Book 21 Trouble After Dark #3
Katie moves to sit next to Julia and puts her arm around her sister, leaning her head on Julia’s shoulder. “Just because I’m married now doesn’t mean I’m not still your sister, your bestie, your twin. I’m right here, Jule. Right where I’ve always been.”
Katie noticed that Julia didn’t eat at the brunch or the wedding.
She asks when the last time was that Julia ate anything, and when she says it was before the wedding, Katie pulls a banana out of her bag and makes her eat it in front of her.
She also sets up appointments with Victoria at the clinic and Dr. Kevin McCarthy for counseling.
Owen will keep an eye on her while Katie is on her honeymoon.
“Don’t fall down this rabbit hole again, Julia. You’ve worked so hard to get off the merry-go-round. Please, if not for yourself, then for everyone who loves you, please take care of yourself before it gets out of control again.”
Katie asks about Deacon, and Julia says they’re friends and that she’s on a dick diet, so it won’t be anything more.
When Katie asks if she misses sex, Julia responds, “Eh, not really. I’ve spent my entire adult life proving Dad right about me.
It’s time to prove there’s more to me than how I look. ”
Katie goes very still. “Proving Dad right about what?”
“You know. What he said about me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.” Julia’s brain races as she tries to recall telling Katie. “I’m sure I told you.”
“I’m sure you didn’t, so how about you tell me now?”
Julia doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to say the hateful words out loud and give them new power over her—or Katie.
“Tell me.”
Sighing, Julia says, “When I told him I wanted to go to college, he said there was no point. He said I’d spend my life on my back because when men look at me, they see I’m good for only one thing. You know how he was always commenting about my body and how I look.”
Katie stares at her.
“I told you that.”
“You most certainly did not.” Katie blinks back tears. “I hate him so much, for so many things, but that…” Tears roll down her cheeks.
Julia can’t bear to see Katie cry.
“This is why,” Katie says softly.
“Why what?”
“It’s why you starved yourself.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Of course it is, Julia. You did it so you’d have control over something that mattered to him. He was so proud of how beautiful you are, and you did it so you wouldn’t be beautiful to him anymore.”
“That’s not true. He had nothing to do with it.”
Katie wraps her arms around Julia and holds on tight.
“He had everything to do with it.” After a long period of quiet, Katie releases Julia to wipe tears from her face.
“You know, when he called Owen after the trial and told O how his own father abused him as a child, and that’s why he treated us the way he did, part of me wanted to forgive him.
I mean, we all know what kind of damage abuse does to a child.
But it’s stuff like this, what he said to you, that I’ll never forgive him for. ”
Before they go their separate ways, Katie asks Julia to do one more thing for her—give Deacon a chance. He’s one of the good ones.
Deacon spends the time waiting for Julia to come back downstairs talking to Adele about what it was like to run the Surf for fifty years.
When Julia comes down, they head to the docks and meet Colby, an assistant for the summer.
He sets them up on one of the Gansett police boats.
They ride around the pond while Deacon acquaints himself with the area.
They meet Jillian Stark, another summer assistant officer, who is monitoring boaters out on the water.
When they leave the harbor to go around to the other side of the island, Julia notices something in the distance.
When they get closer, they realize it’s a dog swimming frantically in the middle of the ocean.
Before he can stop her, Julia strips down to her bathing suit and dives off the boat to save the puppy.
As Deacon pulls her and the puppy back on board the boat, the puppy bites him.
With Julia freezing, Deacon bleeding and the puppy shaking uncontrollably, they return to the docks.
Blaine is waiting for him and looks angry.
He drives them to the vet to drop off the puppy and to the clinic so they can both get checked out.
They learn the puppy can’t be tested for rabies, but they can monitor him for ten days to see if he shows any signs of the disease.
Julia is placed under warming blankets, and when Deacon joins her, he says she shouldn’t have risked herself that way. She shrugs. “It’s fine.”
Deacon steps closer to her bed, takes hold of her hand and links their fingers. “It’s not fine. You matter to a lot of people, Julia. I saw that this morning with your family. And you matter to me.”
