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Rowan chuckled. “She’s a complete attention whore. If you give in, I promise she won’t leave you alone.”
Juliana understood. As she petted Leia’s head, she could have sworn she heard the dog sigh. Juliana rubbed behind Leia’s ears before she dropped her forehead onto the top of Leia’s big noggin. She sat and Leia took full advantage by sprawling on her back and offering her belly to Juliana.
“Such a good girl,” Jules cooed.
With Leia’s head in her lap, Juliana looked back at Rowan. He’d propped his head on his hand and watched her with his dog.
“So, Pelé is fairly self-explanatory,” Jules said. “Leo and Leia?”
“If you got Pelé, Leo should be easy.”
Juliana’s brow furrowed. She shrugged when she came up with nothing.
“Lionel Messi.”
“Oh, of course.” She laughed when Leia lifted her head, so she could rest more of her body on Juliana’s lap. “And this adorable girl?”
“Princess Leia.”
Juliana didn’t know what surprised her more. Him naming his dog after a character from Star Wars or after a princess. “Interesting.”
He yawned. “She’s the baby of the family. And I knew when I got her, no matter if a boy or girl, the name would be from Star Wars. It just so happened, she was a she.”
His head lolled to the side, and he enjoyed an exaggerated blink that might have been misconstrued as a very, very short nap. Then, he bolted upright and looked around quite frantically. His eyes found her and Leia snuggled up on the floor.
“I should have known you wouldn’t be pretentious about dog hair shedding all over your two-thousand-euro dress. For fuck’s sake, can you give me something about you to dislike?”
Juliana watched him with a sense of bewilderment and bemusement. Honest, raw Rowan was entertaining. Rather than answer what she assumed was a rhetorical question, she remained sprawled out in her aforementioned expensive dress, running her hands along Leia’s head.
“Leo and Pelé don’t like to be petted?” she asked, curious about the other two pups who remained in their sitting position, eyes fixed upon their master.
Rowan rolled his head to them and waved a careless hand. Leo and Pelé bolted to him and dropped to the floor in front of him. He allowed his hand to dangle off the side of the couch, haphazardly splitting his attention between them.
“She’s still a baby,” he explained, but his speech was slower, like it took work for him to force the words out of his mouth. “These two are better trained. Twelve weeks at Nico’s playhouse won’t cock up their carefully cultivated behavior.”
She snickered. Even loopy on pain meds, he sounded like a prat. She wanted to point out they were pets and wanted love. If she’d had to guess, she would have pegged Rowan for a cat person. Independent and haughty, disdainful and self-contained. Yeah, she definitely wouldn’t have guessed this about him. Giving Leia one more good scratch behind her ears, Juliana gently moved the dog’s head and pushed to her feet. She could tell Rowan was getting tired.
“Have you eaten?”
He glanced up at her. “Nah. Not really hungry.”
“Your medication said it should be taken with food. I’ll be back.”
She heard him grumbling as she navigated her way to the kitchen with Leia hot on her trail. It was an extensive affair with two ovens, two stainless steel refrigerators, and endless countertops. According to Nico’s instructions, Rowan would be knocked out most of tomorrow too. He had a post-op appointment the following day. Nico had left her prepared food, for which she was grateful. She did a lot of tasks for herself, which might have surprised much of the world. Cooking was not one of them.
She opened the refrigerator and dug through it. She didn’t think Rowan would be able to stomach much. She found soup. Then, she searched the pantry for bread and arranged everything on a tray left conveniently on the counter.
She found Rowan sprawled on the couch, arms flung wide, mouth slightly agape. As she stared down at him, she thought it might have been the first time she’d ever seen him in such a vulnerable position. Setting the tray on the table, she sat on the very edge of the sofa and gently shook him awake. After the third push, she wondered if she should let him sleep. But the medicine worried her.
She shoved at his arm again. “Rowan,” she whisper-shouted.
His eyes snapped open. They rolled around in his head like a set of loose marbles. Finally settled on her, they widened slightly, as if he’d forgotten she was there.
“Juuulllessss,” he slurred. With a lopsided grin, he stared dazedly at her. “So glad you’re taking care of me,” he managed before his eyes slid closed again.
Without even realizing what she was doing, her hand was on his forehead, soothingly running back and forth. When she was little and couldn’t sleep, before Jamie’s illness and her parents’ assassination, she would scurry into Ele’s room. Her big sister never asked questions. She would simply pull back on the duvet, making a space for Juliana. Then, Ele would rub her forehead until Juliana fell back asleep. She’d forgotten about it until just this moment when all the feelings of comfort and security rushed back to her.
Rowan would never admit to needing anything from anyone. But as Juliana sat there, staring down at him, she realized she wanted something from him. And it didn’t have anything to do with being fake.
