that dickhead.”
Crossing her arms, she gave him a mutinous glare.
“Why would you do that to me?”
She shook her head. If she said anything, hell, if she signed anything right now, she knew she would regret it.
“Answer me!” He grunted.
Her gestures were full of fury. “He’s my boyfriend and I love him. I wanted to share that with you because I love you too, you’re my brother, we share things.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say. He didn’t get angry, but he stopped talking. And no matter that Lori wanted them to fix it, Elisa knew things had only gotten a million times worse.
By the time they pulled up to the house it was with so much relief that Elisa jumped out of the van. But she wouldn’t run away this time. She was a grown up and it was time to start acting like it. Turning back to him she laid it all out there.
“Friends, Jules. That’s what we are. Please, understand that.”
He didn’t sign back, and his beautiful sea-green eyes grew heavy with shadows, but he did nod his head.
Every night after that the Wrights came over. Dad had built a temporary handicap ramp to go up their stoop so that Julian could be wheeled in for nightly dinner.
It was with shock that Elisa saw him laughing with her family, with his brothers. Sometimes even making noises as he did it.
In fact, it was as though what’d happened in that hospital had never happened at all.
And every day that passed that Julian would gave her a quick hello before acting like she didn’t exist at all only made her feel worse and worse.
It wasn’t even the same guy. Yes, he was still dressed in his monochromatic shades of black and white, with his long skater hair and his mesmerizing tattoos, but he didn’t seem nearly as…well, broken.
It was like Julian, but without all the drama.
And what sucked more than anything was just how badly that made Elisa feel. She wanted him to stop looking at her like he did, like he saw beyond her skin, into her very soul. Wanted him to stop touching her like he did, wanted him to be just like Roman and Christian… she’d wanted all that, and now that he was, she hated it.
Flat out wanted-to-murder-something hated it.
Every night she’d talk to Thomas on the phone and could hardly concentrate on what he’d be asking her because she’d be wondering what Julian was doing now. Who was he smiling at? And now she suddenly couldn’t seem to get the idea out of her head that if she had a boyfriend it only stood to reason that he must have a girlfriend.
The thought made her so intensely jealous, and then filled her with guilt, because she had a boyfriend. A great one. He’d be devastated if he knew where her thoughts were now, but no matter how many times she mentally chastised herself, nothing helped.
Julian Wright was becoming her obsession all over again.
The worst of it was, she had nobody she could talk to about it. On the surface they were just nineteen and seventeen and maybe if she’d been the seventeen year old and he the nineteen year old it wouldn’t have mattered to her, but that wasn’t the case. She’d been raised to view Julian, as well as Chris and Rome, as brothers. But here she was viewing him as so much more.
She should be obsessing about the men in college, not a boy back home still in high school. She shouldn’t be wondering how his lip ring would feel, or groaning when a memory would flash through her head of them on that pier the summer before she’d left. How he’d touched her, how his callused palms had made her skin sizzle and her thighs ache.
She counted down the days until she could return to campus with the desperation of a woman drowning.
Today was Christmas, technically campus opened back up on the eighth. But since she didn’t live on campus, she could theoretically go back tomorrow. Her parents might be a little upset, and they wouldn’t understand why she was leaving so quickly, but if she told them it was because Thomas was returning
Crossing her arms, she gave him a mutinous glare.
“Why would you do that to me?”
She shook her head. If she said anything, hell, if she signed anything right now, she knew she would regret it.
“Answer me!” He grunted.
Her gestures were full of fury. “He’s my boyfriend and I love him. I wanted to share that with you because I love you too, you’re my brother, we share things.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say. He didn’t get angry, but he stopped talking. And no matter that Lori wanted them to fix it, Elisa knew things had only gotten a million times worse.
By the time they pulled up to the house it was with so much relief that Elisa jumped out of the van. But she wouldn’t run away this time. She was a grown up and it was time to start acting like it. Turning back to him she laid it all out there.
“Friends, Jules. That’s what we are. Please, understand that.”
He didn’t sign back, and his beautiful sea-green eyes grew heavy with shadows, but he did nod his head.
Every night after that the Wrights came over. Dad had built a temporary handicap ramp to go up their stoop so that Julian could be wheeled in for nightly dinner.
It was with shock that Elisa saw him laughing with her family, with his brothers. Sometimes even making noises as he did it.
In fact, it was as though what’d happened in that hospital had never happened at all.
And every day that passed that Julian would gave her a quick hello before acting like she didn’t exist at all only made her feel worse and worse.
It wasn’t even the same guy. Yes, he was still dressed in his monochromatic shades of black and white, with his long skater hair and his mesmerizing tattoos, but he didn’t seem nearly as…well, broken.
It was like Julian, but without all the drama.
And what sucked more than anything was just how badly that made Elisa feel. She wanted him to stop looking at her like he did, like he saw beyond her skin, into her very soul. Wanted him to stop touching her like he did, wanted him to be just like Roman and Christian… she’d wanted all that, and now that he was, she hated it.
Flat out wanted-to-murder-something hated it.
Every night she’d talk to Thomas on the phone and could hardly concentrate on what he’d be asking her because she’d be wondering what Julian was doing now. Who was he smiling at? And now she suddenly couldn’t seem to get the idea out of her head that if she had a boyfriend it only stood to reason that he must have a girlfriend.
The thought made her so intensely jealous, and then filled her with guilt, because she had a boyfriend. A great one. He’d be devastated if he knew where her thoughts were now, but no matter how many times she mentally chastised herself, nothing helped.
Julian Wright was becoming her obsession all over again.
The worst of it was, she had nobody she could talk to about it. On the surface they were just nineteen and seventeen and maybe if she’d been the seventeen year old and he the nineteen year old it wouldn’t have mattered to her, but that wasn’t the case. She’d been raised to view Julian, as well as Chris and Rome, as brothers. But here she was viewing him as so much more.
She should be obsessing about the men in college, not a boy back home still in high school. She shouldn’t be wondering how his lip ring would feel, or groaning when a memory would flash through her head of them on that pier the summer before she’d left. How he’d touched her, how his callused palms had made her skin sizzle and her thighs ache.
She counted down the days until she could return to campus with the desperation of a woman drowning.
Today was Christmas, technically campus opened back up on the eighth. But since she didn’t live on campus, she could theoretically go back tomorrow. Her parents might be a little upset, and they wouldn’t understand why she was leaving so quickly, but if she told them it was because Thomas was returning
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