Chasing Julia (Rhode Island Romance #2) (2 page)

The scene switched
to an interview with Willa. The drawing was on the table in front of her. “I was
very surprised when I opened the front door,” she said quietly. “I wasn’t
expecting the brothers to be so…young…
They
seemed very competent. Tony asked some good questions. Joe seems to like old
furniture.”

“It sounds like
keeping that wall unit intact is important to you,” the faceless interviewer
opined.

“Yes. I didn’t
realize until that moment just how important it would be.” Willa’s voice was
shaky. “I’m not sure how they’ll be able to work around it. I’m really looking
forward to seeing the designs they come up with.”

Cut to commercial.

“How many times did
the camera zoom in on his face since the last commercial?” Hannah asked. “I got
distracted.”

“Twice.”

Hannah poured
another shot for both of them. “Bottom’s up.” They each threw one shot back and
then another in quick succession.

Julia swiped her
hand across her mouth. She was beginning to feel slightly drunk. Maybe more
than slightly. Her head was buzzing. Her heart felt numb. But her heart had
felt numb since May. Nothing new there. She asked Hannah to pour another shot.

The next few scenes
moved at a quicker pace. Willa and her friend Collette went to Joe and Tony’s
office to take a look at the designs. Julia’s hearing was a little fuzzy as she
watched Willa offer the guys a tin of cookies. A voiceover obscured whatever
conversation was taking place as the announcer mentioned in a jovial tone that
Willa had made cookies, but that she might take them back if she didn’t like
the designs the guys had come up with. Everyone sat down at a conference table.
Then the screen split, showing the 3-D designs on one half and Willa and
Collette’s reactions on the other.

Hannah guffawed
when Collette said “Holy Crap” on camera. “That lady’s a riot.”

“I’ve met her,”
Julia said, her voice sounding slurred to her own ears. “She and her friends
are all the same. A little nosy and loud. But nice.”

The camera was now
focused on a conversation between Joe and Willa. He was promising her that he
would come up with some way to keep a part of the wall unit and Willa’s happy memories
of her aunt in the kitchen. A close-up of his solemn face as Willa agreed to
his plans faded to an interview with Willa: “It wasn’t an easy decision. But
Joe promised that he’d keep my aunt’s memory in that room. I believe him… I can
tell when someone is lying to me. Joe doesn’t lie.”

Except to
himself
, Julia thought, bitterness
showing its ugly claws.

She must have
spoken the words out loud. Hannah flung her arm around Julia’s shoulders.
“We’re halfway through. You want to keep watching?”

Julia nodded her
head before resting it on her friend’s shoulder.

Now it was
demolition day. Hannah laughed at images of the petite and plump Collette in
her goggles helping Joe tear out some kitchen cabinets. And there was Willa
swinging a sledgehammer at the dining room wall. She looked angry. Tony
interrupted her work and asked her to come into the kitchen to see the progress
Joe and Collette had made.

Julia lifted her
head from Hannah’s shoulder and perked up her ears. Something had changed
between Joe and Willa since the meeting in the office. There was a new kind of
tension in the air, so palpable Julia could almost feel it. Joe was explaining
that he’d been able to keep the wall unit intact and asking if Willa would like
to have it installed in her garage.

“Why?” Willa asked,
her voice curt. “I don’t need a cabinet in the garage.”

“Storage?”

“This wood is too
pretty to be in a garage. You said you’d make something out of the material.”

“Yes, I did. I just
wanted to check with you first.”

“That’s what I
want. I want you to make something that will keep my aunt in this room. Like
you said you would.”

“And I will.”

Joe’s voice was
gentle and patient, but his expression was impassive. It was very clear that
Willa was anxious about the cabinet, and he was trying to soothe her. But there
was something else there, an underlying conversation taking place. The cameras
focused on the two of them just standing there looking at each other.

