Juliette
It wasn’t every day you opened your front door and found a small-screen celebrity standing on your front porch. It had taken him a moment to recognise her, but once he did, Noah began to wonder why Seraphina Di Maggio was standing on his front porch.
Had one of his sisters signed him up for some reality show? He would kill them if they had. He scanned around behind her for cameras but couldn’t see any. All he saw was the well-dressed soap star standing in front of him.
‘Hi,’ she said, flashing him a smile, and Noah felt obliged to smile back.
‘You don’t know me—’
‘Actually I do,’ he interrupted. ‘Well, I don’t know know you, but I know of you, what Aussie doesn’t?’
‘You’d be surprised,’ Seraphina mumbled dryly.
‘Well, then.’ Noah folded his arms and leaned on the doorframe. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?’
He watched as Seraphina opened her mouth to answer then stopped and turned as footsteps came down his garden path. Puzzled, Noah watched as a redhead came towards them.
‘Hi, I’m Anna Kendall.’ She held out her hand and, still puzzled, he took it.
‘Noah Bradley.’
‘We’ve been looking for you.’
‘You have?’ Noah didn’t have the faintest idea who Anna Kendall was or why she and Seraphina Di Maggio had been looking for him. But he was intrigued.
The two women looked at each other. ‘Are you going to tell him or shall I?’ Anna said.
‘You do it,’ Seraphina said. ‘You’re the lawyer and you’ve always been good with words.
Lawyer? What the hell was going on? Intrigue gave way to suspicion. ‘Whoa!’ Noah cast a wary look at each of them. ‘You need to tell me why you are here. Now.’ He folded his arms and zeroed his gaze in on the lawyer.
She stared back, not looking the slightest bit intimidated. ‘Can we come in, this will be a whole lot more pleasant if we could,’
‘No, you can’t,’ he said, becoming irritated.
‘Why not?’ Seraphina DiMaggio stood on her tiptoes and tried to look past him. ‘Is your wife home?’
‘No, I don’t have a wife,’ Noah answered, his irritation increasing.
‘Girlfriend?’ The lawyer, whose name he’d already forgotten, shot back.
‘No,’ he snapped.
‘Boyfriend?’
Noah rolled his eyes, not sure why he was bothering with them. Hot celebrity and cute redhead or not, he’d had enough. ‘Good day, ladies,’ he said, and grabbed the door ready to close it.
‘Wait!’ Seraphina stuck her hand in the doorway and Noah swore under his breath. He stopped short (just) of crushing the hand of one of Australia’s most recognisable celebrities.
‘We’re Juliette’s friends.’
He felt his entire body go numb.
Juliette?
He hadn’t heard her name said aloud in years.
‘She sent you?’
Seraphina shook her head. ‘She has no idea Anna and I are here.’
‘And why are you here?’
‘Because we found the sketchbook, the one you made for her when she was first diagnosed,’ Anna began.
‘And we know about the art collection, the one you named after her,’ Sera added.
Noah’s grip tightened on the door he was still holding and he felt his jaw clench. ‘Well, then you’d know she wants nothing to do with me,’ he replied coldly.
‘Can you stop calling her “she”?’ Anna shot back, annoyed. ‘Her name is Juliette and you obviously hurt her because she never told us anything. What we know we pieced together ourselves.’
‘Hurt her?’ Noah let out a bitter laugh. ‘I did nothing of the sort. She was the one that did the hurting.’
The memory of her disappearing at his parents’ anniversary party still cut through him like a knife.
‘You must still have feelings for her.’ Anna looked him straight in the eyes as she spoke and he felt a tiny sliver of intimidation slide through him. ‘Why else would you withhold the namesake piece from your art collection?’
Noah felt as if he was on trial and was being cross-examined.
‘Oh, you’re good!’ Sera whispered in awe.
Juliette’s piece. It was all too bittersweet for him. After she abandoned him he hadn’t wanted to sketch her. He was hurt, angry, confused. Besides issuing him with a one-sentence warning not to try and contact her, ever, Juliette had not returned any messages or calls. She wanted to cut him completely out of her life and she wouldn’t tell him why.
He had wallowed in his sadness and self-pity – and for far too long for his sister’s and mother’s liking, but one day, months later, the answer was clear. He would sketch her. Finish the collection and get rid of it. He needed to remove all trace of his summer with Juliette.
So he did, putting himself through the pain of sketching her by heart, all while his heart was breaking.
Nerida found a gallery in Sydney. It was all so easy. He was shocked at how quickly it all moved. But when they came to take his collection he couldn’t part with the one piece that’d been his undoing.
