Why Romeo Hates Juliet (30 page)

Okay - the first thing she needed was Nana’s magic elastic band around her wrist.

Juliet raced to the kitchen and started opening drawers, looking for one. Finding it, she slipped it on and breathed a sigh of relief. It was one thing to say no to Romeo Boyd when she knew Sara was in the house, but quite another when it would only be him and her alone together, tonight, with his demanding lips on hers, with his hot, hard body pressed up against her soft, pliant one, with his… She quickly snapped the elastic on her skin and the sting brought her back to reality, dissolving the delicious images out of her mind. Okay - she could do this, she reasoned. She was strong. She could resist him.

Taking in a deep breath to steady her nerves, she walked to the sliding glass doors and went out back. The summer heat had increased over the past few days, but the cooling breezes from the oceans kept the humidity at bay, creating the perfect beach weather.

Her eyes scanned the property and she quickly spotted Romeo. With his hair and beard as wild as ever, and wearing a pair of baggy, cargo shorts with an open Hawaiian shirt, and his injured arm still in a sling, he was supervising the men who were now laying down strips of sod over what had once been the swimming pool. The area was now completely level and the grass extended to the edge of the sand which then lay 30 feet all the way to the ocean. The work had almost been finished and the pool was now a distant but still terrifying memory for her.

Romeo spotted her then and broke out into a huge grin. He walked up to her, planting a quick kiss on her lips. “What do you think?” he asked, possessively plopping his good arm around her shoulders and pulling her against his body as if it was the most normal and everyday thing in the world to do. His pleased eyes wandered back over the property.

Juliet’s heart had begun racing the second he’d noticed her. And when he’d kissed her, it had actually skipped a beat; she’d felt it. And now, the way she was plastered against him, with his protective arm around her and with his body heat enveloping her - well - she was in trouble and she knew it.

“It’s - it’s amazing.” Her words tumbled breathlessly out of her mouth. “I can’t believe you got this all done so fast.” He shrugged his one good shoulder. “I wanted it done today and damn the cost. You’ll never have to be afraid of that pool again, Juliet, I swear it.”

She looked at him with new eyes. “You can be quite formidable when you want to be, can’t you?” He laughed and nodded, “When I have to be.”

“How’s your shoulder feeling?”

“Better.” He lied. It wasn’t feeling better and in fact, the throbbing hadn’t dissipated since yesterday, since he’d performed CPR on Juliet. Dr.

Clayton had told him that today he was supposed to have rested and kept his shoulder immobile as much as possible, but he’d ignored the instructions when he’d supervised the construction work on the pool. He re-focused on Juliet who was speaking to him again.

“Glad to hear it. I want you better, Romeo. I hope you know that.”

He nodded. “I do. I know you didn’t mean to shoot me.” And he meant it. After seeing how Juliet had tried to help him get better these past few days, he now knew that the shooting had been an accident and that she’d never meant to hurt him. His concerned eyes wandered over her beautiful face, looking for signs of distress. “More importantly, how are you feeling?” he asked, concern for her etched in his question.

“I’m fine. We’re quite a pair aren’t we, giving that hospital all that business lately.” Romeo burst out laughing. “Let’s make a pact to stop shopping there, okay?” Drawing her in closer to him, he gave her another quick kiss, this time on her temple.

Juliet inwardly sighed. God - it felt so wonderful just being with him like this. She loved him so much and her heart was practically bursting with that knowledge, but she couldn’t or wouldn’t or shouldn’t do anything about it. How had this happened to her? How had she fall en in love with him when she’d hated him so much at first?

She suddenly cleared her throat. “I - umm - Sara has moved back to her beach house next door.” Romeo’s eyebrows lifted in shock. “Really?”

“Yeah, she thinks we’re both well enough to - umm - not need her help anymore.” He broke out into a huge smile. “So you mean it’s just you and me - alone - in the house now?”

“I - I guess.”

Juliet felt his good arm, still possessively wrapped around her shoulders squeeze her even tighter into his body. It was obvious he was very pleased by this sudden turn of events.

Romeo silently nodded his approval as he kept grinning. Finally, things were going his way! And he could feel himself already getting hard at the hot images racing through his mind of himself and his beautiful Juliet alone in the house tonight - in bed together - naked. “Good ole, Sara.

She’s a real trooper, isn’t she?” he commented casually, as if he was just talking about the weather.

Juliet looked over to her sister’s beach house and glared at it. “Yeah, a real
trooper
,” she sarcastically mumbled, half to herself. What she really wanted to say was that her sister was a real
‘traitor’
for leaving her to deal with this mess alone.

