Page 27 of Roman and Jules
Her mother gasped. “So itistrue.” Her mother attempted to cover the phone to report to Jules’s father, but Jules heard everything she said anyway. “Shedidmarry that man!” she hissed. “I will! I’ll talk some sense into her. Just give me a minute.”
“Mom! Mom!” Jules tried to get her mother’s attention again.
“Julie Ann Bassett!”
“It’s um… Verona now.” Jules might as well keep her story straight.
Her mother gasped. “What about that nice Ty Bolt we heard so much about?”
“He dumped me.”
“Oh, yes, they mentioned that on the news. He actually didn’t look that nice on TV, if you ask me.”
Panic ran through Jules at the thought of her life playing out in front of strangers. She shouldn’t have so easily dismissed what had happened earlier. While she’d been holed up here with Roman, her reputation was getting ripped apart. She tried to work past that. “So yeah, I guess, I’m married now and…”
“Oh, we should’ve talked you out of moving to Vegas,” her mother said. “Those marriage licenses are too easy to get there. You’re regretting it now, aren’t you?”
Jules hotly denied it. “No! We really get along, and…” she couldn’t lie to her mother and say that she loved Roman, but she’d do her best to convince her that she’d made the right decision. “He’s a really good guy. He takes in stray dogs.” And he took in Jules. She shut the door to his bedroom. “He treats me like a princess, and he’s kind and loyal.”
“I’ve heard otherwise.”
“You shouldn’t believe everything you see on the news,” Jules argued.
Her parents were always railing against corporate media and Jules hoped that this would work in her favor this time. Her mom heaved a sigh. “Yeah, yeah, I get that. I’m just… a little disappointed, okay? But you know, you can redeem yourself. I want to see you make this work. Do you understand? I don’t care how lightly you went into it; you need to take your marriage very seriously. The vows you made are not to be laughed at. They are between you and your husband and God. They’re sacred.”
Jules’s heart pounded. She could either admit to the farce now and incur her mother’s wrath or fail at this marriage and disappoint her family again. Either way she was in hot water. Not only that, but her mother’s words had awakened her conscience. She felt low from her head to her feet.
Her mother seemed to sense her unease and changed the subject. “Youwillbe bringing him here to meet us.”
“Yes, as soon as he can get the time off of work.”
“What’s he do?” Her mother’s voice changed to interest.
“Corporate stuff. He works for his father at the day spa—same one Ty worked for—just a different branch.”
Her mother repeated that to her father. Jules tried to get off the phone before they asked any more questions and she revealed her ignorance about the man she’d married. Jules hadnoidea what he actually did for a living. “I’ve got to go, Mom. We’re eating, but…”
Her father took over the phone, his voice low and gritty like the old cowboy he was. “I want to talk to him.”
“He’s busy, Dad. He can’t…”
“Now.”
Jules pressed her warm cheeks with the back of her hand and opened the door. Roman glanced up from the couch where he was clearly eavesdropping. Mercutio squirmed against his side, pawing at the cushions. “My father wants to talk to you,” she said with an apologetic look.
His hand lifted from the dog and he wrapped his fingers around the phone, holding it to his ear as he pushed up from the couch. “Mr. Bassett.”
Jules was grateful that Roman at least knew her last name. He disappeared into his room next and closed the door. And yeah, she could hear almost everything. Jules dropped next to Mercutio and absentmindedly kneaded his head while she waited for Roman to reemerge. He did a half-hour later, looking as drained as she felt, though he’d handled himself pretty well, and was even laughing before he’d told her family goodbye. She should’ve trusted that he’d charm her parents in the end.
He held her phone out to her. “We’re visiting them in two months and I’m supposed to take you out to some new chicken restaurant they’d heard opened up here last week and…” he broke into a smile. “They said that you’re a snuggly bear and you’ll like it when I play with your hair.”
She blocked him from giving her phone back to her. “On second thought. Keep it.” Getting a handle on her heart wasn’t worth the abuse she’d just endured.
Chapter 12
—Early October—
Roman had been a married man for a month now, and he liked it. What was wrong with him? He’d already settled into a routine with Jules. He’d wake up in the morning with Mercutio licking his face and Jules serenading him through the opened balcony door. Then after showering, putting together a gourmet breakfast, and teasing his wife, he’d head to work… and couldn’t wait to get back home.