Even though her heart is doing back flips, she tries to keep her voice from giving away her emotional response to his heartfelt words. “You just met me.”
He kisses the back of her hand and then releases it to tuck her arm under the warm blanket. “You matter to me.”
“Why?”
“Do I have to have a reason? Can’t it just be because I like you? That I like spending time with you, that I like what you did for that dog, even if I don’t like that you risked your own safety to do it?”
A nurse arrives to clean him up. “All right, young man, let’s see what you’ve got going on.”
He grimaces at Julia and offers his arm to the nurse.
Julia can’t look away from him. Just when she had been certain there wasn’t one good man left in the world, here comes Deacon Taylor. He’s giving her reason to question everything, especially her dick diet.
The nurse tells him he’ll have to have blood work done when they know the dog’s vaccination status. When Julia’s temperature returns to normal, they’re both discharged.
Blaine returns to the clinic to pick them up. “Hey, um,” Blaine says to Deacon, “so I wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened at my house earlier. I never should’ve said what I did. Of course, you’re welcome in my home and with my family.”
Deacon stares at his brother. “Have you had a stroke or something equally mind-altering?”
“Shut up and accept my apology, will you please?”
“Why?”
“Because! I mean it. I’m sorry I said what I did. You weren’t doing anything wrong, and I totally overreacted to you being in my house with my wife and daughter. I was out of line, and I’m admitting it.”
Deacon continues to stare at his brother for a long moment, and then he smiles. “Tiffany’s pissed at you, right?”
“No.”
“Yes, she is, and she made you apologize to me. Did she shut you off until you did?” He busts up laughing. “Oh, my God! She did! She’s closed for business until you fix this with me, right? I love her.”
Blaine glares at him.
“You really met your match with her, didn’t you, bro?” Deacon says when his laughter subsides.
“Something like that.” Blaine sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth.
“I love it. I already knew I liked her, but this takes it to a whole other level. And guess what? Your precious Addie loves me, too. She and I are gonna be best friends.”
Blaine seethes silently, his entire body stiff with tension.
“This is gonna be an awesome summer. I got my new best friend, Julia, to entertain me. I’ve got my nieces to hang out with and my other new best friend, Tiffany, to get to know.
Gansett Island is looking so much better to me this time around.
I really have to give you credit, Blaine. You knew just what I needed.”
When they return to the hotel, Deacon gets soup from Stephanie’s Bistro. After he and Julia eat in silence, Deacon says, “Let’s talk about the guy that stole from you and how we’re going to get your money back.”
They met through a friend at work. Her friend’s husband played softball with him.
She spoke to him through Facebook and on the phone for about a month before she agreed to have dinner with him.
After a week of really nice dates, Julia invited him back to her apartment.
They were together after that. After a few weeks, he came over upset about needing money for his mother’s treatment.
They needed twenty-five thousand, and she offered the fifteen thousand she had.
He wouldn’t take it at first, but she convinced him to give her his Venmo account and transferred the money. She never saw him after that.
After five days of silence, Julia confronted her friend at work, who broke down, telling her that he had someone else, and they were expecting a baby.
She found out the girlfriend is a nurse who works nights, so she had no idea he was with Julia.
Because she was so upset, she took a few days off and ended up losing her job, then her apartment.
She’d already purchased her ticket to come to the wedding, or she wouldn’t have been able to afford to come.
“You’re the victim of a crime, Julia. It’s not your fault that things went to shit.”
“I trusted him, believed him, had feelings for him. Surely some of it is my fault.”
“None of it is. You were conned by someone who’s probably done this before.”
“What happens now?” Julia asks, drained after reliving the nightmare.
“Now I type this up and provide photos, texts, the Venmo transaction log and anything else you can give me to back up your story and send it off to the local police.”
She’s deeply appreciative of his help.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” he says, speaking softly, his eyes conveying sympathy and rage at the same time.
“The only thing you did wrong here, Julia, was care about someone who didn’t deserve it.
You’re a good person who tried to help someone.
If there were more good people like you in this world, it would be a much better place. ”
“Do you really think so?”
“I know so. When you’re a cop, you see the best and the worst of what people are capable of. He took your money. Don’t give him your kindness, too.”