And then Tony
stepped into the picture. “Well, it looks like we’ve answered that question.
Let’s get out of the way now and let the crew haul this outside. Willa, do you
want to help me rip out the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms?”

“She looked pissed
off about something,” Hannah commented.

Tony’s face
appeared on the screen in a confession cam interview. “Willa’s a little nervous
about what Joe is planning to do with that cabinet, but we’re both confident
she’ll like what he comes up with. It’s going to take a couple weeks for Joe to
put something together. In the meantime, we’ve come up with some unexpected
issues on the North Providence house, and he and I have decided to divvy up the
work to keep both of these projects on track. So, it’ll just be me managing
this project now.”

“Huh,” Hannah said.
She twisted her head towards Julia and raised one eyebrow. “Wonder what
happened behind the scenes there. Did Tony tell you?”

“He said he’d told
Willa about me and warned Joe to back off. This must be around that time.”

And Joe, to his
credit, had tried hard to stay away. He’d told Julia of his struggles, how much
he’d fought to rid himself of his feelings for Willa.

So much of their
conversation on that horrible day was still a blur, but Julia did remember the
agony in his voice when he’d said: “
This is the first time I’ve ever gone
back on a promise I’ve made. The thought of hurting you has been tearing me
apart.
”

“I can see how this
series is going to be a big hit with the ladies,” Hannah said, tugging Julia
out of her thoughts. “Tony is serious eye candy. Look at the way he’s swinging
that hammer.”

Julia returned her
focus to the screen, watching as Tony nailed down some boards on a staircase
and then helped his crew install drywall. The scenes were moving quickly now as
the voiceover narration explained the various stages of the project and how
smoothly things were coming along.

“He’s so natural in
front of the camera,” Hannah went on. “Joe was kind of stiff, but Tony looks
like he’s been doing this for years.”

“It was his idea to
do the show. Joe went along with it. He’s always put Tony and Sylvie first.”

Hannah made a
noncommittal sound in response as they watched Tony and Willa strolling through
an appliance store. Next they visited a furniture warehouse. As the segment
continued, Julia found her eyes drawn more towards Tony than to Willa. He
really was a natural, like Hannah said. He had a confident, take-charge
demeanor that was balanced with a genuine, good-natured charm. He seemed to
light up the screen.

He hadn’t always
been so good-natured, she thought, recalling some of the arguments she’d had
with him during his teenage years. He was the only person she’d ever fought
with like that—fierce, verbal battles that made her face red and her heart race
out of control.

Tony’s Uncle Nick
had put a stop to Tony’s belligerence towards Julia when Tony was eighteen.
Nick had been on leave from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and was staying at
the Rossetti house. Julia was over at their house one afternoon preparing
dinner. She heard Tony’s car pulling into the driveway; he was home from
school. He strolled into the kitchen, tossed his backpack on the table and yanked
open the refrigerator door. He stood there in the opening as he drank milk straight
from the carton, his head thrown back, his profile smirking.

It was clearly
intentional. He knew how much this bothered her; she’d asked him too many times
before to use a glass. He was a senior in high school, full of testosterone and
feelings of male invincibility.

“Tony,” she asked
quietly. “Please use a glass. And close the door. You’re letting all the cold
air out.”

He took a few more
gulps before closing the lid on the carton and putting it back on the top shelf
of the refrigerator. His movements were slow and deliberate as he closed the
door and turned to face her. “What does it matter to you? You’re not the one
paying the bills.”

“And neither are
you. It’s Joe who’s working his ass off to keep the lights on around here.”

Something washed
across his features that looked like shame. But it vanished as quickly as it
appeared. His mouth twisted. He took a step closer to her. “I’ve got a job. I
help out where I can. When are
you
going to get a real job, princess?
When are you going to stop playing house with us and go out into the real
world?”

