AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Juliet?” Jay prodded. “I wouldn’t take up much of your time.”
Time wasn’t the issue at all. All she had now was time, unending, empty stretches of it, and she had to force that thought away as another sharp ache pierced her chest. “But why would you need me?” She must have missed something.
“I said I want to do an interview with you.”
“No,” Juliet said, her answer automatic. “Not a good idea.”
“Have you read the book? Are you worried about what it reveals?”
“I’ve read it. And I’m not worried about what it reveals at all.” She’d pored over every printed page. What Wayne had said about their romance—She was everything fresh and fine this jaded soldier had forgotten about the world—had torn new holes in her heart, but in the end it was only a very small part of Wayne’s story. The rest of the book had been devoted to his experiences in the Army and at war.
“So why not?” Jay pressed.
A knot of tension tightened at the back of her skull. Was she having fun yet? “General Matters is everything I want people to know about my husband, but I don’t think it’s wise to remind them of my connection to him.”
Though she’d give anything for the book to be a sensation, giving an interview surely wasn’t the right way to make that happen. She made a face. “We’re both aware I’m not the public’s favorite person.”
Jay frowned. “Yes, but I think—”
“I think you need to take off your press pass.” Nikki placed her hand on her fiancé’s forearm and sent Juliet a look of exasperated sympathy. “Jay, now is not the time to discuss business-type things.”
“But—”
“No.” Nikki’s voice was firm. “Now is the time for entertaining things. Things like ogling guys. Juliet, behind you and to your left. Check out that dude dressed like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.”
Grateful to drop the subject of the interview, Juliet glanced over her shoulder. “Oh,” she said. “Um.”
“I know,” Nikki answered. “Kinda cute face, but those caveman legs would do better without tighty whities. Ankle-length boxers, maybe.”
Jay grabbed Nikki’s empty glass from her hand and then Juliet’s. “We’re all going to need another round if we’re to survive the cookie’s critiques. I’ll be right back.”
Nikki smiled at his retreating form and sidled closer. “Okay, now it’s just us again. So…how’s it going with Noah?”
“Not.” Juliet admitted, without meeting her youngest sister’s gaze. “Not going.”
The other woman shrugged. “Oh, well. As we mermaids say, there are plenty of fish in the sea.” She lifted her right hand and using the shield of its palm, pointed her left forefinger at a man standing a few feet away. “That guy over there. The one in the kilt? Jay knows him. Well, Jay knows everybody, but I’m pretty sure he’s single. Look! He’s giving you the eye.”
Juliet didn’t look. She was still staring at Nikki and her hands, the shield, the pointer. She hadn’t seen anyone do that since high school and a bubble of laughter caught in her throat. More of her tension slipped away. “I’ve always been suspect of men in dresses.”
“That isn’t a dress, it’s a kilt. A kilt is like a uniform, and you like those.”
The laugh slipped out. “Nikki…” She glanced at the man this time and decided that it wasn’t the skirt, but the knee socks that really turned her off. “I don’t think he’s for me.”
“Well, survey the crowd. Jay and I will steer you clear of the sharks.”
Juliet had to laugh again, even as she followed orders. Maybe there was something to what Nikki said. She’d told herself her reaction to Noah wasn’t personal. Of course she didn’t see herself hopping into bed with some stranger—instruction-adhering, rule-following widow Juliet probably wouldn’t go that far—but what was the harm in looking?
However, not one of the men milling about the party caught her eye. Not the guy in the kilt, not the hirsute Tom Cruise in his white dress shirt, not the several pirates, or the many fans of plastic crowns. There was an elegant gentleman in a Clooney-worthy tux, but as he was hand-in-hand with a cowboy wearing chaps and a ten-gallon hat, she slid her gaze right over him.
Then the crowd shifted and she caught a glimpse of a tall male. It was just a flash of his shoulder, in a darkish T-shirt, but something about him caused her to pause. She narrowed her eyes and kept her focus pinpointed there. Another movement of the knot of people and there was that shoulder again, then the flat plane of a masculine back.
