Chasing Julia (Rhode Island Romance #2) (9 page)

It felt like a
giant weight was lifting from Tony’s shoulders. He flashed a teasing grin at
his little sister. “Huh. Guess you learned something in college after all.”

She punched his
shoulder.

He ruffled her
hair, a gesture that had annoyed her when she was a kid. She gave him a baleful
look, but he could see that she was secretly pleased. “Are you sure, Syl?” he
asked softly. “You’ll be okay with leaving that house?”

She nodded. “My
memories aren’t the same as yours and Joe’s. I was only seven when Mom and Dad
died. I don’t remember them in the same way you do. I missed them. But I think
it was a little easier for me to adjust. You and Joe and Julia made sure I
never felt abandoned.”

“You were easy to
love.” His voice was gruff.

“Were?”

He ruffled her hair
again.

She scooted her
stool away. “Knock it off.” Then her expression turned coy. “Speaking of
Julia…”

Tony rose to his
feet in preparation to leave. “Not you, too.”

“What are you
talking about?”

He gave her a
warning look. “Sylvie…”

Her cheeks flushed.
“It was Audrey’s idea.”

“Yeah, and I just
chewed her out. You all need to back off. Things need to happen naturally.”

“I just want you to
be happy.”

Tony pulled her
into his arms for a bear hug. “I
am
happy. I’ve got a sweet little
sister and a good brother.”

“I want Julia back
in our family again.” Her words were muffled against his shoulder.

“So do I.” He
released her and stood back. His voice was firm and confident as he met his
sister’s worried gaze. “But it’s going to be a different family. Better than
it’s ever been before.”

“Han,
things are getting weird. I don’t know what to do.”

“Talk to me,
sister.”

“Maybe it’s all in
my mind. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, you know? I mean, I’ve always
liked him. But now I think I
like
him.”

“
Him
? Who
him?”

Julia wondered if
Hannah could hear her gulp over the phone. “Tony.”

“
Tony
?!
Joe’s brother, Tony?”

“Yes.”

“Holy crap.”

“I know, right?”

“That man is hot.”

“It’s your fault.
You called him eye candy, and I’ve been looking at him differently ever since.”

Hannah laughed.
“So? What’s the harm in that? Is that all it is? Looking?”

“It’s the way I
feel when I’m with him. Something has changed. I don’t know if it’s just me
feeling lonely and insecure. I’m in a very vulnerable place right now.”

“True. But you need
to dip your toes back in the water at some point, girlfriend. Maybe this is
just a signal that you’re starting to open up again, ready to get back in the
dating pool.”

Julia cringed at
the thought of doing the dating scene again. That was still a ways down the
road in her recovery plan. She needed to focus on herself for now; she didn’t
have the desire or energy that was required in building a new romantic
relationship. “I don’t want to get out there yet. I like hanging out with Tony.
But, before, it was just as friends. Now—all this past week—he’s all I think
about. And in a more than friends way. It’s consuming me.”

“Better than
thinking about Joe.”

“True.”

“So, define what
you mean by things getting weird.”

“I catch him
looking at me in a different way, in a more…physical way. And he touches me…a
lot.”

“Touches you how?”

Julia confessed the
details of the previous Saturday’s outing with Tony. “I’ve seen him twice since
then,” she added. “He’s helping me with this event I’m doing for Audrey King.
We went to her factory on Wednesday to check out the space. And then last night
I went to his office to look at some designs he put together for these fabric
backdrops I’m planning on doing. It’s going to be this ocean theme with lots of
swirly fabric in shades of blue to look like waves.”

“Sounds cool.
So…back to the touching…”

Julia felt a shiver
of sensual awareness dart up her spine as she recalled Tony’s touches. “He
likes to put his hand on my back.”

“Down low? Just
above your butt? God, I love it when Sam touches me there. It’s so possessive.”

“And he’ll tuck my
hair behind my ear, or brush his fingers across my cheek. Or he’ll just stand
real close so his arm rubs against mine. When he hugged me goodbye last night,
he put his hand on the nape of my neck and brushed his thumb there, real slow.”

“And what did you
do?”

“I hugged him back
and said goodbye.”

“He hasn’t tried to
kiss you?”

“I think he wanted
to last Saturday night when he was leaving. But he just kissed my forehead.”

