Page 130 of Star Crossed
“I’m gonna take those books away from you.” Jules huffed. “Stealing my tea and—”
Romeo just kissed her again.
“We got an heir and a spare,” Wyatt went on, capitalizing on Romeo’s distracting actions. “One of ’em’s got to have the sheriff gene. I’ll be retired by sixty. That ain’t half bad.”
Tino laughed. “That would be the funniest shit ever. One of Romeo’s kids being the sheriff of Hicksville.”
“They’ll be built for it,” Clay added, frowning at Jules across the table. “Have the doctors given ya an idea how big these babies are gonna be?”
“I hear that question all the time.” Jules sighed. “I’m not even sure it’s all that polite.”
Melody came back before they could answer, and Jules dried off with the clean kitchen towel. Then she worked on her hair, squeezing the water out of her pigtails that she’d started wearing to combat the heat rather than her usual ponytail. She was still self-conscious about the long, pink scar on her neck, even if Romeo kept telling her it was fading.
Once she was done, she handed the towel to Romeo, but it was already so wet it did little good. They should have come in earlier like Clay and Melody had, but it’d been so nice to just enjoy the day and appreciate being together when they’d fought so hard to get here.
“This is a terrible mess,” Melody was telling Clay. “They’re swamped. They still haven’t come to take an order. I should’ve worked today.”
“You work every holiday,” Clay reminded her with a growl. “You’re allowed time to yourself. Not like you have to work. You do it ’cause you like it, and Hal knows that. He should be treating you right.”
“No, it’s not like that. Hal told me to take the day off,” Melody argued. “But I just hate seeing ’em in the weeds like this. Not to mention starving a pregnant lady.”
Jules laughed. “I’m not that starving.”
“Hal’s got that new cook. He’s still green—”
Melody stopped when Wyatt kicked her foot under the table and then lifted his head and smiled. “Hey, Terry, where’s your 5K shirt?”
“I didn’t run today.” Terry came around the table, looking apprehensive. “Can I have a moment with ya, Sheriff?”
Wyatt looked at Jules pointedly. “She doesn’t slide out of booths as well as she used to. Is there a problem?”
“No, I just, ah—” Terry crouched down, resting his arm on the booth. “I figured I still owed you for New Year’s.”
“Shoot.” Wyatt laughed. “That was six months ago, Terry. Stop worrying ’bout it.”
“Yeah, see, but I just rented out the lake house again, and I thought you might wanna know ’bout it.”
“Really?” Jules asked in surprise, knowing it was far more expensive than his other properties. “Who rented it? You didn’t run the rental agreement by me. Is it last minute?”
“Yeah.” Terry nodded, still looking hesitant. “That…and she wasn’t really keen on you being the one doing her paperwork. No big deal. I’m not worried ’bout her stiffing me.”
“Who is it?” Wyatt asked with a catch in his voice as if afraid to hope for the answer.
“She doesn’t know I’m telling ya,” Terry went on. “But I reckoned with your history and all, you had a right to know. Plus, like I said, I owe you.”
“Oh Christ.” Clay groaned, voicing Jules’s thoughts out loud.
“Tabitha’s back,” Terry finally stated despite it being blatantly obvious. “I met her up at the lake house to give her the keys earlier this morning.”
Jules glanced to her brother, seeing he’d paled despite all the summer sun he’d been getting. He looked at Terry in shock for one long moment. Then he turned back to his plate and stared at it for several heartbeats before he finally whispered, “I reckon I’m ’bout done with lunch.”
“Wyatt,” Jules said in her sternest voice. “You cannot be thinking ’bout going up there.”
“Are you gonna slide out of this booth?” Wyatt countered, meeting Jules’s narrowed gaze with one of his own.
“No, I’m not.” Jules folded her arms over her chest. “I will fight this. I will not go through all that again.”
“I have to agree with Jules,” Clay interjected. “Seeing Tab again is just asking for trouble.”
