Page 4 of Roman and Jules
A sound of surprise left Jules’s lips before she could stop it, and he glanced over at her with some concern. “You don’t know the half of what he’s done. I used to date an old girlfriend of his, and the things she told me…”
An old girlfriend?Jules didn’t feel like she could ask more in front of Ty’s mother, so she kept her mouth shut while Colette plotted ways to get past their elderly relation. “I want you on your best behavior tonight. If Priscilla thinks that you’re blameless in this little feud then she’ll leave you more in her will.”
Jules was beginning to hate this conversation, and wondered if she could wave it away as easily as Ty’s mother had done with the subject of her teacher parents.
“It’s not rocket science to get Priscilla to see you as the more responsible—” Collette’s breath sucked in mid-sentence and she clammed up. Jules almost wondered if Ty’s mother had shocked herself with her own crassness until a lady came upon them with red hair too vivid to be real. Her lipstick was just as bright. Jules guessed that this was Great-Aunt Priscilla.
She was a lady from a different era. Her dress was velvet and formfitting. She didn’t bother to hide her age in a draping, black gown, nor did she try to shrug off the years with surgery. Though she wore plenty of makeup with fake lashes and fake nails, her wrinkled face was untouched by Botox, as if she knew she was a world famous relic. “Did I hear my name?” she asked.
Collette blushed bright red. “Yes, come to think of it. Ty was dying to see you.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Priscilla said, briskly cutting her off. “Not when he has such beauty with him.” Priscilla’s long, dangling earrings swung around her bobbed hair as she reached out red nails to cup Jules’s chin. “You know, I like the look of this one—you’ve a very sweet face. What is your name, girl?”
“Jules,” Ty supplied.
“Ah, sheisa jewel.” Priscilla lathered on the compliments, and Jules noticed Collette’s expression change to speculation, like she’d try to take advantage of it. “We should make her the face of Capulet Beauty Spas—we really should—and show off what our services can do.”
Jules shook her head with a smile. She was sure Priscilla was teasing. “You might have to drop your prices if you did that.”
Priscilla gasped. “A Southern belle?” At leastshewas charmed by Jules’s accent. “Yes, we must have her! You’d be just the thing—we don’t peddle that heroin chic the fashion industry uses to suppress real women. We sell beauty. We sell pampering. We sell luxury. We sell a better life.”
“Yes, but there is one thing missing…” Jules broke in with a laugh, “do you sell sleep?”
“Oh my—very clever—that’s next, I’m sure, though our guests have been known to fall asleep on our massage beds. We offer the best of comforts.”
Ty edged them away from his older relative. “One of these days, Jules, I’ll take you to one of our spas.”
“You’venevertaken her?” Priscilla shrilled. Even his mother looked shocked.
Ty had always talked about doing it, but they’d never found the time. “Our schedules…” he trailed off.
“Then tomorrow, you must take her tomorrow!” Priscilla clapped her hands as if that decided it.
Ty got that trapped look he did when asked to commit to a time. “Oh… I’m not sure…”
“Okay, well, sometime this week.” His great-aunt nodded her head firmly.
Ty’s lips flattened, and Jules interceded before he could reject her in front of his relatives. “It’s difficult to make our schedules fit. He works during the day and a lot of my nights are taken with band practice.”
“She’s a singer,” Tyson explained.
“Is that so?” Unlike Collette, Priscilla seemed enchanted by the idea. “I’d love to hear her sing. Take her to the top of the stairs, Ty, and let’s hear what she’s got.”
Oh no!Jules didn’t want to take over the entertainment tonight. She started thinking up excuses while Ty shook his head. “She’s not classically trained. I’ve suggested a few instructors.”
Jules shot him a furious look. She didn’t want to perform on demand, but that was infinitely more insulting. “I’m not into singing other people’s styles is what he’s saying. And I’ll never be, so, thank you anyway, Ty. I already told you no.”
“I can respect that,” Priscilla said with a bob to her head. “I see myself in you, Jules. I was also a working girl. I had nothing when I started this company. I was a bit of a free spirit back then. I buffed nails on the streets and made a dime for each hand. It was the sixties, and well, I roamed the streets—there was less overhead that way. Of course, the business really took off after I convinced a wolf from Wall Street to sit for a pedicure and he fell in love with this barefoot babe. Some say I married the man for his money, but he had the most beautiful set of nail beds I’d ever seen. Always marry for love, darling. It pays in the end.”
Collette had turned bright red. “She doesn’t want to hearthatstory, Priscilla.”
Oh yes, Jules did, but she supposed it was rude to ask for more. Priscilla grinned secretively and patted her nephew’s arm. “Love is the answer, my boy. I’m glad that both you and Roman found good girls. I’m pleased at your choice. Now listen well, Tyson, and don’t misunderstand me. Tonight is your chance to reconcile with Roman. I can’t think of anything I want more for our fifty-year anniversary. Neither of you must disappoint me.” And with those autocratic words, she moved away to another guest at the party.
Ty seemed absolutely rattled. “Is she saying what I think she’s saying, Mother? She wants me to make up with Roman? Tonight?”
“She’s grown odd these past months.” Collette sighed. “She’s not getting any younger. We could schedule a wellness check; appoint someone to take over her finances.”
Jules’s heart fluttered angrily and she interjected when she shouldn’t. “She’s perfectly sound.”