“Did you
want
him to kiss you?” Hannah pried.

Even though her
friend couldn’t see her, Julia nodded her head. “Yes. I think I did.” She
released a deep breath. “And that’s just wrong. He’s my ex-fiancé’s brother!
He’s almost six years younger than me. That would make me a cougar. I shouldn’t
be thinking about him this way. Am I misreading things? Is he just being his
usual charming self?”

“Okay. First, a six
year age difference does
not
make you a cougar. Second, from everything
you’ve told me, I think the signals are pretty clear that he wants you.”

“Oh, my God.”

“How does that make
you feel?”

“Flattered?
Nervous? Embarrassed? Weird? Don’t you think it’s weird? I’ve had sex with his
brother!”

Hannah’s voice was
patient. “It’s only weird if you let it be. You wouldn’t be the first woman
who’s slept with her ex’s brother.”

“And what if that
does
happen? What if I sleep with him and then we both realize it was a mistake?
Then I’ll have lost them both. There’s no way I could show my face around that
family again if that happened. And that would be heartbreaking. They
are
my family.”

“I guess that’s a
risk you’re going to have to take.” Hannah’s voice turned strident. “From
everything you’ve shared, it sounds like Tony really cares for you. He’s known
you all his life, right? You’ve been friends for a long time. Is there anything
about him that you don’t like? That turns you off?”

Julia couldn’t
think of anything. Except… “He’s always been a flirt. He’s not a player, but
he’s never had a girlfriend for longer than a few months—that I know about
anyway. What if I end up being just another notch on his bedpost?”

Hannah was quiet
for a few moments. Then she asked, as if struck with a sudden notion, “Do you
think that the reason none of his relationships have lasted is because he’s
been waiting for
you
all these years?”

Julia’s heart gave
an odd little flutter. “If that were true, don’t you think he would’ve said
something before Joe and I got engaged? No. Wait. He wouldn’t have. He said
something last Saturday about only wanting to make me happy. I’d told him once
that marrying Joe would make me the happiest woman in the world.” Julia
frowned. Her tone turned bitter. “Just what I need, another noble Rossetti
brother hiding his true feelings for the sake of keeping me happy.”

“It’s kind of
flattering that they both think so highly of you, don’t you think?”

“I’m not a
princess. I don’t want to be put on some pedestal. I just want honesty.”

“Do you think you’d
have broken up with Joe if Tony had told you how he felt?”

“No. I don’t think
so… I don’t know. I was so immersed in Joe, so focused on marrying him.” She
sighed. “In hindsight, I can see that my head was in the clouds. I was living
someone else’s dream more than my own.”

“You mean your
mother.”

“Yes.”

Hannah’s voice was
gentle, coaxing. “Maybe it’s time you had a chat with her. I think you’ve been
angry with her for a while, and you just didn’t know it. You need to get that
out of your system.”

In
the end, Julia couldn’t do it. As she shared a pot of tea with her mother in
the Kelly’s cozy kitchen the following morning, she found herself reflecting on
her growing up years and what truly wonderful parents she had.

They’d only wanted
the best for her. Sure, she’d been a little spoiled. Her mother hadn’t been
able to have any more children after Julia, and she’d lavished all her motherly
love and attention on her daughter. But her parents had also taught her to be
industrious and self-sufficient, instilling in her the desire to make a success
of her life.

She supposed it was
normal for a mother to hope and dream that her daughter would find her own
prince charming and happily ever after one day. Julia envisioned her mother and
her mother’s best friend, Sarah Rossetti, sitting at this same table years ago,
drinking tea and sharing their dreams for their children. They’d both been
pregnant at the same time. How sweet would it be if one of them had a boy, and
the other had a girl, and that boy and girl fell in love and got married someday.

Had her mother’s
dreams gotten out of hand? Yes. But that didn’t mean that Julia had been
obligated to go along with them. Yes, her mother and Joe’s mother had planted
the seed. But Julia had allowed it to grow. Especially as she grew older. She
could’ve said no. She could’ve done more to make her own fleeting dreams a
reality. She could’ve ventured beyond her neighborhood, beyond her comfort
zone.