Did he still have feelings for Juliette? Of course he did, but she wanted nothing to do with him; she had made that abundantly clear by not saying anything to him.
‘Why I kept the piece is none of your concern,’ Noah said. ‘Now, if you would both excuse me, you’ve wasted enough of my morning.’ He attempted to close the door for a second time and Sera stopped him again.
‘She’s dying, Noah.’
‘What?’ The words sent a shockwave through him, assaulting every inch of his being.
Juliette was dying? It was impossible, inconceivable. She went into remission, they both did.
‘The cancer, it’s back.’
‘But she can fight it, she beat it last time…’ He trailed off when Sera shook her head.
‘We need your help,’ Anna pleaded. ‘We know how much joy your time together gave her.’
‘You got that all from a sketchbook?’
‘A picture tells a thousand words,’ she said softly. ‘Plus there was your letter to her.’
He closed his eyes as the memories came flooding back of the day he’d given Juliette the sketchbook. It was the day of his last chemo treatment. Her treatment wasn’t far off finishing. They were on their way to ridding their bodies of the disease.
‘She doesn’t want anything to do with me. I know that by the way she ended it,’ Noah said with finality.
‘Dude, she’s dying.’ Sera placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. ‘I don’t care what she did or how it made you feel. If you know anything about Juliette you’d know she’s the most selfless person on this earth and she’s not going to be here much longer. We want to make her last days are some of her happiest. So pull your finger out and help us.’
‘Days?’ Noah felt his heart contract. ‘She only has days?’
‘We’re not sure,’ Anna said, her tone showing concern. ‘It might be a couple of weeks, maybe a month.’
‘She might not make it to summer?’ he mused.
‘No, it’s quite possible she won’t,’ Anna added softly.
Noah fell silent, a sadness consuming him. He should’ve fought harder for her three years ago. He shouldn’t have listened when she asked him to stay away. He hadn’t listened before. But it was too late for could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. A lot of ties were left loose with Juliette, but there was one in particular that needed addressing. A question he’d asked her and never gotten her answer.
‘Give me an hour.’
* * *
For just five minutes Juliette wanted to not think about dying. To not think about the cancer that had already ravaged her body. It had consumed her every thought, every moment since the day a routine check-up had shown new tumours.
Three years into remission and she’d gotten cocky. Gotten to the point where she thought she was in the clear. But then, like a slap in the face, the ‘C’ word reared its ugly head. Or more accurately, three intertwined ‘C’ words. Cancer and the Cole Curse. They went hand in hand. She’d been a fool to think she could dodge the curse bullet. Juliette knew she needed to accept the inevitable and most days she was okay knowing that the end was coming, especially since she had Anna and Sera with her.
When she’d called on the pinky swear and asked them to come, Juliette wasn’t sure she’d done the right thing. Realistically, the expectation that Anna and Sera would honour a silly childhood pledge, one that’d been made when they were all young and naive, was extremely low.
But they had come. Both of them, and for that she was grateful. She had a will, made sure it was up to date and now it was about time she shared the contents of it with her friends. The end had begun. She knew Anna and Sera both thought she’d been doing relatively okay until yesterday, but if Juliette was honest, she hadn’t been anywhere close to okay for a long time.
Which was why she needed five minutes, just five minutes. So she closed her eyes and pretended she was on a deserted island, lying on a pristine beach. The sun was high in the sky, its warmth kissed her skin. A light breeze fluttered through from time to time, keeping her cool. She wiggled her toes, felt the sand between her feet, heard the gentle lapping of the waves. She sighed and felt herself smile. This really was paradise. Was this what heaven felt like? She certainly hoped so. She could stay here forever.
Maybe this dying business wasn’t so bad after all.
‘Juliette?’
With eyes still closed she heard her name and felt her heart come skidding to a halt. She didn’t have to open her eyes to confirm whose voice it was. She would be able to single it out in a loud and crowded room.
Noah.
‘Juliette?’ he repeated, his voice a little louder and closer than before. ‘If you can hear me, open your eyes.’
The problem was she didn’t want to. She was happy in her little dream and if she opened her eyes he might disappear.
For years she had told herself walking away from Noah had been the right thing to do. She had done it for him, to protect him from needing to go through something exactly like this.
When the cancer had returned, one of the first things she’d thought about was hoping Noah never found out she was sick again. But somehow he had because he was here, and now that he was she didn’t want him to be a dream.
Juliette slowly fluttered her eyelids open.
There he was, all rugged and as insanely gorgeous as ever. He was older, three years or so, but age had only made him finer. His stubble indicated a shave was long overdue, but the almost-but-not-quite beard suited him.
‘You’ve grown your hair,’ Juliette noted, and it was met with a pensive gaze and a folding of his arms.
