“No reason. She just seemed upset about something. Don’t sweat it. I’m going to grab some stuff and I’ll be back.”
Dad scrunches his eyebrows but nods. “Okay…”
“Hang tight, old man.”
Dad scoffs as I leave the room, muttering, “Better old and this good looking than young and stupid.”
I make my way through the house looking for Julia. As I approach a closed door, the sound of crying grips my heart in an iron fist. Not just crying. Julia is sobbing. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen her cry. I’m pretty sure the last time was when she crashed her new bike on her tenth birthday. Even then, she only cried because she was so pissed off that she bent the front wheel and couldn’t keep riding it.
I knock on the door but she doesn’t hear me, just cries and cries.Fuck it,I think. She’ll be angry at me later, but I can’t walk away from this. Opening the door, I step inside and find her huddled at the foot of her bed, legs pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them like she’s trying to make herself as small as possible. That alone would be enough to tell me something is very, very wrong.
“Jules…” She looks up at the sound of my voice, starting, and immediately starts swiping the sleeve of her sweater at her eyes.
“You don’t knock?” She clears her throat, her voice choked.
“I did. You didn’t hear it.” Her face is splotchy and raw from crying, but even like this, she’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. My chest aches and I shove the feeling back down, deep inside me, locking it away. Because Julia needs me to be what I’ve always been: her friend.
Sinking down next to her on the floor, I kick one leg out, wrapping my arm around the other knee. She covers her face with both hands, taking intentional breaths, measuring each one in an apparent attempt to get herself under control.
“What’s going on, Jules?” I ask.
“It’s nothing. I can handle it.”
That’s what she said before, but if it’s enough to break her like this, it’s obviously not ‘nothing.’
“Before you take a swing at me for saying this, keep in mind that I’m a lot faster than I used to be… It didn’t look like you were handling it. Whatever is going on, it’s easy to see that guy is dangerous. I need you to tell me so I can help you.”
“I can’t tell you,” she says through her hands.
“Of course you can.”
“No, you don’t get it, Mateo. I really can’t.” Her voice is miserable.
“Why not?”
“For one thing, my lawyer said not to talk to anyone. But… I can’t have this getting back to my sisters. If they find out, Olive will drop everything to come home and it will ruin her honeymoon. Lilah is already stretched to her limits with the bakery and the pregnancy. I can’t add this to her plate. This is my problem and I need to deal with it myself.”
“Lukas and Asher—”
“Will gossip like a bunch of old ladies. Seriously, if I tell either of them, half of Sonoma will know what’s going on within an hour.”
“Fine, don’t tell anyone else. Just tell me. Cone of silence.”
Jules laughs softly, leaning her head back against the footboard of the bed, eyes closed. “Promise you won’t tell a soul. Not even your dad.”
“Scout’s honor.”
“You were only ever in the cub scouts,” she groans, and I almost crack a smile as she turns her face to look at me for the first time since barging down the door. Her lashes are wet, spiked against her golden skin.
“I’ll swear on anything you want me to swear on. Just let me help you.”
She lets out a long, measured breath. “Fine. He’s a doctor at the hospital. A pediatrician,” she snorts derisively. “He’s made mistakes before, and I refused to cover for his stupid ass, so he already hated me. A couple days ago, I spotted him in the parking garage, drinking from a flask. I took a video with my phone. It shows him finishing off the flask and using mouthwash before heading into his shift. He’s a monster. He was taking all those kids’ lives in his hands and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”
“Of course not.”
“I sent the video to the hospital administration along with a list of the biggest mistakes he’s made. The ones that could have hurt someone. They put him on unpaid leave while they ‘investigate the allegations.’” Jules makes air quotes with her fingers, her voice filled with thinly veiled anger. “And in the meantime, I’m on paid leave. I’ve been asked, very politely, not to enter the hospital grounds until after the deposition.”
“Hence your lawyer telling you to keep this quiet.”