“So, obviously, things are weird between us, now,” Darcy started, before Juliet decided what she wanted – or felt ready – to say. “And… like I said last week. You really don’t owe me anything. I don’t really want to get into it, because I think I learned whatever I needed to know at the hotel. We just need to stay focused on the song for the soundtrack.”
Darcy had learned whatever she needed to know at the hotel? What the hell did that mean?
“Us working together when we aren’t on the same page didn’t go very well when we attempted ‘Porchlight’ the first time,” she pointed out, rolling her eyes.
Granted, she didn’t really know what them being on the same page here would look like. Unless it meant Juliet opening up to Darcy, telling her all of the messy details about her life.Honesty, Laura had reminded her before hanging up, but…
But Juliet had built her entire career around burying those things down and putting on a smile. It didn’t feel easy at all, especially with Darcy staring at her, guardedly.
“I can be professional. Can you?” Darcy asked.
Juliet, alarmingly, didn’t really know. She didn’t know what was going to come from spending several days with Darcy in her house, just the two of them, nonstop. The last thing she felt about Darcy, whether she wanted Darcy to kiss her, fuck her, or fight with her, wasprofessional.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was really fucking weird,being in Juliet’s house withoutbeing withJuliet.
Then again, everything about today – about the last week, for that matter – had been weird. Juliet had given Darcy a tour of her whole house, from opening all of the doors on the second floor, all the way down to the music studio in the basement. She’d put her suitcase in the immaculately clean, well-appointed guest room.
Then, they’d tried to talk about their thoughts for their song.
She’d noticed that Juliet took out the notebook Darcy had given her because she’d written her notes in it. And Darcy just about melted, which had also come with a sharppang, deep inside. She’d managed to keep it together and, as she’d said, be professional.
Irritatingly, Juliet hadn’t been wrong. They didn’t work so well together when they weren’t on the same page. They’d called it a night relatively early, deciding to try to go into tomorrow with clear minds, and start early in the morning.
She’d taken a long, hot shower. She’d called Emerson and word-vomited all of her thoughts. She’d poked around every nook and cranny in the guest room Juliet had set her up in.And still, when she’d laid in the luxuriously comfortable bed, she hadn’t been able to fall asleep.
She’d come down to the kitchen to make herself some tea, familiar with Juliet’s set up in here. Because she’d made tea in the morning, after a night of perfect, restful sleep in Juliet’s bed.
Where Juliet probably was curled up and sleeping like an angel right now.
She breathed out a long, wistful sigh, as she poured the boiling water into her mug.
“What are my clothes doing here?” Juliet’s voice, clearly worked up, came from behind her.
Darcy startled, jumping back and sloshing theliterallyboiling water out of the kettle so it splashed up out of her mug, hitting her hand. “Fuck!”
The water spilled onto Juliet’s counter and dripped down to the floor, where she barely managed to get her bare feet back out of the way before she burned those, too.
In an instant, Juliet was next to her. She’d grabbed a dishtowel and reached out to take the kettle from Darcy, quickly setting it back on the stovetop. “Are you okay? Did you get burned?”
Even as she was asking Darcy for the answer, she’d taken Darcy’s hand in hers and lifted it up, examining it carefully.
“It’s fine,” she muttered, wincing through it, as she tried to tug her hand back.
Juliet shot her a dark look, briefly but firmly tightening her grip. “Just stay still.” Still holding Darcy’s hand in hers, she moved to start walking toward the sink.
When Darcy didn’t fall into step with her, she turned to shoot her a baffled stare.
Darcy lifted her eyebrows. “You said to stay still.”
“Oh my god,” Juliet breathed out, narrowing her eyes. “Walk with me. Just – let me, okay?”
Darcy didn’t have it in her to pull away. Even though, “For the record, I’ve been injured a lot worse than this at the bar.”
She used her uninjured hand to point at the faded two-and-a-half-inch scar over the palm of her burned hand, the one that Juliet now had under room temperature water from the sink. The water, admittedly, felt heavenly.
And so did Juliet’s hands on hers, being so… gentle. She’d zeroed in on the spot on Darcy’s hand that had already turned red and would likely start to swell a little. Though she didn’t touch that skin directly, she made sure to target it under the water.