At that moment, both Tommy and Dr. Burrel came walking from the direction of the driveway, carrying grocery bags. Tommy reached them first.

“Okay, Romeo, here are the clams and the rest of your groceries.” He turned to Juliet. “Hey Juliet. Faith says ‘hi’.” Juliet turned to Romeo. “What’s this about clams?”

“I thought we’d have a clambake in the sand near the ocean tonight - but not too near the ocean,” he smirked, obviously taking her fear of the water into consideration. “Tommy’s built a fire pit for us.”

By then, Nick had reached the trio, lugging his own grocery bags. “How much stuff did you order, Romeo?” he asked, as he plunked the heavy bags down on one of the patio tables.

“Enough.” Romeo frowned as he took in Nick’s interested face when the other man’s eyes landed on Juliet.

“hello, Dr. Burrell,” Juliet smiled. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Juliet - lovely as ever - I hope you’re feeling better today.” Nick gave her a devastating grin and Romeo’s frown grew deeper.

“I am. And I just wanted to properly thank you and Tommy…,” she turned to Tommy and smiled before turning back to Nick, “… for helping to save me yesterday. Sara told me what you both did.” Pulling out of Romeo’s embrace, Juliet went first to Tommy to give him a big hug before doing the same with Nick. “Thank you both so much.”

Nick gave her a quick squeeze before releasing her. Hell, why not, he thought to himself. After all, she was the one who’d just launched her perfect, sweet body into his arms and he was going to take whatever she was willing to offer, even if Romeo was standing only a few feet away and scowling at him. It was all very innocent anyway, and his friend shouldn’t be mad. He was just playing his part in this whole charade, wasn’t he? And he was playing it to perfection, so Romeo should be thanking him and stop being so surly.

Juliet pulled out of Dr. Burrel ’s arms. “Doctor, can I speak to you in private, please?” she asked, before turning to her ‘husband’. “And yes - we will be talking about you,” she cracked, giving Romeo an impish smile.

“The good doctor has already had a session with me today, Juliet, so we don’t want to keep him,” Romeo scowled, as his eyes landed back on Nick’s face, silently signaling to the other man to watch his step where she was concerned.

At that instant, Juliet’s woman’s intuition kicked in and she suddenly realized that Romeo might be jealous of Dr. Burrel when it came to her.

But why? That was crazy! There was nothing between her and the doctor except a professional relationship having to do with Romeo’s amnesia.

Maybe she was just imagining things.

“I won’t keep him long, I promise,” Juliet said as she approached Nick. Slipping her arm through his, she began leading him in the direction of the ocean. Curious, she turned back then and noticed Romeo’s eyes narrowing on the both of them. That’s interesting, she thought to herself.

When they’d reached a fair distance away from her ‘husband’ and Tommy, Juliet stopped and faced the doctor. “Dr. Burrell, I’m very worried how - what happened yesterday - could affect Romeo and his recovery. I mean, it was very traumatic, my nearly drowning, and something that devastating - well, could it impede his memory from coming back?” She bit her lip with worry. This was something she’d been thinking about since she’d regained consciousness yesterday in the hospital.

Nick frowned. So that’s what she’d wanted to talk to him about? Secretly, he’d hoped it was something more personal, like maybe she was becoming interested in him? Okay, so maybe it was financial suicide to be hoping Romeo’s girl was interested in him instead of the superstar, but with someone as fresh and sweet and real as Juliet Soma, all logic and common sense went out the proverbial window.

He put his concerned ‘doctor’s face’ back on. “Juliet, please stop worrying. I’ve examined Romeo today and he’s doing fine with what happened yesterday. In fact, I think this project with the pool even helped him clear out some of his own demons and I’ve got all the confidence in the world that he’ll soon regain his complete memory. He’s doing very well and his prognosis is excellent.” Tears welled up in Juliet’s eyes as a heavy weight seem lifted from her slender shoulders. “Thank you so much,” she whispered, as she instinctively threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “That’s the best news you could have given me.”

“My pleasure, Juliet. It’s always my - pleasure,” he hugged back, squeezing her as tightly as she was him. Hell, why not, he again thought to himself? She’d thrown her arms around him first and not the other way around, and he wasn’t a saint and she was absolutely breathtaking.

As Juliet was about to pull out of his arms, she suddenly looked over Nick’s shoulder towards the house and spotted a scowling Romeo with his one good hand balled into a fist by his side, shooting daggers of anger and suspicion at them with narrowed eyes. It was so plain to see and Juliet immediately knew that her earlier instincts had been correct. He was jealous of her and Dr. Burrell. But why? It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make any sense at all.

