Chapter 3
Wes
That afternoon, the business phone rang while I was parked across the street from the building where Juliette had gone to work, waiting for her to get out of a meeting.
I had two phones, and whenever the first one rang, I knew I had to brace myself. Because it could only be one person.
I picked up. “Hey, Vince.”
“How’s it going over there?”
“Do we need to talk about pizza or…?”
“No,” he said. “We’re good.”
“Okay.” I ran my hand through my hair. “Everything is going well, actually. But your daughter runs a tight ship.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that she’s very regimented. Everything has to be a certain way.”
“Well, good. She probably gets that from me.” He paused. “Anyway, you’re not there to make friends.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“No funny business. You get what I’m saying? I’m not stupid. I know my daughter is a very attractive woman.”
I had to laugh at that. Not because Juliette wasn’t attractive, because she sure as hell was. But Juliette wouldn’t let me near her with a ten-foot pole. I chuckled under my breath. “She doesn’t seem to like me very much.”
“Good. Keep it that way. Your job is not to make her like you. It’s to protect her.”
“Understood.” I tugged at my hair. “I take my job very seriously, sir.”
“Juliette and I got off to a rough start in our relationship,” he said. “But she’s the most precious thing to me. I’ve done a lot of things wrong, but Juliette is something good that’s come from my life.”
I had to smile at the rare moment of softness coming from a man who was normally tough as nails. It didn’t last long, of course.
“So, if anything happens to her, you won’t see the light of day,” he added.
“Nothing’s going to happen to her,” I assured him. And if it does, it will be because her stubborn ass can’t get out of her own way.
“Well, glad to hear you’re confident in your abilities. Don’t let your guard down. And keep me apprised of anything suspicious.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll be checking in again soon.”
“Looking forward to it,” I lied as he hung up.
I let out a long breath and rested my head against the back of the seat.
The call with Vince had left me feeling a little rattled.
Not sure why. Maybe I was still getting used to the fact that my life wasn’t really my own anymore.
Anytime I had to talk to him, it was a stark reminder of my new reality.
The passenger-side door suddenly opened, and Juliette slid into the car. I’d been so preoccupied, I hadn’t noticed her walking toward me, which wasn’t good. My eyes should’ve been on her from the moment she left the building until she was safely in the car.
“What’s gotten into you?” she asked, likely noticing that I was on edge.
“Nothing.” I started the engine and glanced over at her. “Put your seatbelt on.”
She reluctantly followed my order. “I was going to…”
It surprised me that she didn’t give me shit for telling her what to do. Still tense, I chewed on my bottom lip as I drove.
“Did something happen today?” she asked.
“No.” My tone was curt.
“Wes…”
“What?” I snapped.
“If we’re gonna do this, you need to be honest with me. Am I in danger?”
Shit. I didn’t want her to think that. I also didn’t want to admit that her father made me nervous, but I didn’t want to freak her out for no reason, either.
“Nothing’s wrong, Juliette. Truly. Your dad called to check in. That’s all. I told him everything was fine.”
“If everything is fine, then why are you in a mood?”
“Because I’m not a machine,” I answered. “When someone reminds me what’s at stake, I can’t help but react. But there’s nothing new. Nothing to worry about. The call was just a kick in the ass for me to remember why I’m here, even if you make it easy to forget sometimes.”
She blushed. “Was that a compliment?”
“I guess you could say that. There are worse places I could be than hanging out with you, even if you’re cranky. You’re a good distraction. And this still beats a lot of other gigs.”
“So I’m one step up from guarding a laundromat that’s a front for money laundering?”
I chuckled. “Many steps up from that.”
“Oh good.” She winked.
She seemed to be getting more comfortable with me, and that was a win that might just cancel out the call from Vince. I calmed down for the ride back to her place. But the calm was short-lived.
When we returned to the house, Juliette noticed that I’d turned down the temperature—quite a bit—before we left this morning.
“What the hell? It feels like Antarctica in here, Wes.”
“It was hotter than hell earlier. You said you didn’t want me to take off my shirt. I turned down the temperature so that wouldn’t be an issue when we got back.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “You don’t have the right to do that.”
“Well, if the thermostat is off-limits, then I do have a right to take off my damn shirt when it’s hot in here.”
Juliette proceeded to adjust the temperature back and storm off to her bedroom. She only came out once to grab something from the fridge and take it to her room.
I’d picked up some food while Juliette was at work earlier, so I made myself dinner and took advantage of the space she’d allotted me.
After my meal, the temperature became too much to bear again. So, I slipped my tee over my head.
When Juliette finally emerged around eight PM, her eyes went wide. She didn’t even have to speak before I defended myself.
“Look, like I told you, as long as it’s hot as balls in here, I’m gonna be shirtless. You need to get used to it.”
She mumbled something under her breath as she headed for the fridge.
And I waited.
Here it comes.
“What the?”
I flashed a mischievous grin. “I did a little rearranging.”
I’d put all of Juliette’s stuff on the left side to mess with her, moving mine to the right.
But all of her precious Erewhon food was still intact.
I just wanted to shake things up a little.
As she stood there with her mouth agape, I asked, “What exactly happens if your stuff is on the left, Juliette? Does the world end? Don’t worry.
I didn’t touch any of your food except to move it. ”
“What the hell is that smell?”
Crap. I knew she’d call that out. “It’s smoked Portuguese sausage. There’s this guy in West Hollywood who has a smoker in his yard. I found him on Reddit. He smokes the meat all day and sells it.”
“When did you have time to get smoked meat?”
“I swung over there really quick after I dropped you at your meeting. It was in the trunk, which is probably why you didn’t smell it when you got in the car.”
She shook her head and took out a few berries. She washed them before popping one into her mouth. She winced and nearly spit it out. “These taste like smoke! Berries are porous, you know.”
“Well, your rules said nothing about freshly smoked meats, so I thought it was okay.”
“You need to keep that crap out of the fridge. I feel like I’m eating a blueberry-flavored chimney.” This time she spit a berry into the trash.
I stifled laughter as she once again stormed away to her room. I hadn’t realized how pungent the smoked chorizo would be. She was right—you couldn’t smell much else in the fridge. That was my bad and an unintended consequence.
I vowed to make up for it tomorrow by cleaning out the fridge and restocking it with her frou-frou berries and anything else that might’ve been impacted by the unfortunate smoked-sausage takeover.
Once nine PM rolled around and she hadn’t reemerged, I figured it was safe to get comfortable in my sleeping spot for the night. I took off my pants and lay down in my boxer briefs.
I was halfway into a movie on Netflix when the doorbell rang.
Shit. Who the fuck is here at this hour?
I peeked through the peephole and found an innocent-looking woman standing there.
Redhead, mid-thirties, and a penchant for wearing green apparently.
I recognized her as Juliette’s neighbor.
I bet she was the one who’d called the cops.
Without thinking it through too much, I opened the door and said, “Can I help you?”
She looked me up and down, and her eyes slowly widened. I’d sort of forgotten I wasn’t wearing pants. Whoops.
She cleared her throat. “I’m Pam from next door.
Officer Horton explained to me what happened last night.
I wanted to apologize for causing a scene.
I didn’t realize Juliette had a boyfriend staying here.
We don’t have too many unfamiliar cars in this neighborhood, and we try to look out for each other.
” She looked me up and down again. “Please accept my sincerest apologies for intruding.”
I nodded. “No problem at all.”
A second later, I heard Juliette’s voice behind me. “What the hell is going on?”
I turned to find her eyes scrolling my body before they landed on my crotch.
I guess my smoked sausage wasn’t the one she was most concerned about anymore.