lips made a mean little pout meant to push Roman past all endurance. “Don’t you have something to say to me?” Ty asked.
Roman raised his hand and Ty flinched as Roman patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks for making this fun, cousin.”
Walking away seemed like the best idea—or riding away—but first they’d need to salvage Jules’s show so it wouldn’t be tomorrow’s news. He stole the mic from Ty, who cringed expectantly like he was going in for the punch. He wouldn’t be so lucky.
“Thanks for watching, everybody,” Roman announced. This felt like the time when he’d been ten and had talked himself out of trouble with his great-aunt for switching out her lotion with body wash. What he lacked in acting, he made up for with his charm—of course, it was a bigger audience this time around. “Just a little something we put together for Jules—kinda making fun of the rumors flying around about us. Hope you all enjoyed it. Now back to the real show.”
A lone clap sounded, followed by another and another, until the whole crowd was whistling and laughing out their appreciation of their amateur performance. Roman turned around, grimacing while he gave Jules the mic.
“You’re way too good at that,” she whispered and then brought it to her lips. At a motion from her, PotPan started the next song in their lineup, and seconds later, the lights floated around them to the sounds of synthesizers and strings joined by Jules’s sultry voice. The show must go on. And he could hardly wait for it to end. He knew exactly how to celebrate her successful performance—and it would be in his arms.
Deciding to leave his bike up there as a prop rather than cause any more of a disturbance, Roman blew a kiss at Jules, who caught it as he headed off the stage. Ty was right beside him. “Coward,” Ty growled. “So that’s it? You’re just going to walk away?”
“Yeah, how about you?”
Ty pouted like when they’d been children, his sweating face a pale mask that thinly covered his hatred. “She’s only after your money,” Ty hissed.
“No, that was you. Sorry you didn’t get it.”
Roman felt Ty’s fist crunch into his cheek moments before he saw him coming, and he only resisted fighting back for an instant before he was going at him too. They crashed into a velvet side curtain, and the pole holding it swung down, sending down every curtain around the stage like an avalanche around them.
Ty was using him like a punching bag and still Roman tried to resist ruining the show completely. Roman clasped his arm around Ty’s neck to throw him off, but Ty shoved him and they went tumbling onto the stage, wrestling and throwing fists under the sea of moving lights. Mercutio barked loudly around them, nipping at Ty’s ears while Roman tried to push the dog away.
“Roman!” Jules did a literal mic drop as she raced to them, and the crowd went wild, clapping and stomping like they’d just been treated to another encore, seconds before the bouncers dragged them away. They’d overstayed their welcome.
“I don’t even know how to play that off!” Jules was laughing and crying while she cradled Roman’s bruised cheek from the wings of the stage. Since there were no longer any curtains, it was in plain sight of everybody. The lights from cameras were blinding, and the reporters were trying to get at them like a pack of hungry wolves.
“You’ve done it now!” Her gaze included Ty in her lecture. “You’ll both be disinherited after this one.”
Ty’s gaze narrowed on Roman and he lunged for him again.So much for not settling differences with my fists.Roman got ready for him seconds before Ty let out a grunt and dropped flat, his chin hitting the cement while two security guards tackled him bodily to the ground.
“It was worth it,” his cousin growled out. “Worth it!” He whipped his head free from the men’s hold. “I’d gladly lose every penny just to see you cut from the will.”
And with that, Roman’s arms were yanked behind him as the men escorted both the cousins out.
Epilogue
—One week later—
