Page 125 of Star Crossed
It took her a long time to calm down. Her face felt swollen, and her headache throbbed worse than ever. It was mentally healing, but her body didn’t necessarily agree.
Her food forgotten, she fell back against the pillow. She turned her head to the side to ease the pain in her neck. She noticed they were alone in the room. Clay and Melody had left at some point, and it occurred to Jules that she had cried for areallylong time.
“I wanna see him,” she finally whispered. “I’m his wife. I should be able to see him.”
“He’s sleeping, Ju Ju.” Wyatt grasped Jules’s good hand, being careful of the IV. “But as soon as he wakes up, we’ll get you in there. Come hell or high water, I promise, you’ll get to see him.”
“Okay.” Jules squeezed Wyatt’s hand back, believing him. She fought the heaviness of sleep that called simply because staying awake was too painful. She studied her brother’s face, seeing how tired he looked. He still hadn’t shaved. His eyes were more bloodshot than ever, with shadowy circles under them that kept getting darker. “You need sleep.”
“Probably,” Wyatt agreed.
“I’ll take a power nap. You take one too.” Jules closed her eyes. “Find a bed. Come back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed later.”
Jules fell asleep before Wyatt could agree, but something in her dreams still felt him leave, and it was more than just physically stepping out of the room. For the first time since she was born, Jules felt an emotional separation too. They were finally doing what twins were supposed to do when they grew up and moved past the instinctive need to walk the same path simply because of the nine months spent together in the womb.
Jules started living her own life.
* * * *
In the early morning on the first day of her new life, Jules woke to the low whispering of Italian, and she instinctively fought to open her eyes. She hurt worse than before she’d gone to sleep. The Tylenol had long since worn off, but she ignored it. The rhythm and flow of those beautiful, foreign words were attached to the warm feeling of coming home, and Jules needed it desperately.
Thinking she’d see Romeo, she found herself frowning at Nova instead.
He hadn’t noticed she was awake. He was resting against her bed, having a hushed, private conversation, and she wasn’t sure she should interrupt. Then he leaned his head against the railing, looking broken, and something made her reach out to him.
Nova jerked up when she touched his hair. His eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he rubbed them, blinking rapidly. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice still raw from crying the night before.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He looked away, clearly embarrassed. “I know I’m the last person you wanna wake up and see.”
“Nova.” Jules grabbed his hand when he tried to pull away and leave. She knew so much more about him than she had before. There was a side of her that wanted to soothe away the haunted look in his dark eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, looking thrown off by her concern but not pushing it away like she expected him to. “I was just, you know, introducing myself.” He pointed to her stomach and swallowed hard before lowering his gaze. “Even if they never meet me, I wanted them to know they matter to me.”
“They’ll meet you.” Jules stroked his hair once more, like she would have done for Wyatt if he were this obviously distressed. “You could move to Garnet. Get away from all of it.”
“God, no.” Nova shook his head in horror. “Things are too fucked-up right now. Running wouldn’t fix the war. It’d just follow me.”
“Are you in danger?” Jules asked, feeling her heart rate pick up as her entire body pulsed with pain, reminding her how ruthless the mafia could be. “Do you think they’re gonna—”
“No.” He shook his head, but the grimness in his tone was less than convincing. “I’ll survive. I always survive, but I dunno how much time I can spend with my brothers.”
Jules couldn’t argue when she understood what he was saying. Nova was making sure Romeo and Tino were safe by cutting ties with them. She wanted Romeo away from the old life he hated so much, even if that meant losing Nova.
“I can’t believe there’s no way out,” Jules argued, wishing there was a way to save Nova too. “There has to be a solution. Maybe if we all sat down and thought about it.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Nova assured her with the grim assurance of someone who was a very competent thinker. “Things aretenseback home. I did some things others don’t approve of. You do not want me in Garnet.”
“Are you sure they’re not coming after you?”
Nova grew more confident as he stood, as if slowly building his walls back up. “Things may be a little challenging right now, but it’s not anything I can’t overcome.”
“How do you know that?”
Nova leaned down and gave her a cocky grin as he admitted in a hushed voice, “’Cause I’m smarter than them.”
Jules just gaped when he turned to leave. The vulnerability that had been so potent and raw when she woke up evaporated like a misty dream, making her question if she’d really witnessed it to begin with.