‘Three years of nothing and the first thing you say is “you’ve grown your hair?”’
‘It’s longer than it was when I last saw you.’ She almost said when we were together, but corrected herself.
‘It is, and yours is still short.’ Although he’d stepped into her room Noah kept his distance, making no attempt to come any closer.
At the mention of her hair Juliette ran a hand thought her pixie cut. It was oily and in desperate need of a wash and she was certain it looked like a bird’s nest. ‘I need it cut.’
‘I think it looks great. I always loved it on you.’ He shoved his hands into his pockets as a smile ghosted about on his lips.
They were both plunged into an awkward silence, neither one of them knowing what to say next. Were they really doing this? It’d been three years since they’d seen each other and they were talking about hair?
Even though it’d been her decision to end it, Juliette had never stopped thinking about Noah. Try as hard as she might she was never able to forget him. She often wondered if their paths would ever cross and how it would play out if they did. Never in a million lifetimes did she think it’d be like this, with her lying in a hospital bed, dying from the cancer that’d brought them together, and never did she imagine them talking about hair.
Juliette plucked at the standard issue hospital blanket and was thankful she at least had the foresight to change out of the hospital gown she had on earlier and into her soft grey cotton trackies and T-shirt. Drawing her knees close to her chest, she rested her chin on top of them and broke the silence.
‘Why are you here?’
Noah cocked his head to the side. ‘You know why.’
‘How’d you find out?’
Her guess was Lucy. She’d bumped into her a couple of times lately. It was feasible that she had been the source. Although she wasn’t sure Lucy knew she was in hospital.
‘Seraphina and Anna paid me a visit this morning.’
He couldn’t be serious. Noah didn’t even know Sera and Anna. She might have mentioned them to him once or twice, but still she doubted he would remember them. ‘It sounded like you said Sera and Anna paid you…’ Juliette trailed off as Noah nodded his head.
‘That’s exactly what I said. They turned up on my doorstep and told me that…’ She heard the catch in his voice, it was slight but it was there, and then she watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down before he continued. ‘That you were sick.’
‘I’m more than sick, Noah, I’m dying,’ she said bluntly and watched surprise flicker across his gaze at her tone.
‘How’d they find you? I mean…I didn’t…’ Juliette was about to say she didn’t tell them about him, but that wasn’t entirely true. There was a couple of times – once when she told them about the cancer the first time round and Noah’s name slipped out and the second time when they’d bumped into Lucy. But surely that couldn’t have been enough.
‘They found the sketchbook…’
‘They did?’ Juliette’s mind was working overtime, trying to work out how they would’ve managed to find it. It was hidden in the top shelf in the kitchen pantry under the box that contained all of Maisey’s recipe books.
Maisey’s recipe books.
Juliette felt her eyes widen. Of course, yesterday when Anna had offered to make the muffins. She’d been too unwell to realise.
‘You kept it,’ Noah said softly.
‘Of course I did.’ She knew exactly what he’d been referring to. It had been the only thing of his she had left. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
‘Why?’ Noah pulled his hands out of his pockets and dragged them through his hair. ‘Because of the way you left me. You walked away from me, Juliette, at my parents’ wedding anniversary party and you never told me why, you refused to have any contact with me and asked me to leave you alone.’
‘And you did,’ she whispered.
‘I did. Because you asked. Because I will always do what you ask of me, Juliette. Always.’
Casting her gaze away from his, she hugged her knees tighter and felt her thundering heart beating against them. The hurt was so clear, so raw. She’d caused it, but she had done it for his own good. She would explain it and he would see she walked away to prevent him needing to go through this with her.
‘I know you may find it hard to believe, but I walked away…for you.’ She watched as first disbelief, then annoyance flickered though his gaze. The annoyance stayed put.
‘Damn straight I find it hard to believe.’ Noah folded his arms and waited expectantly, presumably waiting for her to explain.
‘I realised something that day. Your family…’
‘What about them?’
‘They’re perfect.’
Noah let out a bitter laugh. ‘No one’s family is perfect.’
She shook her head. ‘That’s where you’re wrong. I was watching you all that day and felt completely out of place…’ She turned to gaze outside the window and squeezed her eyes shut as memories from that day flooded through and branded her heart with an iron. Tears pricked, threatening, but she swallowed and kept going.
‘And then Natalie announced her pregnancy and your father made that speech about how he couldn’t wait for you to have a family of your own. I knew I couldn’t give you that and I always feared that if something was to happen to me, like this…You don’t deserve the burden. You deserve a perfect life and I couldn’t give that to you. I can never give that to you. The curse made sure of that.’ She turned to face him as a lone tear escaped.
