Home Is Where the Heart Is (8 page)

1. Chapter
   6
   

It had been a few days since Julie hooked up with Steven
and she was trying to do her best to avoid him. The one thing she
wanted more than anything was to avoid him like the plague. She knew
that if she saw him, he would ask her what was up, but she had no
idea what she was supposed to say.

“
I slept with you without
protection yet I don’t know you.”

But she had gone to the doctor the day after just to be
sure and she had already got the results. So she was sure that, that
was not the real reason.

“
I am a fool for falling in
love again after being disappointed so many times.”

Yes, maybe that was it. That and the fact that she was
falling for him. What could be worse?

Julie was so out of it that even her father had noticed.
She could never really hide anything from him so she did the only
thing she could do in order to avoid him as well. She would leave the
house earlier than usual and make sure she came back late, when she
knew that he was already in bed. This went on for almost four days
and it was really getting to Julie. She was ignoring two very
important men in her life and the reality of the situation was that
she was going to have to face them sooner or later. And that reality
was more than she could handle.

When she got to the office on Friday morning, she was
exhausted. She hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the previous night,
partly because she had been battling her inner desire to call Steven.
She had even called him at some point, but she choked on the call…and
now, she felt even worse because he knew it was her. She was sure he
had caller ID. She had been staring at her computer for what felt
like forever, when Dana walked in.

“
That alarm clock is really
working out for you, isn’t it?” she commented smiling.
Julie looked up at her and smiled.

“
You have no idea,” she
said as she stood up to get herself her second cup of coffee.

“
Nice dress,” Dana said
when she saw Julie’s cream white sleeveless peplum dress.
“Going somewhere after hours?” she asked as they walked
to the kitchen. Julie looked at her and smiled.

“
We’ll see,” she
answered before turning to pour herself a cup of coffee.

“
And your shoes…damn
girl. Are you sure you don't have any plans?” Dana asked as she
looked at her green peep toe suede heels with red bottoms.

“
This, my dear friend, is what
gets you all those listings,” Julie teased in a dramatic voice
as she waved her hand up and down gesturing her body.

“
Well I should give you a raise
just so you get more outfits like these,” Dana joked before
walking away. Julie smiled and took a sip of her coffee. She caught
her reflection in the window and smiled. She did look really good.
The dress was the perfect complement to her curvy body. She had
straightened her dark curls that morning; she now had long black
silky hair on her shoulders and she thought she looked just great.
She walked back to her work station and sat down. She opened her
calendar app on her phone and smiled. She was free for the entire
day. Unless something came up, she could just say that she was going
to check out a new listing and then leave early. She took another sip
of her coffee and then looked at her computer screen. She was not
sure what she was looking at but soon enough, she could smell a very
familiar scent. She didn’t even know why, but her heart was
beating faster all of a sudden.

“
Hi Julie,” she heard
Steven’s unmistakable voice. She looked up and saw a dashing
Steven looking down at her.

“
Steven…hi. What are you
doing here?” she gasped hoping that she was masking her
surprise.

“
I guess this is the only place
I could be sure I would find you. Someone has been quite hard to
track down lately,” he said as he sat down in front of her
desk.

“
Not really….I’ve
just been…” her words trailed off when she realized that
she had absolutely no lies to tell him. She took a long deep breath
and sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said in defeat.

“
I’m beginning to think
that this has become our deal,” he said as he crossed his legs.

“
What has?” she asked
looking at him.

“
You know, pulling a
disappearing act every time we see each other naked,” he
replied.

“
Shhh!” Julie exclaimed
in a loud whisper as she looked around nervously. She looked at him
and sighed.

“
This is not a good time. I’m
kind of…” “Busy?” he asked cutting her
short. “Really, that’s the best you could come up with? I
found you browsing and if you want I could talk to Dana and get a few
hours with you, billable of course,” he said. Julie raised an
eyebrow.

“
I think you just called me a
whore in so many words,” she gibed.

“
Yeah, it sounded really smart
in my head. Not so much out loud,” he said. Julie smiled at him
and shook her head. “Come on. Have breakfast with me. I’ve
missed you,” he begged. Julie smiled at him, not sure whether
to accept his invite or just stay in the office, bored, with nothing
to do.

“
I have to tell Dana I’m
going out,” she said.

“
I’ll be right here,”
he promised as she pulled away from her desk. “That is one sexy
outfit,” he said before giving a long low whistle. She looked
at him and wagged her index finger at him.

“
This is my place of work!”
she whispered angrily.

“
No one’s here,”
Steven whispered back. She rolled her eyes as she walked to Dana’s
office.

“
Hey, I’m heading out,”
Julie said as she poked her head through Dana’s office door.

“
I knew you had plans,”
Dana said smiling.

“
Hey, this is work related.
I’m…uh…going to see Steven…actually he is
already here,” Julie informed her, struggling to keep a
straight face.

“
You and Steven have been
meeting a lot lately. Anything I should know?” Dana asked
mischievously. Julie rolled her eyes at her.

