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McDonnell's face took on that shiny movie-star grin. "Thanks for being here, guys. Looking out for us."
As if we were here for him. "We're here for Juliet," I told him. There was no way I wanted this guy believing we worked for him.
He looked appropriately embarrassed, and I took a little bit of joy in it. "Right, yeah. Just ... thanks."
Chad chuckled, enjoying the star's embarrassment, no doubt. "Any time," he said.
"Juliet was looking for you a while ago," I told him. And then I forced my breathing to stay steady as another man climbed the stairs, no doubt heading to the bedroom of the woman I believed I might love.
The rest of the day was painful, standing in the shadows as the family and McDonnell moved here and there, and images of my brother's broken and frail body flashed through my head. My mind fluctuated alternately between desperate fear for my family and jealous rage over the situation with Juliet. I wanted to be at her side, to have her with me. Instead, I couldn't even find a moment to ask her how she was doing, to hold her hand and make sure she was okay. I didn't know if she'd heard anything more from Zac or her lawyers, if maybe they'd found a way to squash that moron so she could drop this pretense with McDonnell.
Gran didn't seem overly charmed with all of her sudden company, either. We all sat around the big table on the porch at dinner, and she erupted in complaints that we weren't entertaining enough.
"I expected tales of Hollywood insanity," she said at one point. "You two have to be the most boring movie stars there are. What are those magazine people going to talk to you about, your crocheting strategies?" She'd excused herself from the table after referring to the four of us bodyguards as "gorillas" a couple times, and gone back to the room where I’d learned she played video games most of the day. I suspected she did some other things in there too, based on the cloud of marijuana smoke that wafted from beneath the door of the room. Gran was not your run of the mill grandmother, that was for sure.
As the evening wore on, Jack asked if Chad and I would be willing to take the first overnight shift. "I need a break from this chicken," he said, gesturing down at where Chessy stood on his boot, her head laid against his shin.
"Maybe you should just stop fighting it," I suggested. "She loves you. Be happy."
Jack sighed. "Right." Then he turned and went into his room, pulling his foot in last and using the door to basically scrape the chicken from his leg. She squawked and hollered angrily outside the door until he pushed a pillow out for her. It must have smelled like him or something, because she pecked at it a few times, and finally settled on top of it, keeping watch on his threshold like a dedicated guard chicken.
"Oh man," Chad laughed. "I'll get the perimeter. I like the smell of the air out there. Less chickeny.“
I was relieved. If Chad was outside, I wouldn't have to sneak around too much to get up to Juliet's room. And I was desperate to see her.
When the house was quiet, except for Gran screeching in her little back room, I headed up the stairs. I tried to be as quiet as I could, but a two hundred and twenty pound guy on two hundred year old stairs was bound to make some noise. Still, if I’d ever needed to sneak, it was now. If we were caught together, it wasn’t just my job, but Juliet’s entire career. And maybe Ryan’s too. At the top of the stairs, I turned, knocking lightly on the second door, as Juliet had instructed.
The door opened a crack, and Juliet's beautiful face appeared in the glow of golden light from within.
"Jace," she said, her voice happy and relieved. Her hand found mine, and seconds later we were pressed together, her back to the closed door and our bodies reminding us how perfectly we fit.
There were no words between us for a while, as we stripped off our clothes and found our way to Juliet's bed, each of us being as quiet as we could be.
I wanted to memorize every inch of Juliet's body, and the sound of her quiet moans as I slipped down beneath the covers, licking and kissing my way to her sweet center and giving her every bit of attention I'd been dying to give her all day. Feeling her pulse and release around my fingers as I sucked and kissed her was possibly the best moment of my life, though when I sank into her a few moments later, feeling her tight warmth envelop me, I revised that opinion.
Every minute with Juliet was the best moment of my life.
When the frenzy had stilled and we lay in each other's arms forehead to forehead, I finally felt like I could breathe.
"God, I missed you," I told her.
"Me too. I hate this, Jace. I know it's awful ..."
"Watching you with him ..." I couldn't even continue the thought.
"I know. But it's just a couple more days. Let's talk about something else." Her hand rubbed a soothing line up and down my arm, over my shoulder, and I closed my eyes, letting myself relax. "How's your mom? Your brother?"
Tension seeped back into me. "Let's not talk about that." There was no solution there, and I didn't want to waste the few minutes I had left with her on something so awful. "Mom says Elvis is good company."
She laughed lightly. "He's a good little guy." Her bright green eyes fixed mine. "Tell me what's going on with your brother, Jace. I know you're worried. Don't keep it from me."
I sighed and pulled her closer, telling myself not to tell her, not to pull her into this. But the comfort of having her in my arms, having her soft body so near to mine and her sweet voice encouraging me to share was too much. I started talking, and then I couldn't stop. I told her about the rehab center, about what would happen if the hospital released Jarred to my mother, about how he'd relapse and Mom would blame herself. "It's impossible," I told her. "And there's nothing I can do to stop it. I already scared the shit out of some poor hospital administrator and a discharge nurse, neither of whom have any real control over this."
"Aren't there rehab centers that don't have wait lists?"
I squeezed my eyes shut. If I told her the truth, I already knew what would happen. She'd try to fix it. With money, which was like water to her. But on top of everything she was already doing for Mom, it would be way too much. And how could I hold my head up around her if I let her save me over and over again? I was a strong capable man. I could figure this out. "Not an option." I prayed she would leave it alone.
"That's insane. I know someone who just went into one a week ago, and she hadn't even planned it the week before that. It was like checking into a hotel. They can’t all be overcrowded."
