Juliette
Summer – three years earlier
Juliette closed her eyes as the rain fell on the corrugated iron roof, slow to begin with then gradually building up to a steady beat, like a melody. It was beautiful music.
‘What are you smiling at?’
She hadn’t even realised she was smiling. She felt Noah’s hand run up her calf, lingering on her thigh before settling on her bottom. They had been together for almost the entire summer and yet every time he touched her it was like the first time.
‘Nothing, I was just listening to the rain,’ she sighed, and Noah began to draw lazy circles; his touch was light, barely there, and caused tiny pulses of pleasure to flow from the point of contact to every nerve in her body.
‘Cold?’ Noah leaned over and kissed the side of her neck, the heat of his lips on her skin a stark contrast to the cold that was generated by his touch.
‘Not cold.’ Juliette turned onto her back to face him. ‘You do that to me.’
Noah shot her a puzzled look. ‘Me? I give you goosebumps?’
Juliette laughed. How could he be so shocked? ‘Yes, you do.’ She turned and offered her lips and he took them. But with Noah, a kiss wasn’t just a kiss. It was tantalising, all consuming, and it made her feel that sanity no longer mattered.
‘You’re beautiful, you know that, right?’ He still lay beside her, pulling her close.
Juliette snuggled into him. ‘So you keep telling me.’
‘Will you ever get used to me telling you how beautiful you are?’
Juliette shrugged and tilted her head to meet his gaze. ‘Probably not.’
And she probably would never tire of looking at his eyes. Arctic blue with an abundance of warmth, such a contradiction. They spent most weekends like this, in bed, either at his place or hers. This week they were at his. Juliette couldn’t recall the last time she felt like this – totally and utterly besotted.
Falling in love with him would be so easy. He was the most positive, kind and interesting man she’d ever met. There was no topic they couldn’t talk about: the man seemed to know everything.
His freakish good looks were nothing to be sneezed at and the great sex wasn’t bad either. Not that she had much to compare to. Chris had been the only man she’d ever slept with besides Noah, but even with her limited sexual experience, Juliette knew that what she had with Noah was something extraordinary.
‘Come on.’ Noah made a move to get out of bed and Juliette protested. She saw no reason why she should. Ever. Well, except for the fact she had a café to run, minor really, but with Noah’s school holidays quickly coming to an end, Juliette knew that days like these would be few and far between. She was really tempted to get Tilly to run the café for a week so she could spend a week in Noah’s bed.
On the surface it seemed like a great idea, but she knew it wouldn’t work. Firstly, because while Tilly was fantastic at running the food side of things at The Bookworm she knew nothing about the bookstore so it would be unfair to throw that responsibility on her. And secondly, the whole idea was wildly indulgent and somewhat out of character for Juliette.
Part of her thought that after the year she had, a little indulgence was justified – she was a cancer survivor, they both were. But a more sensible part of her, the louder part, reasoned that she should be happy with what she had – a very new relationship that should be taken one day at a time. There was no rush; they had the rest of their lives.
‘Come on.’ Noah nudged her again and with a groan, Juliette relented.
‘Where are we going?’
‘I want to show you something.’
Noah made no move to cover himself but Juliette grabbed the first item of clothing she saw, Noah’s T-shirt, and slipped it on and pottered after him, mesmerised by what could only be described as the best butt she’d ever laid eyes on. She probably had a goofy grin plastered on her face, but she didn’t care. These past couple of months with Noah had been the best she’d had in years, perhaps ever, of her life, and every time she woke in his arms she thanked her lucky stars that he hadn’t give up on them. Even if she had.
As he headed towards the back of the house Juliette realised they were going to his studio. Noah turned and paused, his tall, splendidly naked body filling the doorway.
‘While you may’ve thought I’ve been spending my summer days at the beach bumming and surfing, you’re only half right.’
Juliette couldn’t help it. She perched on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck and took his lips, long and languid. ‘I don’t think you’re a bum, but I do think that you have a fairly decent one.’
Noah’s chuckle echoed through her. His hands left the doorframe and went straight to her backside, pulling her against his hard length. ‘Hmmm, this one’s not too shabby either.’
All she had to do was wrap her legs around his waist and he would be inside her. Against a doorframe, now there was a place they hadn’t had sex before, and it seemed that Noah read her mind because a few seconds later he grabbed the hem of the T-shirt, and was just about to pull it over her head when he stopped.