“
If you weren't looking so damn
sexy, I would have come there and whooped your ass,” she
laughed before walking back to her desk where Steven was. She
couldn’t help but notice just how hot he looked. You would
think she would have been used to it by now, but she was still
getting used to it. Steven was in a black suit, grey shirt and a
matching tie.
“This
guy takes drop dead gorgeous to an entire new level,”
she
thought as she walked towards him.

“
Ready?” he asked. She
walked round her desk and switched off her computer and then picked
up her phone and handbag before looking at him.

“
Sure,” she said. “We
can go to this great place a few blocks away. They have the best
Spanish omelets,” she said when they got to the car. Steven
looked at her and smiled.

“
Let me worry about where we
are eating. You just sit there and look pretty,” he said as
Terrence pulled out of the parking lot.

“
Seriously, Steven. Some of
these things you need to think about before you actually say them,”
she warned smiling.

“
Don’t worry, point
noted,” he said as he leaned in and kissed her. He pulled away
but not before continuing to say, “I missed you.”

“
I missed you too,” she
responded. Steven raised an eyebrow at her.

“
Really? Is that why you’ve
been ignoring my calls for the past week?” he asked. She gave
him a guilty smile and then shook her head. “Or was it
payback?”

She shook her head.

“
Well, I…” she
started saying before she stopped and looked at Terrence. Steven
smiled and then told Terrence to put on some music. Julie laughed and
shook her head. This guy was
exactly
like Christian
Grey. They would have been twins if EL James had him in the book.

“
You were saying?” he
asked when Terrence put on some music. She looked at him and took a
long deep breath.

“
Well, I was kind of feeling
stupid for sleeping with you without any protection on and I didn’t
want to insult you…” “You would never insult me,”
he said cutting her short yet again. “But I don’t get
around and you…you look like a decent woman and like I told
you before, my gut has never let me down,” he said. She smiled
at him and shrugged.

“
Well I went to the doctor
anyway,” she said. “And when I got the results I
felt….even more silly and then I….you just really scare
me, Steven,” she admitted.

“
Scare you? How?” he
asked.

Julie replied with the truth,“Because I feel
things for you that I haven’t felt for anyone in a really long
time.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and
smiled.

“
I feel the same way,” he
confessed as he looked at her. The car came to a halt and Julie’s
eyes almost grew ten times their size when she saw where they were.
Terrence had parked right outside Amelia’s, the most exclusive
restaurant Julie knew of. You had to make a reservation almost two
months before you could be guaranteed a table.

“
How did you even get a
reservation here? You are literally three weeks old in the States!”
Julie exclaimed as she got out of the car. Steven smiled at her and
shrugged.

“
Things are so much easier when
you are part owner of the business,” he winked. She looked at
him surprised.

“
You own Amelia’s? You
are officially my favorite person,” she shrieked as they walked
in. Steven looked at her and smiled.

“
Morning Mr. Davenport?”
the hostess greeted when they entered.

“
Good morning Thea. You
remember Terrence and this is Julie, a very special lady to me,”
he said. Julie looked at him and then said hi to Thea before the two
were led to a table, well secluded from the rest of the restaurant.
Terrence took a table at the corner of the restaurant. “We will
have the Davenport special.”

Thea smiled and then walked away, leaving them alone.

“
You have food named after
you?” Julie asked in awe.

“
It was just something I threw
in there after my grandmother’s breakfast became so popular,”
Steven said.

“
Really? What is it?”
Julie asked.

“
Well, it is cinnamon French
toast, bacon, a bowl of fruit and tea,” Steven replied.

“
Tea,” Julie said. “You
really are English,” she added. Steven smiled at her and then
shrugged.

“
Well, there is no denying
that, now. Is there?” he said. He then leaned forward and took
her hands in his. He looked into her eyes as he drew small circles on
the back of her hands using his thumbs.

“
What?” she asked.

“
I told you I would never hurt
you so stop pushing me away. It won’t work,” he said. She
smiled and nodded.

“
I’ve noticed,” she
smiled.

“
It takes so much more to push
me away than ignoring my calls,” he finished.

“
Obviously,” she
chuckled, as a waitress brought their order. She looked at the tray
and sighed. “You keep doing this and the day I finally cook you
something you may not like it,” she said.

“
So you cook?” he asked.

“
Well, yeah. Sometimes,”
she said. Steven looked at her and smiled.

“
I would love to try something
you’ve made one of these days,” he told her. “Maybe
I can even meet the other Parker?” Julie looked up at him
surprised.

“
I’m sorry, what?”
she gasped.

“
Why not? I’m not going
anywhere anytime soon. We might as well just get it over with it,”
he said. She felt her cheeks flush.

“
I’m not sure…it’s
a bit soon,” she nervously said.

“
Well then, perfect,”
Steven claimed as he took a bite of his toast.

“
Did you not hear anything I
said? I meant it would be a bad idea,” she said. Steven shook
his head.

“
You let me be the judge of
that. Now eat up before it gets cold,” he ordered as he took a
sip of his tea. She looked at him, not sure whether he was joking or
for real but she was sure of one thing, she did not want to know. At
least not at that moment.