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Juliana blushed furiously. I just shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter now. I saw what I saw at Smokey’s.” I caught her gaze. “Thinking about you with someone else was one thing. Seeing it?” I couldn’t finish the thought. It hurt too much.
“It wasn’t what you think,” she defended.
I balled my fists at my sides. “No? You telling me you didn’t have your lips on his?”
Mulaney stepped between us and put a hand on my chest. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” Coming from my sister, those words were the equivalent of seeing a polar bear in Texas. “I did it because of the fire truck.”
“Come again?” What the hell did that mean? For the first time I could recall, she wasn’t flat out saying what was on her mind.
“Never mind.” She waved me off. “I only wanted to help.”
“Well, you didn’t.”
Mulaney held up a photo of me and Jules when we couldn’t have been more than eight or nine. Juliana had a grin on her face as I offered her my piece of cake.
“Remember this?” Mulaney stepped back and showed the picture to Juliana. Confusion clouded her face before nostalgia took over.
“I’ve never seen this,” I said.
“I was going through some stuff and found it.” She turned her attention to Juliana. “Stone didn’t want to invite girls to his birthday party. Not even me. He pitched a temper tantrum when Mama laid down the law. It was Mitch who convinced him that there was one girl who would be cool to have there. Any idea who that was?”
Juliana looked at Mitch with glassy eyes. “I’d dropped my cake, and there wasn’t any left,” she whispered.
“I couldn’t stand to see you upset.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.
Mulaney pointed at the picture. “You see that look right there? He’s loved you for as long as I can remember.”
A choked noise escaped Juliana. I stared at the old photo. My sister was right. My instinct had been to do whatever it took to make Juliana happy, even at that young age.
Mulaney held up another photo, this one a couple of years later at a summer barbecue in town. This time I was staring after Jules, who was laughing at something Emily had no doubt said. I looked like a love-struck fool.
“Just friends at this point, right?”
I was anything Jules wanted me to be back then. She’d been my sun for as long as I could remember. Seeing it in black and white drove the point home.
“I never knew.” She touched her throat. “I had such a crush on you, but I thought you didn’t see me as more than a friend.”
“Honey, he’s been stealing looks like that at you for forever.” My sister produced another picture.
This one was at a bonfire out in the woods after a football game. I’d finally gotten the courage to ask her out. I sat on the back of the tailgate. She stood between my legs, her back to my front. My arms were wrapped around her middle as she leaned her head against my shoulder.
“That was the first time you asked me out,” Jules said.
“Not much of a first date,” I muttered.
“It was perfect.” She sank her teeth into her lower lip.
My anger surged. She’d taken all this away from us. Given it up for Paris and another guy.
“Enough of the walk down memory lane,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I’m not finished.”
A picture of us just a few months ago at a cookout we’d had here at the ranch was like an arrow to the heart. I’d gotten my great-grandmother’s ring from Grandmama that day. I’d wanted to propose as soon as I’d gotten the ring, but I’d found it was no small thing to build up my courage.
As she’d smeared pie on my cheek, all I’d been thinking was,Will you marry me?Knowing that was part of the reason for my smile in the photo nearly sent me to my knees. And Jules? Over the years she’d become more and more beautiful. She could be as playful as she was intense. Smiles like the ones in these pictures were what I lived for.
