Page 16 of Tempted Hearts
“You’re welcome.”
“They said at the hotel the Carabinieri Station is this way,” Delaney said from behind us. With that, the spell… or whatever was between us… broke.
“It’s Jules,” she said as we entered the tunnel and split into single file on the sidewalk. “Not Juliette.” I stepped aside for her to walk in front of me.
“You don’t like Juliette?”
“I like it fine. But my dad started calling me Jules the day I was born, apparently. And it stuck.”
There was something about the way “Juliette” rolled off my tongue that I liked. Immediately regretting that visual, I informed her that I’d continue using her real name.
“You are so contrary.”
“I saw the picture on your mantle. Is it just the three of you? In your family.”
As we came out of the tunnel, tourists lugging backpacks and luggage streaming from the nearby train station toward our direction, Juliette stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, almost causing a collision.
“Mi scusi,” she said, stepping aside.
“I should have led with the fact that Parker gave me the code for your house. We were on a tight schedule to catch the flight. He gathered Delaney’s things while I grabbed your license.”
“Are you two coming?” Parker called from ahead.
Juliette stared at me for a few seconds longer, apparently processing that information, and then began walking again.
“I’m trying to remember how clean I left the house,” she mumbled.
“Looked pretty clean to me. Interesting choice of decorations, especially in your bedroom.”
“Oh my God. You were in my bedroom.”
“That’s where your license was,” I reminded her.
As we climbed the hill, I watched her expression transform from shock to embarrassment. She really did wear her feelings. Every damn one of them.
“Why do you keep your expired IDs?” I asked, thinking of the stickies.
She frowned. “You saw my stickies.”
Juliette stopped again, although this time with less people around, and her eyes widened.
I stopped with her. “You can walk and talk, you know?”
“You went through my drawer.”
“Went through?” The sun hit her hair in just the right way, making parts of it look almost auburn even though anyone looking at her would say Juliette had black hair. Interesting.
“I’d call it ‘looked for your license to save your ass in Italy’ but, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Same thing.”
“What the hell are you two doing?” Parker and Delaney had stopped too.
She would kill me. Then again, getting Juliette riled up proved to be mildly entertaining.
“She just realized I saw her vibrator looking for her license,” I called ahead.
Juliette swatted me on the arm. Delaney’s jaw dropped and Parker tried to stifle a smile.
Italy, it turned out, was proving to be much more fun than I’d expected.