She straightened
her shoulders, forcing herself to stand firm and to not reveal how much his
words hurt. He was a few inches taller than she. She was suddenly aware, as
she’d never been before, of how much his body had filled out in the last year
or two. His shoulders were broader, his arms more muscular. The planes and
angles of his face were more chiseled. He was becoming a man. But he was
behaving like a boy.

“I
have
a
real job.”

“Yeah. Working for
your mom and dad. The interview process for that must have been
real
grueling. Why aren’t you at your job now? I’m eighteen. I can take care of
Sylvie. We don’t need you here playing mother anymore.”

She put her hands
on her hips. As much as she tried to keep an even keel, she couldn’t prevent
her voice from raising a couple of decibels.  “You may be eighteen. But you
still act like you’re twelve. And you can gripe all you want about what I’m
doing here. I’m not leaving. I
am
your brother’s girlfriend. I have a
right to be here.”

His face reddened.
His eyes narrowed in a look of resentment. “You’re just a convenience. Joe doesn’t
have time to find a
real
girlfriend.”

Her mouth fell
open. Her heart constricted with pain. It was the most hurtful thing Tony had
ever said to her. In the past, she’d been able to brush aside his antagonism,
maintaining sympathy for the fact that he’d lost both of his parents in a
tragic fire when he was only twelve years old. His antipathy towards her was
normal and understandable. He had put up boundaries a few weeks after the
funeral, making it very clear to Julia that she was not and never would be a
replacement for his mother.

And she’d respected
those boundaries. She’d been able to work around the bad times with him because
there had been some good times, too. Like the time when he was fourteen, and they’d
all gone to Narragansett Beach, and he’d tried to teach her how to surf. He’d
been very patient with her awkward attempts to stay upright on the board;
there’d been a lot of teasing and laughter that day. Or the time when he was
sixteen and going on his first real date. He’d asked her for advice on what to
wear and how to behave like a proper gentleman. Or that hot August Saturday
afternoon, just before he turned eighteen, when the two of them had been
waiting for Joe while he met with a client in South Kingstown. They’d had a few
hours to kill, and Tony decided to take her crabbing. They’d stopped at a local
market to buy a pack of chicken wings and some twine and then drove to one of
Tony’s secret fishing spots along Point Judith Pond, a place that his father
had taken him and Joe to fish when they were boys.

He’d parked the car
in the shade at the end of a bumpy, unpaved, densely tree-lined road, retrieved
their purchased items from the trunk along with a fishing net and a bucket and
led her down an almost invisible path to the water’s edge. There hadn’t been
anyone else around. The day had been hot and humid. Julia remembered that she’d
been wearing a white skirt and matching tank top in cool cotton. Deciding she
didn’t want to get dirty, she’d strolled out to the end of an old, wooden pier
while Tony searched along the muddy shoreline for some long sticks.

When he joined her
on the pier, they worked in companionable silence, attaching lengths of twine
to one end of each of the sticks he’d found, then tying a chicken wing to the
other end of the twine. They set up four rigs in all, pushed the sticks into
grooves between the narrow wood slats of the pier and then threw the chicken
wings out into the water, watching as the bait sank to the bottom. Tony pulled
in the slack on each of the lines and then kicked off his flip-flops and sat
down, legs dangling off the edge of the pier. Julia removed her sandals and sat
down beside him.

“Now we wait,” he
said, sounding relaxed and happy.

She remembered that
they hadn’t talked much. They’d simply enjoyed the sunshine and the cool water
lapping against their feet. She remembered wishing that she could have moments
like these with Joe; he was always so busy—working long, backbreaking hours to
keep the family business running and his brother and sister fed and clothed.

She remembered the
twine on the stick closest to her starting to dance and Tony’s calm voice in
her ear as he helped her slowly and steadily pull the string towards the pier.
As the blue crab came into sight, its claws digging possessively into the
chicken wing, Tony told her to keep pulling while he grabbed the net and
prepared to bag their catch. He lay on his stomach next to her, arm
outstretched.