As she pushed the stroller into Annabeth’s shop, she nearly ran over Gavin. He blocked her path, his arms crossed over his chest. Gavin wasn’t quite as massive as Will, but he was well muscled and nearly as tall. Whereas Will’s face was chiseled and hard, Gavin’s was more rugged, with laugh lines bracketing his twinkling eyes and a pair of devastating dimples. His wavy hair was always in some disarray from where he’d pulled his fingers through it. Of the two men, Gavin always looked the most approachable.
Except for today. The hard line of his mouth warned Julianne that Patricia’s son was clearly in Will’s camp. Not that it surprised her. Once again, she was relieved that his friends were still loyal to him.
“What is it with you women?” Gavin stood there as if he expected an answer.
“I just don’t get it,” he continued. “You think it’s okay to just sucker punch a guy like that. To ruin his name. His career. The sad part about it is the dumbass would have given you anything. Anything.”
Julianne had to look away because she felt the tears threatening again. Owen whimpered, stretching to try to reach his foot. Gavin crouched down on his haunches as he reached into the stroller to let Owen play with his finger.
“He loved you, you know. I didn’t think it was possible he’d ever find anyone to love, he’s such a stubborn asshole. But he did.” Gavin’s voice was gravelly, as if he were wrestling with his own emotions. “It hurts when you women rip a guy’s heart out and stomp on it. Some guys don’t ever get over it. Unfortunately, I think Will is going to be one of those guys.”
She forced the lump in her throat down as Gavin kissed Owen on the head. He didn’t bother to look at her when he stood and walked out the door. Shoulders slumped, she pushed the stroller deeper into the store. Lynnette, Annabeth’s assistant, swooped from across the room to pull a now-fussy Owen out of the stroller.
“I think he might want a bottle,” Julianne said, handing her one from the diaper bag. “He’s really out of sorts today, so don’t take it personally if he doesn’t drink too much.”
“Likely the boy misses his daddy.” Lynnette gave her the evil eye before disappearing into the back office with the baby.
Annabeth sat at her computer eyeing Julianne over her reading glasses. “Has he called you?” she asked.
There was no point asking who he was. Neither woman had heard from Will in nearly twenty-four hours. Julianne shook her head.
With a resigned sigh, Annabeth removed her reading glasses. “So what’s your plan, Julianne?”
“My plan?”
“Yes, Julianne, your plan. Surely you have one?”
She didn’t, actually. Not a single one. All her life, she’d never needed a plan, simply moving from one thing to the next. She’d started designing on a whim when a wealthy friend from boarding school fell in love with one of Julianne’s sketches and just had to have it as her wedding gown. From there, her business had spread by word of mouth. When Sebastian had come along and taken her under his wing, she’d left all the planning to him, enjoying life as it came.
“Flying by the seat of your pants.” She cringed as Will’s description of her echoed through her mind.
Her pregnancy had altered her lifestyle. Now she was responsible for another human being. But she hadn’t planned that well, either. She skirted around the truth, keeping secrets from those around her. And look where that landed her. She’d acted brashly selling JV Designs, not thinking how she’d support herself in the future. Regrettably, she hadn’t planned, and the results were stupid choices. The one decision she didn’t regret, though, was marrying Will.
“Do you love him, Julianne?” Annabeth’s delicate voice interrupted her thoughts. “Do you love my son?”
Julianne nodded through her tears. “Yes. Yes I do.”
“Then you have to have a plan.”
The antique Hepplewhite chair creaked as Julianne sat down on it. “I don’t even know where to begin. Will won’t answer my calls or respond to my texts. He doesn’t care about listening to my side of things. He just assumes the worst.”
“Can you blame him?”
Annabeth’s words stung, but she spoke the truth. Their relationship didn’t have much of a basis in trust. And it was Julianne’s fault.
“One thing is for certain, you’re not going to get to talk to him by hiding down here in Chances Inlet.” Annabeth stood and walked out from behind the counter. “I, for one, am done with hiding.”
“You think I should go to Baltimore?”
“Well, the mountain isn’t going to come to you, Muhammad. Believe me when I say no one does stubborn martyr better than my son. He’d just as soon think the whole world is against him than admit he might have made a mistake. And believe me, he shares in the blame for this mess. A lot of people do,” she said with quiet certainty.
Julianne ran her hand along the smooth mahogany arm of the refurbished chair. “How do I get him to listen to me? To really trust me?”
“It’s too bad your Slytherin brother can’t be persuaded to tell the truth to Will,” Annabeth mused.
“Not unless there’s something in it for him.”
Julianne had left a caustic voice mail on Stephen’s phone the previous evening, Annabeth and Patricia cheering her on. She’d told her brother to take the money from their grandmother’s trust fund and shove it. She wanted no part of the Marchione money. And, she’d added for good measure, she wanted no part of their family anymore. After all, had her grandmother loved her enough, she would have left her the money outright. She’d told Stephen she’d never forgive him for what he’d done to Will and subsequently to their marriage. He’d tried to call her repeatedly since then, but she’d let the calls go unanswered.
It had been liberating to tell her brother off, but the pain of his deception still cut deeply. It hurt to know her family loved and respected her so little. Her father had essentially written her out of his life shortly after her mother died, leaving her brother as her guardian. The two were never close, but she enjoyed being an aunt to his children. She’d miss that. Annabeth had stayed by her side during last night’s storm, reassuring Julianne that she and Owen were her family regardless of what happened with Will. The thought was both comforting and tragic.
“You should have let me invest the money when I offered it.” Annabeth interrupted her thoughts. “If I give it to you now, Will would certainly misinterpret both of our intentions. It’s too bad because that company was just what this town needed. And I think Will would have been proud of what you were going to do with the profits in his name.”
Julianne contemplated her mother-in-law as her inner Scarlett O’Hara took control. “Who says we have to shelve the idea?” A germ of a plan was formulating in her mind.
Annabeth chuckled. “I guess we don’t. You know what? Who cares if Will gets mad if I invest with you? It’s my money.”
“That might not be necessary.” Julianne paced the small store. “The last thing I want to do is drive a wedge between you two. But I may have another strategy for financing that I hadn’t considered before.”
“Like I said a few minutes ago, it’s always good to have a plan, girl.”
Julianne hugged her mother-in-law. She still wasn’t sure if she had a plan to get Will back, but at least she was going ahead with cementing his legacy in this town, whether he wanted it or not.
“It’s settled then,” Annabeth said as she pulled out of their embrace. “We’re going to Baltimore. But first, I have to look up some old neighbors from Seaside Vista.”
“And I have to call a priest.”