Julianne clicked her phone shut and looked over at Remi, who was shaking his head knowingly. “I knew we forgot something.” He laughed. “I’m supposed to meet 156

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some of the guys from the site in fifteen minutes for night soccer.”

Julianne shook her head as she shook off her flip-flops. “Remington Moore, why do you have to be so distracting?” she teased.

Remi chuckled. “I could say the same for you, lady.

Hey, do you need a ride to meet your friends? I’m parked over at a shopping center down the road.”

“That would be great. Only . . .” Julianne blushed.

“Only what?” Remi asked, his eyes crinkling.

“Only, could you maybe drop me off a few blocks away and I’ll walk the rest of the way myself?” Julianne looked down, a little embarrassed that Remi had made such a sweet offer and she wasn’t able to entirely take him up on it.

“No problem. I used to make my parents do that when they would drop me off at school when I was a kid.” Remi laughed his warm laugh, and Julianne’s whole body relaxed. She could listen to him laugh forever. He slipped his hand around hers and led her to the car.

Hours later, Julianne was walking down the beach near her house on the way back from hanging out with Lucy, Mitch, and Hunter. The night had been a blast—

Frisbee on the beach, checking out a band at the Fishtail—and her late entrance hadn’t put the smallest crimp in the fun. Despite her awesome mood, she 157

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couldn’t help but stop and stare as she passed Remi’s house. She knew he wasn’t home—his soccer game hadn’t started until after she met up with her friends, and those guys could play all night—but it didn’t look like anyone else was home either. Julianne thought it was odd. For a massive glass compound, there were very rarely people visible in the windows. She wondered if anyone was ever home over there, other than Remi, or if Mr. and Mrs. Moore were holed up someplace else while the house was being enlarged. The thought made Julianne instantly annoyed. As much as she didn’t blame Remi, she still couldn’t forgive his parents for what they were doing with their gigantic McMansion. And to think that they were going through all of this trouble—with the lawyers and the papers and the near daily pressure of offers and threats levied at the Kahns to sell their land—

and they weren’t even living there? It was a worse thought than she could stand. Shrugging the tension out of her shoulders and allowing the good mood her night out had put her into return, Julianne turned her eyes away from the Moores’ house and walked the rest of the way home in the warm summer air.

She slipped quietly through the back door, making as little noise as possible. She wasn’t being sneaky this time; she just didn’t want to wake anyone. As she crept to the landing on her way up to her room, she noticed that a ribbon of light was escaping from under Chloe’s 158

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door. She climbed the stairs and paused for a moment outside of her sister’s room. If Chloe were asleep after all, she would pop her head in and turn out the light for her. As Julianne stood there, she could hear Chloe’s teary, panicked voice on the phone. Julianne shook her head sadly—she knew exactly what Chloe was crying to her friends about—but she turned away and headed into her bedroom anyway. There was nothing she could do to help her sister tonight, and she needed to rest for work in the morning.

As far as Julianne was concerned, work was both the best and the worst part of this summer. On one hand, anything that kept her away from the tension at home was a good thing. Between the constant harassment from the Moores’ lawyers, her dad walking around the house like a zombie, and Chloe’s constant careening among normal Chloe, desperate crying Chloe, and Chloe-who-was-determined-to-fix-everything-and-comfort-everybody, Julianne felt like she was living in some bizarre, alternative universe. The only thing that felt constant was Remi, but with his comfort came the need to act like neither knew the other one existed ninety-eight percent of the time. On the other hand, a huge portion of the time that Remi and Jules needed to avoid each other was at work. So every weekday they had the opportunity to see each other was also a day in which they had to pretend they couldn’t care less that 159

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the other one was around—or risk getting busted by Bill or ribbed by the guys from the crew at an inopportune moment.

! ! !

The following morning she was out in the courtyard sitting up on top of a ladder, working on her ivy mural. She felt like some sort of queen holding court—every few minutes, someone would pop their head into the courtyard, stand at the bottom of the ladder, and compliment her on how well everything was coming together, how professional it looked, or how much the owners were going to love it. Perched on top of her ladder in her paint-stained cutoffs, a black-paint-splattered T-shirt, and her new pink retro Pumas, with her oversize sunglasses obscuring half her face, Julianne felt (at least for that moment) like she was doing everything she could have hoped to do with her summer. With every brushstroke, she counted one thing that was going even better than she could have hoped. Stroke—she had an awesome job. Stroke—where she got to spend all day outside. Stroke—working with her hands. Stroke—on something really cool. Stroke—and, sometimes, even painting. Stroke—for money. Stroke—

only a few feet away from one of the most amazing guys she’d ever met.

As if on cue, Remi popped his head out into the 160

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courtyard. His sneak attacks had lost their effect now that he and Julianne knew each other well enough to anticipate the other’s next move.

“Hey!” he called up the ladder. “How’s the painting going?”

“Why don’t you come up here and tell me?” Julianne called back down. Remi shimmied up the ladder two rungs at a time, until his face was almost level with Julianne’s. “So, what do you think?” she asked, tilting her head down toward him.

“Brilliant,” Remi assured her, his dark eyes darting from wall to wall, surveying Julianne’s work. Julianne could tell from the way his eyes brightened as he looked around the courtyard that he liked what he saw.

“Wherever can I find the gentleman who discovered such sparkling local talent? Clearly he’s a genius with discriminating taste.” He looked up at Jules and grinned.

She had never met anyone who grinned like that. It made her feel dizzy and warm.

Julianne arched her eyebrows and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s going to be pretty hard to track him down. I heard he used to be a project manager around here, but they had to let him go because he was always slacking off and hanging around with his girlfriend.”

“Poor guy,” Remi said quietly, looking down the ladder.

“I know,” Julianne answered wryly. “But, for what it’s 161

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worth, I heard that the girlfriend was totally hot, if that makes you feel any better.”

“You know, oddly enough, it does. Actually, I heard that, too.” Remi ran his fingers over Julianne’s cheekbone. “She was gorgeous. And insanely talented.” Julianne laughed and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure this guy must have had something going for him, to get together with her.”

“Not much. Mainly, he was charming.” Remi laughed. Then he reached up, rested his hand on the back of Julianne’s head, and kissed her. As soon as their lips touched, Julianne heard a noise in the doorway.

Remi quickly hopped up another rung on the ladder and leaned over Jules’s shoulder, pretending to admire the detail work on a section of the painting.

Julianne peered down around Remi to see who’d come into the courtyard. Bill Cullen was standing at the bottom of the ladder, looking bemused. “What are you guys up to?” he asked.