‘We will continue this later,’ he said, pulling the T-shirt back down and grabbing her hand. ‘First you need to see these.’
Juliette’s protest was stifled as she looked around the room. The whole studio was filled with canvases, mostly charcoals. The subjects varied: a wave with a lone surfer, a mother and her young child enjoying a quintessential summer day, there was even one of a couple of seagulls having a standoff over a spilled cup of hot chips. But her favourite was the one of the lone dried dandelion. Noah had captured it as the wind blew through it, she knew that from the way the trees were sketched in the foreground, but the dandelion stood tall and strong, its delicate white seedpods fully intact. It reminded her of Noah. No matter what chaos surrounded him, he always remained strong.
‘Noah, I…’ She stared, awestruck, and was unable to articulate the beauty surrounding her. The drawings were all black and white and shades of grey, but they were vivid. Noah had captured the essence of his subjects. Colour would have ruined the effect. ‘My, you have been busy on your teaching break. You really are talented.’
‘And you think I’m wasting my time teaching, right?’
Puzzled, Juliette turned and searched his face to find a flash of irritation. Where had that come from? ‘Why would I say that? I know how much you love teaching, why would you give it up?’
‘My mother and my sisters would disagree, and not politely. They were here the other day and Nerida, my eldest sister came, saw the works, then it was on.’
Ahhh…and there it was, the reason for that sudden annoyance. It was very much out of character for Noah. She had rarely seen him frustrated, annoyed or even slightly irritated.
‘They’ve been at me for years, ever since I went to uni. Apparently getting a scholarship to the College of Fine Arts at NSW University but then majoring in Art Education was a disgrace. A total waste of my talent, they say. They think I’m an idiot.’
Juliette’s blood began to boil. ‘Isn’t it more important that you’re doing what you love? You are clearly capable of doing both.’
And if Noah’s mother and sisters didn’t realise they were lucky to have him alive then clearly they were idiots. It was rare for Juliette to take a dislike to someone without meeting them, and really there weren’t a lot of people she didn’t get along with. There was a little good in everyone, she’d always believed that, but Noah’s mother and sisters seemed like hard work.
Noah shook his head. ‘They’re impossible to reason with. Nerida actually started taking photos on her phone, she’s trying to convince me to do a website, which I’m not totally against, but I want to do it in my own time. I hate getting pushed into things, you know?’
Juliette reached over and linked her fingers with his. ‘I do. I think they need to realise you’re a big boy and you are more than capable of making your own decisions.’
‘Maybe you should tell them,’ Noah said wryly and Juliette scoffed. She hoped he was joking because it was the last thing she wanted to do.
‘You should be proud, Noah. These really are beautiful. Thank you for showing them to me.’
‘It’s you I should be thanking.’
‘Oh?’
‘You’re the reason why I was able to do this.’ Noah waved his hands around and motioned to his body of work. ‘All of this. I’m calling it “Summer with Juliette”.’
‘What?’
‘My collection.’ He drew their linked hands towards him and rubbed his lips across her knuckles. ‘It’s named after you.’
‘But…why?’
‘Why?’ Noah laughed, deep and sexy. ‘Juliette, don’t you know what you mean to me?’
She had a fair idea Noah’s feelings for her were strong; hers were heading in that direction too. But to have an art collection named after her – it was flattering, surreal and overwhelming all wrapped into one tight bundle. This was new territory for her. She wasn’t used to having things go right for her. The curse had been hanging over her, over her family, and she was expecting it to rear its ugly head up at any point now.
‘But there is one thing missing from my collection.’
‘What?’ Juliette asked.
‘You.’
‘Me?’ She gave a nervous laugh.
Noah nodded.
‘Why do you need me?’
‘Because a collection titled “Summer with Juliette” is worthless without you, Juliette. You’re the piece de resistance. I want to paint you as you are, right at this moment.’
‘You want to draw me with bed hair, wearing one of your old T-shirts?’
Noah gave another sexy chuckle and shook his head. ‘I want to draw you naked.’
‘Naked?’ Juliette felt as if her eyes were about to pop out of her head. ‘Why would you want to draw me naked?’
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. ‘Because, Juliette, you are the most gorgeous woman I have ever laid eyes on. Why wouldn’t I want to?’
‘But my scar…’ Her hand automatically moved to below her abdomen, the constant reminder of the trade-off her body had made so she could be alive. ‘It’s still so red and raw and…ugly.’
