Forbidden Boy by Abbott, Hailey (moboreader .txt) 📗

the phone. Julianne shook her head sadly—she knew exactly what Chloe was crying to her friends about—but she turned away and headed into her bedroom anyway. There was nothing she could do to help her sister tonight, and she needed to rest for work in the morning.

As far as Julianne was concerned, work was both the best and the worst part of this summer. On one hand, anything that kept her away from the tension at home was a good thing. Between the constant harassment from the Moores’ lawyers, her dad walking around the house like a zombie, and Chloe’s constant careening among normal Chloe, desperate crying Chloe, and Chloe-who-was-determined-to-fix-everything-and-comfort-everybody, Julianne felt like she was living in some bizarre, alternative universe. The only thing that felt constant was Remi, but with his comfort came the need to act like neither knew the other one existed ninety-eight percent of the time. On the other hand, a huge portion of the time that Remi and Jules needed to avoid each other was at work. So every weekday they had the opportunity to see each other was also a day in which they had to pretend they couldn’t care less that the other one was around—or risk getting busted by Bill or ribbed by the guys from the crew at an inopportune moment.

✦ ✦ ✦

The following morning she was out in the courtyard sitting up on top of a ladder, working on her ivy mural. She felt like some sort of queen holding court—every few minutes, someone would pop their head into the courtyard, stand at the bottom of the ladder, and compliment her on how well everything was coming together, how professional it looked, or how much the owners were going to love it. Perched on top of her ladder in her paint-stained cutoffs, a black-paint-splattered T-shirt, and her new pink retro Pumas, with her oversize sunglasses obscuring half her face, Julianne felt (at least for that moment) like she was doing everything she could have hoped to do with her summer. With every brushstroke, she counted one thing that was going even better than she could have hoped. Stroke—she had an awesome job. Stroke—where she got to spend all day outside. Stroke—working with her hands. Stroke—on something really cool. Stroke—and, sometimes, even painting. Stroke—for money. Stroke—

only a few feet away from one of the most amazing guys she’d ever met.

As if on cue, Remi popped his head out into the courtyard. His sneak attacks had lost their effect now that he and Julianne knew each other well enough to anticipate the other’s next move.

“Hey!” he called up the ladder. “How’s the painting going?”

“Why don’t you come up here and tell me?” Julianne called back down. Remi shimmied up the ladder two rungs at a time, until his face was almost level with Julianne’s. “So, what do you think?” she asked, tilting her head down toward him.

“Brilliant,” Remi assured her, his dark eyes darting from wall to wall, surveying Julianne’s work. Julianne could tell from the way his eyes brightened as he looked around the courtyard that he liked what he saw.

“Wherever can I find the gentleman who discovered such sparkling local talent? Clearly he’s a genius with discriminating taste.” He looked up at Jules and grinned.

She had never met anyone who grinned like that. It made her feel dizzy and warm.

Julianne arched her eyebrows and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s going to be pretty hard to track him down. I heard he used to be a project manager around here, but they had to let him go because he was always slacking off and hanging around with his girlfriend.”

“Poor guy,” Remi said quietly, looking down the ladder.

“I know,” Julianne answered wryly. “But, for what it’s worth, I heard that the girlfriend was totally hot, if that makes you feel any better.”

“You know, oddly enough, it does. Actually, I heard that, too.” Remi ran his fingers over Julianne’s cheekbone. “She was gorgeous. And insanely talented.”

Julianne laughed and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure this guy must have had something going for him, to get together with her.”

“Not much. Mainly, he was charming.” Remi

laughed. Then he reached up, rested his hand on the back of Julianne’s head, and kissed her. As soon as their lips touched, Julianne heard a noise in the doorway.

Remi quickly hopped up another rung on the ladder and leaned over Jules’s shoulder, pretending to admire the detail work on a section of the painting.

Julianne peered down around Remi to see who’d come into the courtyard. Bill Cullen was standing at the bottom of the ladder, looking bemused. “What are you guys up to?” he asked.

“Bill, have you seen the detail work on Julianne’s painting here?” Remi asked thoughtfully. “It’s … very impressive. The client is going to be really thrilled.” He climbed down a few rungs of the ladder before turning his eyes back to Julianne. “Keep up the great work,” he said as neutrally as possible. He hopped off the ladder and turned back to Bill again. “It’s really … just great.”

Bill raised one graying eyebrow. “Jules is great. That’s not news to me,” he said matter-of-factly. Then he turned and headed out of the courtyard, calling over his shoulder, “Lunch break’s at one-thirty today. If you want pizza, it’s three bucks.”

It wasn’t until Bill had left that Julianne felt the heat leave her face and noticed the green paint smeared on Remi’s shirt. They exchanged a quick, panicked look and Remi mouthed, “Do you think he knows?”

Julianne shrugged and whispered, “Maybe?”

The near miss was enough to put them both on edge.

Remi shifted his weight from one foot to the other while Julianne twisted the same piece of hair around her finger over and over again.

“Um, well, okay. ’Bye,” Remi blurted, dashing out of the courtyard.

“Yeah, ’bye,” Julianne replied, but even as he hurried away, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

Chapter Seventeen

Julianne couldn’t believe she was finally putting the finishing touches on her mom’s painting.