Things might have
turned out differently between her and Joe if his parents hadn’t died. She’d
been placed—albeit, willingly—in the role of pretend wife and helpmate to a
young man who’d been obligated to take on the role of head of household and
family provider far too soon. Although she knew that Joe loved her, she
wondered if that love might have stayed platonic, if maybe they had initially
fallen into the physical part of their relationship simply because it had been
a kind of healing for them both, not to mention convenient.

He’d been her
first. In hindsight, that had been part of the whole mess, too. She’d always
thought that the man she gave her virginity to would be the man she married—a
notion in this day and age which she acknowledged most people considered
old-fashioned.

When she and Joe
had split up for three years, she’d dated other men. She’d had a long-term relationship
with one of them. She’d never shared the details with Joe. She’d just assumed
he would realize that the relationship had included sex, just as she’d assumed
that she wasn’t the only woman Joe had ever been with. In the end, that guy had
proven to be too immature and lazy, riding on the coattails of his father’s
success. Maybe if she’d never known Joe she wouldn’t have harped on those
faults as much; when it came to hard work and integrity, both Joe and Tony set
the bar.

Funny, she’d almost
overlooked Tony in that regard these past few years. Peeling back the layers of
his boyish charm and easy manner revealed a man who worked just as hard as his
brother, a man who’d stepped up to the plate to help keep the family business
going and who’d had the foresight to move it a step further. It had been Tony’s
idea to send in audition tapes to the HOME network for the television series,
Tony’s ambition that had finally pulled the company out of the red once and for
all.

He was a good man.

She felt something
change inside of her, as if a slate covered with the bitter words of all her
pent-up feelings about her mother and about Joe had suddenly been washed clean.
She smiled across the table at her mother, who’d been watching Julia with a
searching expression. “How’s retirement so far?” Julia asked.

Her mother made a
face. “Your father is driving me crazy.”

Julia laughed.
“Yeah? How?”

“He got too used to
being the boss at the office. Now he wants to boss me around the house. I can’t
do one simple thing around here that he doesn’t have his nose in it.”

There was no venom
behind the words. Her mother’s eyes were twinkling, in fact; she loved her
husband to pieces.

“Where is he now?”
Julia asked.

“Next door helping
Tony move some boxes and things down from the attic.” Her mother hesitated.
“They’re turning the house into apartments, did you know?”

Julia felt her
heart clench. “No. When?”

“Soon. Tony’s been
packing boxes for the last week. Sylvie was over yesterday going through her
things. She said Joe and Tony are going to help her get set up with her own
apartment.”

“I had no idea.”

“I was shocked at
first,” her mother confided. “That house carries a lot of memories. It’ll be
sad to see the Rossetti’s go.”

“I knew Joe had
moved out. But where is Tony planning to go?” Julia hoped her mother didn’t
hear the fear in her voice. Where was he going? Would he be moving far away?
That didn’t make sense, not with the business and the television series…

“He’s been looking
at houses.” Her mother grimaced. “He promised he’d find some good tenants. I
hope so. Last thing I want is a bunch of college kids next door, partying to
all hours.”

“I’m sure he will,”
Julia replied vaguely.

“You haven’t been
here since…” Her mother shrugged. “Maybe you should go over there now, take one
final look at the place. That might help with…things.”

“Closure, you
mean?”

“That’s the word I
was looking for. God, this menopause is making my brain foggy.”

Julia stretched her
hand across the table to touch her mother’s. “I’m okay now, Mom. Really. I can
finally talk about Joe without feeling angry or sad. I think I’m finally over
that whole mess.”

Her mother turned
her hand over to grip Julia’s tightly. “Are you sure, honey? You’re not just
saying that to make me feel better? I just want you to be happy. That’s all
I’ve ever wanted.”

“I know.” She
squeezed her mother’s hand. “You know what? I’m discovering that sometimes
happiness can be found in the most unexpected places.”

She
strolled over to the Rossetti house with feelings of both trepidation and
anticipation flowing in her veins. The last time she’d set foot inside the
house was the day Joe had broken up with her. It had been a quiet Sunday
afternoon. Both Tony and Sylvie had been out for the day. Joe had invited her
to sit at the kitchen table. He’d said he had something important to tell her.

She remembered
thinking it had to do with the wedding plans, that he’d changed his mind about
the reception venue; they’d been going back and forth about that for days. He’d
been stalling on sending the deposit.