And that was exactly how she felt. Every time they made love, for a small moment in time, she felt beautiful, but then all she had to do was look down at the scar and she was brought back to reality. Juliette covered it with her hands, but Noah moved them away.
‘Juliette, there’s no part of you that’s ugly.’ He ran his fingers over the area and Juliette felt a sharp intake of breath. ‘Scar included.’ He snagged her gaze as he said it and she knew he meant it wholeheartedly.
‘Can’t you just leave it out? Pretend that it doesn’t exist?’
‘Juliette…’ He trailed his hands up the side of her body and cupped her face. ‘I want to paint all of you. That scar is the reason why I met you.’
‘It’s just, this scar—’
‘Shhh,’ he silenced her with his lips. ‘I know how you feel about the scar, but to me it’s the reason why you’re alive, why you’re with me.’
Noah was right, the scar was the reason she was alive. The surgery had removed the cancer and the chemo had nuked anything that remained, and she wished she could see it that way too, but the scar was yet another reminder of the Cole curse. ‘Yes, I am alive, Noah, but it’s come at a cost.’
‘Juliette,’ Noah sighed, ‘you know I don’t care about what they removed from you. I’ll say it again, I love you, with all your perfect imperfections.’
His words were beautiful, they always were. Juliette closed her eyes. ‘I need to explain what I mean. My cancer…it’s just a long line of significant misfortunes for me.’
They had both spoken about their respective families, but not in great detail. He knew that she was an only child raised by her grandmother after her parents had passed away, and he knew about Chris and how she lost him, but that was it. ‘My parents died in a car accident when I was seven…’ She began trying to summon the strength to go on. What she told him next was something that not many people knew, and it certainly wasn’t something that she had shared, not even with Chris or even Sera and Anna when she was growing up. It was years before Maisey confirmed it, but somehow she’d always known.
‘They were both killed instantly, and my mother…she was pregnant, with a son, my brother. A male Cole to carry the family name.’
‘I’m so sorry, that’s tragic—’
‘But there’s more,’ Juliette said, cutting Noah off as he was about to comfort her. ‘My grandfather, he was killed when my dad was a baby. He was helping a neighbour fight a fire that had engulfed his property. Then there was Chris…he was killed two days before he was due to come home, and then there’s the cancer. At first I thought it was all bad luck, but then I found out about the Cole curse.’
‘The Cole curse?’ His expression mirrored what she imagined hers had been when Joyce Mather first mentioned it to her. But she explained to Noah the story about her grandfather, Isobel Parker and her mother Meredith and their links to Salem witches who’d been burned at the stake. When she was done, Juliette chewed nervously on her bottom lip and waited for Noah’s reaction, fully expecting him to tell her how crazy and preposterous it all sounded, how it was more like a tragic drama screenplay or novel, not reality. To Noah’s credit, he listened, really listened, and then he simply shrugged.
‘So break the curse.’
‘Of course, now why didn’t I think of that?’ She gave a sarcastic laugh. ‘Oh, that’s right, because then I went and got cancer.’
‘But you kicked the cancer’s butt,’ he said smugly.
‘That’s not breaking the curse, that’s part of it. Plus it could come back and claim me. Then I’d really be a victim of the Cole curse.’
‘It won’t,’ Noah said with fierce finality, ‘and if you’re really worried about becoming the next Cole curse victim, then maybe it’s time you stopped being a Cole.’
Juliette’s heart skidded to a halt. ‘What did you say?’
‘Look, it’s not exactly how I planned this and I don’t have a ring and you deserve the most beautiful ring, but I love you and I’m asking you to marry me and become a Bradley.’
‘All so we can try and break a curse?’
‘If that’s the way you want to look at it, sure, but I’d prefer to think of it as getting married because I love you and you love me.’
Chris had proposed to her the night before he left for his first tour of duty to Afghanistan. Back then the proposal symbolised a life together with children. This marriage, if it happened, would be different. There would be no children. Noah had said he was fine with her not being able to have children, but they hadn’t been talking about marriage then. Would he still feel the same five, ten, fifteen years from now?
‘I…don’t know what to say.’
‘Then don’t say anything now. Think it over, just don’t think it over too much. But know this upfront, I love you, Juliette, just as you are, nothing more or less.’
‘Most guys would want an immediate answer.’
He slanted her his trademark sexy smile, the very same one that liquefied her internal organs. ‘I’m not most guys.’ He drew her close and claimed her lips.
‘So I’ve noticed.’