Page 90 of Rebel Heart
“Please,” I begged. “Please say something.”
“I’m not so sure I should do that if I want you to ever talk to me again,” he fired back, his chest heaving.
“You’re my brother. I would never stop speaking to you.”
“Are you sure? Because right now all I can see is a man my age who preyed upon my baby sister. She’s pregnant and married, and this is the first time any of her family is meeting this coward. How could you be so stupid, Jules?”
A growl ripped from Beau. “Okay, we’re done.”
“Excuse me?” Evidently, Cooper was now ready to get involved.
Beau, despite being ganged up on, didn’t back down. “I get this isn’t easy for anyone here, but I’m not going to tolerate anyone speaking to my wife like that.”
“Your wife?” Cooper scoffed. “You’ve known her for two months. She’s been ours for twenty-five years.”
Apparently, Beau could level a lethal stare just as cutting as the rest of them. He leveled that stare on Cooper and fired back. “And yet, after all these years of knowing the brilliant, kind, wonderful woman she is, you don’t think she deserves to be treated better than this?”
My heart squeezed.
Beau wrapped his arm around my shoulders and looked down at me. “I think we should go, angel.” His voice was so soft, so tender. Like he realized I was seconds away from having a total meltdown.
I nodded my agreement. Nothing good was going to come of us staying here.
We moved to leave, and Wyatt said, “So, that’s it? You come here, dump this news on us, and walk away? You got my sister pregnant and married her without even meeting her family. Now, you’re taking her out of here because you don’t like that we’re rightfully beside ourselves over this news?”
Beau stopped, held on to me, and looked back at my family. “No. Based on what Jules told me about all of you, I expected there’d be some hurt feelings, and I was more than prepared to deal with whatever backlash came my way. I would accept all of it, because it’s warranted, and it’s obvious you love her. But when I slid a ring on her finger a few days ago and made her a promise, it becamemy responsibility to look out for her best interests. Having her brother call her stupid doesn’t fall into that category.”
“But you believe letting her get married without her family there is in her best interests?”
Beau shook his head as my heart hammered. “We got married the way we did because she was terrified of disappointing all of you. Because she did things differently than all her siblings. And now, I can’t say I don’t understand where she was coming from. You don’t like me, that’s fine. But I’m not going to stand here and watch you treat her like garbage. So, yes, we are leaving.”
Applying light pressure to my back, Beau urged me forward. We’d taken two more steps in that direction when my dad called, “Jules?”
I stopped moving. “Yeah?”
“You don’t have to leave. He can go if he wants, but you don’t have to leave. This is your home.”
An unbearable ache formed in my chest and throat and belly. “It certainly doesn’t feel like home anymore.”
“Jules?” my mom called. Her voice was pleading with me. “Please?”
I shook my head. “He’s my husband, Mom. He’s the father of my baby. I love you. I love all of you. But I choose him. And I dare you to tell me that any of you would’ve chosen differently in your own situations.”
Turning, leaning into Beau’s warm embrace, I allowed him to escort me out of there. And I couldn’t ignore the sound of my mom’s sobs following me out.
23
JULES
“See you tomorrow, Serena.”
“Have a good night, Jules. Make sure you have that man rub your feet for you tonight.”
I smiled, shaking my head, and waved.
If there was one thing that I knew to be true, it was that husbands were required to rub the feet of their pregnant wives. But in this case, it wasn’t like I’d reached that point in my pregnancy where I was carrying around an extra twenty or thirty pounds. Serena’s advice was given merely because she knew I was going through it.
When I returned to work after the disastrous Fourth of July gathering, I shared the news of my pregnancy and recent nuptials with my friends. Both Birdie and Serena had been ecstatic—albeit shocked—to hear the news. I wanted them to know what was going on not only because they were my friends but also because I intended to start putting out the word that I’d be hiring someone else.