~ ~ ~

The inky night sky with its blanket of stars lay over Prince Edward Island like a canopy protecting a precious treasure. On the beach, outside Romeo’s house, a fire roared in the sand, providing light and warmth to the two occupants sitting on the blanket. The gentle lapping of the ocean could be heard over the crackling flames.

“Wow, am I stuffed,” Juliet gushed, as she patted her full stomach. “That was so good.” She was dressed in a plain white t-shirt, jeans and her feet were bare.

Wearing his usual long cargo shorts and shirtless so that his arm, still nestled in a sling, would be unencumbered, Romeo took a sip from his bottled water. “We should have done this sooner. The clams were amazing.”

Juliet nodded as she looked at the uneaten leftover food. They’d removed the gril from the fire, but there was still plenty of clams, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob and carrots nestled on top of it. “I’ll bring some over to Sara tomorrow,” she commented, as she took a poker and stoked the fire.

“You and Sara are very close, aren’t you?” he asked.

“We’ve been through a lot together over the years, so yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“She told me about what happened to you when you were a kid, your drowning I mean. I think she called it the summer of hell because she said your parents busted up then too. What happened?”

Juliet frowned. “She wasn’t supposed to tell you anything. Your doctor said that…”

“Juliet, never mind him. I want to know. What happened with your parents?”

She shrugged, as her mind raced back to that awful summer. “My dad, if you can call him that, was an account manager for a tech company and he had to do a lot of traveling between Vancouver and Toronto. What Sara and I found out later was that he had a girlfriend stashed away in Toronto that he’d been having an affair with for years. They’d had a child together, a little girl, and my mom found out about it only when he asked her for a divorce. We had no idea he had another family in another city.”

“Wow. That must have been a shock for you and Sara.”

“More so for my mom. See, we were still kids and we didn’t quite understand it all, but my mom, well she wasn’t the strongest person to begin with. It kind of broke her spirit. And after he left, we had a really tough time financially. My dad was a deadbeat and only sent money sporadically, so my mom had to get another job to support us, and we went to live with her mother, who was Nana to us. She was a tough old bird who really raised Sara and me after that. She only died a few years ago at 94 years of age. Mom died last year of breast cancer. She was never the same after the divorce.”

Romeo had gotten very quiet as he’d listened to Juliet reliving her past. “What about your dad?”

“He’s still alive and doing well in Toronto. He married the girlfriend and raised his new family while forgetting about the old one.”

“Did you see him after the divorce?”

“Sara and I went a few times over the years when we were growing up, but it was so far away and we didn’t have the money to travel often, and he didn’t have enough to pay for two families, so one year turned into two and that into three and before we knew it, we didn’t see him anymore. The phone calls from him became sporadic, and by the time we were adults, they’d stopped completely. We haven’t heard from him in years and we don’t expect to. Sara and I made peace with it a long time ago. It is what it is, I guess.” Romeo’s eyes lowered as he began thinking about his own father. He guessed his wasn’t the only deadbeat dad in the world. They came in all sizes, shapes and social classes apparently. His thoughtful eyes came back up to her. He watched her wistfully. With poker in hand, she mindlessly played with the logs in the fire, staring at the flames.

“Your mom and your Nana did an amazing job because both you and Sara turned out great.” She turned to him then. “Thanks for saying that, but I still think it’s important to have a father. Growing up without one, I’ve come to realize that. A child should have a dad in their life, and not a far away dad but one who’s there all the time, taking them to baseball games and tap dance classes, someone who’s picking them up after school and teaching them about bad boys and how to stay away from them.” Her eyes twinkled at him. God, he looked so handsome, she thought, as she took in his sexy smile and wild hair.

Romeo smirked, immediately understanding her meaning. “Am I really so bad?” he teased her back.

“That’s something you’ll have to remember for yourself, Romeo Boyd. No more information from me.” She turned back to the flames and poked at the fire again.

As she did so, Romeo’s eyes landed on the elastic band dangling on her wrist. “Why do you always wear a rubber band around your wrist?”

“It’s to remind me of something.”

“What?”

“Something personal. Maybe I’ll tell you one day.”

Romeo frowned. He didn’t like that answer one bit. He was in love with her and he hungered to know every miniscule detail about her. Where did she live in the deepest recesses of her being? Who was she really, and what did she think and what did she feel? He wanted to know it all and he wouldn’t be satisfied until then. “Tell me now,” he whispered, his ravenous eyes never leaving her beautiful face.

