Chapter Six #2
“Really, we can reschedule the meeting,” Kate said, sensing her distraction.
Juliette put her phone down, resolutely determining not to pick it up again until Kate was gone. “I’m here. I need to work. I could use the distraction.”
“You know,” Kate said, her expression turning sly, “if it’s a distraction you need, I know the perfect person.”
Juliette groaned, rolling her eyes. “Please, for the love of Korean skincare routines, stop trying to set me up with Jake’s brother, Doctor Dud.”
Ever since Kate had started dating her former crush, Jake Hawkins, she had been not so subtly trying to set Juliette up with his older brother, Charlie, a cardiothoracic surgeon.
She was doing that thing that all new couples do, trying to spread their love around like they were little cupids, shooting their arrows at every single backside they could find.
They were so convinced that everyone needed what they had, they were insufferable about it.
“He’s not a dud!” Kate protested.
Juliette gave her a frank look. “The guy’s hobbies are bread baking and reading presidential biographies. It’s like talking to a plank of wood.”
“First of all, Charlie makes a mean sourdough, and from his own starter to boot. Don’t knock it until you try it. And a lot of people find presidential biographies very scholarly.”
“Yeah, that’s what I look for sexually,” Juliette deadpanned. “A scholarly biography.”
“Okay, so Charlie can be a little … formal. But he’s really sweet once you get to know him!”
“I’ve met the guy like ten times now. He gets worse and worse at casual conversation every time.
The last time I saw him at that dreadful cocktail thing you tricked me into attending, he wouldn’t even look me in the eye, he talked about how the canapés were a well-balanced mix of the five food groups, and he shook my hand at the end like it was a job interview.
Plus, every time I see him, he’s obsessed with reminding me that he’s in a long-term, very committed relationship.
Like I’m going to accost him in an alleyway because he thought I was flirting with him the first time we met. ”
“That’s because you were flirting with him the first time you met. You forget I was there, too.”
“I wasn’t flirting,” Juliette said, rolling her eyes.
She had been, actually, and she’d used some prime Juliette Winters game on him at Kate’s launch for her final Loretta book.
She could have sworn it had even been working, until he clammed up like a church wife come Sunday morning and told her he didn’t want her “getting the wrong impression.”
“You were flirting,” Kate insisted, “and he was definitely flirting back. It’s just his terrible girlfriend has this crazy hold on him, and nothing that Jake or I do can seem to pry her loose.
But you could easily scare her away! And Charlie is a handsome guy.
Don’t tell Jake I said that. I mean, obviously Jake is objectively hot, but Charlie is just as good-looking in his own way. ”
Charlie was good-looking, even Juliette had to admit that, though he dressed like a nineties sitcom dad in baggy jeans and ill-fitting polo shirts and his hobbies were just as Danny Tanner.
He was more intense than his happy-go-lucky brother, with darker hair and quiet, studious eyes.
He had the kind of internal stillness that a specialty surgeon like him needed, which was usually the exact kind of overachieving vibe Juliette gravitated toward.
But Charlie had been about as receptive to her advances as a Buckingham Palace guard.
And despite her flagrant disregard for most rules, Juliette was not a home-wrecker.
“He’s not hot enough to make up for how dead boring he is,” Juliette said, ignoring the prickle of insult to her pride at the idea that anyone could be so immune to her natural charms. “Not even with his Australian accent, which honestly seems impossible. Australians are the most fuckable men on the planet, that’s science. Never going to happen with Doctor Dud.”
“You watch, I’m persistent,” Kate said in a singsong voice.
“Of the two of us, I guarantee I’m the most stubborn,” Juliette murmured as her phone dinged again.
Her hand was reaching for it before her brain could remind her they weren’t checking it.
Another notification from Facebook. She was going to delete it, sight unseen, until she spotted who it was from.
Juniper Kensington.
Hey, guys, let’s be kind. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
She did not just make a charity case out of Juliette like she was some kind of fucking motivational post with a sunset background and Garamond font.
She even put a white heart emoji, which everyone knew was the pity heart.
Juliette’s face burned hot. Somehow this was even worse than Juniper jumping in to pile on.
That was it. She couldn’t sit around and wait for the answers to come to her. She’d given the police their chance to investigate, she’d given Brad his space to grieve. It was time to get what was owed to her, no matter what she had to do. She couldn’t let Juniper win.
“Kate, you’re right,” she said, standing up. “I am too distracted and I need to reschedule this meeting. Tell Spencer and Kennedy to move it to this afternoon. There’s somewhere else I need to be right now.”
“Oh, okay,” Kate said in surprise. “Should I let them know where you’re going?”
Juliette stalked toward the door, wrenching it open. “A funeral.”