“Fuck you,” Griffin said.“You’re not ready for anything with a widowed mom of two very little kids.This is the exact scenariowe’ve spent our entire adult lives trying to avoid, for fuck’s sake.”
“I’m aware.”
“Are you?”Carson asked.“Because it seems to us like you’ve lost your damned mind or something.You’ve known her a couple of days, and you’re blowing off work to take her and herlittle kidsto Ojai?She haslittle kids, Julian.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed, and they’re actually very cute, well-behaved little kids.You should’ve seen them with the goats today.It was so adorable.”
“What is happening?”Griffin asked Carson.
“Hell if I know, but it stops right here, you hear me?”
“Um, no, I can’t hear you, especially when you’re yelling at me.”
“Someone needs to yell at you before you screw up your entire life—and hers.Are you thinking about her, Julian?”
“She seems to be all I can think about.”
“Did youhear what you just said about a freaking woman with little kids?That’s the last thing in the world you want anything to do with!”
Julian shrugged helplessly.He could no more explain this situation to his brothers than he could to himself.All he knew was that nothing was going to keep him from her now that he’d found her.
Had he been looking for this?God no, but now that he knew her, he couldn’t—and wouldn’t—walk away from her.“Look, you guys, I want you to know… I hear what you’re saying, and if the roles were reversed, I’d be in your faces, too.All I can say is… Well, she’s different.”
His brothers stared at him as if they’d never met him, let alone been his closest friends for his entire life.
“She’sdifferent,” Carson said to Griffin, his tone incredulous.“This one isdifferent.”
“Have you forgotten the many, many,manyreasons we made that vow to each other in the first place?”Griffin asked.“Do we need to remind you what it was like to be dragged through a vicious custody battlefor ten goddamned yearsor all the absoluteinsanitywe see in our practices between people who thought they’dfound the one who was different?”
“No,” Julian said, “you don’t need to remind me.I’m fully aware.”
“Are you?”Carson asked.“Because it seems to us like you’ve lost all awareness of the things you’ve always said were important to you, including not allowing yourself to get into situations in which you give someone the power towreck your goddamned life.”
“She’s not going to wreck my life.It’s quite possible she couldmakemy life.”
Carson’s jaw went slack.“What?”he whispered.“What’re you saying?”
“You heard me.”
Carson stared at Julian for a long moment before he said, “Eff this shit.”He turned and walked away.
Griffin shook his head.“I hope you know what you’re doing, man, because you’re off the freaking rails, and when it blows up in your face, I’m gonna say, ‘I told you so.’”
With that, he left, too, slamming the door on his way out.
For a few minutes, Julian sat perfectly still, stunned and dismayed by the unusual argument with his brothers.They loved to drive one another crazy, but they never fought for real like that.Griffin and Carson had landed a few well-placed hits to his certainty where Isla was concerned.
And the news about Rachel McDavid had rocked him.He needed to check in with Jackson about that, but right now, he was sure his other siblings were hearing all about how Jules was off the rails over a woman he’d only just met, who’d been a new client, then not a client, then widowed, all in the span of a few days.
He understood their concern.If any of them had done what he had this week, he’d have been all over them, too.
Remingtons didn’t skip out of work to take a single mom and her kids to visit the goats in Ojai.They didn’t lose their minds over one woman when there were plenty of women to spend time with and not get into something they couldn’t easily get out of if need be.With every moment he spent with Isla, he became more enmeshed in a situation that was rapidly spinning out of his control.The fact that he had zero desire to extricate himself before it was too late should’ve been terrifying.
Rather, it was the most exhilarating thing he’d ever experienced, and as soon as she told him her kids were asleep for the night, he’d be going back for more.
ChapterTwenty-Four
After Julian left, Isla went into the bathroom attached to her bedroom to splash cold water on her heated cheeks.When she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, the rosy cheeks and kiss-swollen lips were almost startling.How long had it been since she’d had kiss-swollen lips?