Juliet sat back on her haunches and gave him a coy smile, inwardly debating whether she should tell him the truth or not, mixed in with a few fibs, of course. “You won’t like the answer.”

“Try me.”

“It’s to prevent anything - physicall- happening between us.”

“What?” Romeo expelled the word out in shock, not believing what he’d just heard. “How can a simple elastic band do that?” Juliet smiled at him. “Well, your shoulder needs to heal and we can’t - I mean - we shouldn’t - do anything because of that, but if we should get too close, then I just have to snap the band on my wrist, like this,” she pulled on the rubber and let it go, snapping it on her skin. “Owwww,” she exclaimed, as she began to rub the sore spot before looking back up at his incredulous expression. “See? It brings me back to my senses and puts a stop to - things. My Nana taught me that one.”

Romeo burst out laughing, long and hard. He’d never heard of such a ridiculous thing in his life before. “Now it makes sense. I think that’s the sound I’ve heard a few times when I’ve kissed you recently.”

Juliet giggled. “Probably.”

“So what happens if you take the elastic band off your wrist?” Romeo inched himself closer to her on the blanket. “Do you turn into a pumpkin?” he teased.

Juliet crossed the space between them, bringing her face closer to his too. “I don’t know. Maybe you turn into a frog?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he whispered, as his mesmerizing blue eyes captured hers and the mood suddenly turned more serious.

Juliet looked down at the shield of protection wrapped around her wrist. Sure, it was just a tiny, little strip of rubber, but it had saved her butt a few times with him, and now he was asking her to take it off and see what would happen. Should she do it? Should she make love with him tonight, because that’s really what they were talking about here, not some elastic band dangling on her arm. Should she make love with Romeo Boyd? And it would be making love on her part, not sex. Would it be making love on his part too? Sara believed he loved her. But did he? Or was he just in love with a woman whom he believed was his wife and therefore whom he believed he ‘should’ be in love with? God, it was all too confusing and a total unholy mess!

Romeo had been intently studying her and instinctively knew she’d been trying to make up her mind about whether to sleep with him or not. He knew she was physically attracted to him and her explanation for the elastic band proved that. He knew enough about women to know that if they didn’t like you, no elastic band was needed - ever. But could she love him? He knew she didn’t right now, but maybe one day that physical attraction could turn into love? Okay - maybe he was grasping at flimsy paper straws, but that’s all he had right now because he desperately wanted her, in his arms with his lips all over her body. He’d show her tonight in his bed what he was feeling in his heart for her and he’d love her enough for the both of them. Yeah, that was crazy thinking… and shit like that never really worked out anyway… but tonight, under the stars, with her beautiful, Madonna eyes staring back at him, he would have believed anything that would have allowed him to be with her. He was that desperate.

He brought his index finger up to the centre of Juliet’s chest and slowly began writing an imaginary word on the spot. Juliet watched him intently, and when he’d finished, his hungry eyes came back up to hers.

“What did you write?” she asked him softly.

“My name across your heart.” He paused for a second as he frantically searched her face for a sign. He wanted so desperately to hope that she had some true feelings for him. “Am I in your heart, Juliet?”

Intertwining her fingers through his, Juliet tugged him gently up along with her. “Come with me,” she said simply and led him towards the ocean.

As they approached, she stopped a few feet away and suddenly slipped the elastic band off her wrist, flinging it into the moonlit water.

Romeo could barely breathe, hoping that this meant what he thought it meant. Was she saying ‘yes’ to him? Did she want him as much as he so desperately wanted her? He was practically weak at the knees with his need for her.

Slowly, Juliet wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips within inches of his. “Why don’t we put out the fire on the beach and go start a new one upstairs in the bedroom,” she whispered softly, as her lips twitched into a coy smile.

Romeo let out a surprised gasp as his good arm automatically wrapped itself around her waist. “What are you saying?” he rasped, still not quite believing she was saying yes to him.

“I’m saying - let’s go play doctor, unless you don’t want to?”

“Want to? God, Juliet…” He didn’t even finish his sentence as his frantic lips landed on hers and he began to kiss her with abandon. Juliet returned kiss for delicious kiss as her own soft lips met his demanding ones.

In the dark shadows of the patio next door, Sara had been watching the pair secretly, hoping beyond hope that things would work out between them. Seeing them entwined in each other’s arms and kissing on the beach was a good start. It was about time her big sister had some true love in her life, even if the entire situation was still very messy. All that mattered was that Romeo loved Juliet, and Juliet loved Romeo. That was the one thing she was sure of.

Satisfied with what was happening next door, Sara quietly slipped back inside her own beach house and shut the door to the night.

~ ~ ~