slide, which only made her feel warmer toward him. He had been so upset that day at the restaurant, and now he had that same look on his face. It was like he was her knight. He had rushed in to protect and defend her like no one else had ever done. Maybe Lucia sensed something about him that she hadn’t. What was it like to have someone in your corner?
Not that such a feeling was totally foreign to her…it wasn’t. Vincent had seemed to be there for her initially. He had taken her out to nice restaurants, bought her nice things. She held her head in her hand, her elbow on the table, just realizing how she had been looking for the wrong things. Money…Vincent had plenty of it, but what else did he have? He had told her he loved her once, and she believed him.
She pulled her thoughts back to the present. She couldn’t take being scrutinized right now. Thankfully, Jake seemed to be backing off.
Lucia whispered, “Chica, tell us. We both want to help you.” She reached for her friend’s hand.
Jake had guessed correctly—Vincent had slapped her before the meeting. And then he had gripped her hair in his fist and brought his face within inches of hers and told her to drop the class or drop the engagement. In response, she’d boldly declared that she didn’t care, and she had meant every word. Suddenly, his whole attitude had changed. He had apologized and begged her to reconsider. Now she didn’t know which way to turn. Through this class, her dream was finally coming true. Well, not really, but at least it was forming a life on paper. She was opening her own shop. No, it would be a shoppe, with a p and an e on the end, or a boutique.
“Julia? I want the truth. Please.” Jake was speaking in a hushed voice now, but he gazed straight into her eyes and her insides melted.
“Like I said, I fell. Please, I want to work on our project. Let me show you what I did on my Pinterest page.”
So she avoided the discussion by turning her laptop to show Lucia and Jake what she had chosen for their starting inventory; the turquoise, lavender, and white décor she had chosen; the sign for the store face; and counters displaying jewelry. Everything. There would be sprigs of lavender everywhere and lavender candles on the shelves, her favorite fragrance. She had put so much effort into this, and she had to admit she had done a beautiful job. Vincent had caught her working on it, and of course he’d told her it was the stupidest idea he had ever seen.
But not Jake and Lucia.
“On my gosh, chica. This is beautiful,” Lucia said. “You have the eye for this.”
Jake’s eyes widened as he took in all the work she’d done. “Nice, Julia. Did you do all that by yourself?”
She nodded, so happy they were impressed with her work that she found herself choking up. To clear away the mist in her eyes, she stared at the ceiling for a long moment. They had no idea how long she had dreamed of a store of her own.
Lucia packed up her stuff and offered a hasty, “Hey, I have to go. See you both in class tomorrow. I need to start my homework since I’m working tomorrow.” And with that, she was gone. It was obvious she was purposefully leaving her alone with Jake, but Julia couldn’t summon up the energy to be mad. Besides, she wanted to be alone with him.
As soon as Lucia left, Jake gently reached over and pulled off Julia’s sunglasses. Her instinct was to back away from him in shame, but he wouldn’t let her. Tears pooled in her eyes as he ran a feather light touch down her cheek. “Does it still hurt?”
She shook her head and stared into her lap. But he didn’t let her break his gaze—he lifted her chin and stared at the black and blue eye. She knew how bad it looked. Even if she hadn’t known, the fury in his eyes would have told her.
He leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her cheek, and the tears slid down her face so fast that he must have tasted the saltiness of them. “A real man would never treat you
Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright