always. I still love teaching. Helping kids through music.”
“How’s Jordan?”
She smirked. “Do you really want to know?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“He’s fine. We see each other almost every day.”
“Funny, I haven’t noticed his car in your driveway that much.”
“Keeping tabs on me?”
Instead of answering, he asked, “So, it’s gotten serious?”
“Maybe.” She shook her head.
“What?”
“You’re like a dog with a bone, Casella. You break my heart by sleeping with other women, then we split, but you can’t stand to see me with another man.”
“I’ve always felt that way. Remember Colin Camp in high school? Jack Carroll in college? Watching you with them was torture.”
“Yet you slept with Sandy Baker junior year. And a teacher, for God’s sake, in college. More after that. You’re a serial adulterer.”
“I thought you had to be married to commit adultery.”
The joke fell flat.
She scraped back her chair. “You know exactly what I mean. Tell your mother that I’ll come back tomorrow.” Setting down her coffee with a thump, she stood and headed for the garage door.
Seth caught up with her in the mudroom. “Wait.”
Her back to him, she shook her head. But she’d stopped.
He moved in close so his body nearly aligned with hers. “Can’t we try again?”
She whirled on him then. Her face flushed and her eyes glittered. But not because she was turned on. Anger burned in her from head to toe. “You have to be kidding me! I finally got out from under my love for you. Do you honestly think I’d ever take you back?”
Stung, he leaned against the wall, insolently. “You have before.”
The slap came hard on his face. “Go to hell, Seth.” And she stormed out.
He rubbed his cheek. Everybody in his family thought he was the nice one, the giving and forgiving one. But they were wrong. At least where Julianne Ford was concerned.
With her, he’d been a real bastard.
* * *
Julianne strode into the house she’d lived in all her life. Two years ago, she’d bought it from her mother when Celia went to Florida to move in with her sister.
Jules didn’t slam the door, though. She didn’t stomp her feet. But above all, she didn’t cry. Years ago, she’d promised herself she would never cry over Seth Casella again. Three months ago, she’d even made up a steady boyfriend, Jordan, so Seth would leave her alone. The ruse made her feel foolish but she had to protect herself.
She was dating, though. She picked up her cell phone from the counter, checked her texts and punched in a number.
He answered. “Hey, there, Julianne. You said you couldn’t get together tonight.”
“Yeah, my plans got aborted.” She’d hope to spend time with Carmella, without Seth hovering around them.
“Then are you free to meet?”
“Yes. How about The Hidden Cove Inn for cocktails at six?”
“Great. See you then. I’ll be the one with the big smile.”
She disconnected and looked out at the back lawn, not as big as the Casella’s but beautifully landscaped with bushes and trees. She and her mother had planted flowers which bloomed all summer, and now, at the very end of August, the geraniums and impatiens were even bigger and fuller than before. And on the deck, she’d put multi-colored ones in pots. The view soothed her.
But with the calm came sadness. As if in a trance, she climbed up the stairs, crossed into the closet and pulled out an album. Sat the big square brown leather book on her bed. The insert on the front read, Happily Ever After.
As if.
The first page depicted her and Seth as babies, with both their moms. Then preschool, entering the building holding hands.
The next was a play, where she was Cinderella and he was the Prince. He was the always the good guy. She leafed through the elementary grades and junior high, and finally the prom pictures for eleventh grade.
She’d been so happy that night. They’d talked about sleeping together afterward so she’d put on her best underwear, used some of her mother’s perfume and smoothed down the as-sexy-a-dress as her parents would allow. She and Seth had danced the night away, totally in love. Or so she thought. At the end of the prom, he’d gone to get the car, and when he didn’t show up by the time he should have, she went to look for him.
And found him kissing the daylights out of Sandy Baker, who’d attended with a group of girls…
Suddenly, Julianne came out of the Seth-spell and said, “What the hell am I doing?”
Damn, damn, damn. It was what