‘No one has the perfect life, Juliette’
‘Your family does, Noah. Go back to them and find a Noelle or a Naomi or any girl with the initial N and live happily ever after.’
Noah walked to her bed and took her hand. She let him. She didn’t fight it. He felt warm and strong, like he could protect her from anything – well anything, with the exception of dying.
‘You fool, you’re my happily ever after.’ He cupped her face and wiped the tears with his thumb.’
Juliette closed her eyes and savoured his touch. ‘I’m dying, Noah, there is no happily ever after. Not for me, but you still have a chance if you leave now.’
‘That’s where you are wrong. There is a chance of happiness for you and you need to realise that you deserve happiness, even if it is brief. Let’s give that curse the bird and be happy with me.’
His words were like a sweet temptation, but she couldn’t put him through this. She’d best say goodbye and ask him to leave.
‘Noah, I can’t ask this of you. You need—’
‘To leave?’ he finished her sentence. ‘That’s not happening, I’m not leaving. Not this time. I’d rather ten days in a world with you in it than ten decades in a world without you. And it’s occurred to me that three years ago I asked you a rather important question and never received an answer.’
It took her a moment, but she knew what he was talking about,
The proposal. The one that she had been about to accept and instead she ended up breaking both their hearts.
‘You’re asking me for an answer? Now?’
Noah shrugged. ‘I think you’ve had enough time to mull it over, don’t you? So what do you say, Juliette? Marry me and I will make you the happiest woman on earth.’
Juliette had absolutely no doubt he would. She thought about Sera and Anna, thought about the effort they’d made to find Noah. Her friends really knew her, even better than she knew herself it seemed. They could see she was missing something. While she had people that loved her by her side, she was missing that one person she was in love with. The one she’d pushed away constantly, and despite how she’d treated him, had come the moment he’d found out about the cancer returning. And he still wanted to marry her.
‘You know, not many guys would give a girl three years to think about her answer.’
‘I’m not like other guys.’ His eyes lit up and unbelievably even after three years, he still had the power to let loose a swarm of butterflies in her tummy.
‘I know. That’s why I’m marrying you.’
‘Is that a yes?’ he asked hopefully.
The cancer might be claiming her life and the curse may not be broken, but for the last days of her life, Juliette was going to surround herself with love.
‘Yes, Noah, I will marry you.’
She would love, be loved, because she deserved to be happy. Sera, Anna and Noah were her happiness.
* * *
The sunlight creeping through the shutters woke Juliette. The sun was bright and strong and by the sounds of the cicadas, it was going to be a warm day too. The forecast had called for one, but frankly she couldn’t care if it ended up being the hottest November day on record or even, by some freak of nature, if it was a freezing cold day. Today was her wedding day. A day she’d never thought she would see. Next to her, her husband-to-be stirred and tightened his grip around her waist.
‘Too early,’ he mumbled sleepily as she tried to remove herself from his grasp.
‘It’s after six. I need to start getting ready.’
‘For what?’
Juliette turned to ask Noah if he was serious. Could he really have forgotten what today was? But she was met with a cheeky grin.
‘Very funny.’ She whacked him with her pillow and he grabbed her and pinned her underneath him. The look in his eyes went from cheeky to suggestive in five seconds flat.
‘I need to get up and start getting ready,’ Juliette repeated.
‘Why so early?’ Noah kissed her and Juliette felt her toes curl with pleasure.
‘Because it takes time to make myself beautiful.’
‘You don’t need time, you’re already beautiful.’ His lips moved down her neck, leaving trails of soft sensual kisses in their wake.
Juliette moaned and closed her eyes as every inch of her body woke up, craving his touch.
Had it really only been a week since she’d been released from hospital? Last week she was sure she was sliding into death. Her body had started the process of shutting down, but now it’d stalled, as if having Noah back had brought it back to life. She felt normal, alive. She didn’t know how long it would last and didn’t want to spend time dwelling on it, nor did she spend time regretting not telling Noah sooner or regretting walking away from him. Her life, in particular, was too short.
Instead she closed her eyes and let her fiancée explore her body in ways she had only dreamed about. ‘Shouldn’t…shouldn’t we be doing this after we’re married?’
‘Are you getting all traditional on me?’ He lifted his gaze, his tone playful. ‘I thought we were way past that.’ He didn’t let her answer, instead he pushed the straps of her pyjama top down to reveal her breasts. Languidly he circled her nipple with his tongue, then moved to give the other equal attention.
‘Oh!’ Juliette arched her back and a let out a cry. Yes, they certainly were beyond doing anything traditional. Nothing about this wedding had been standard, including last night when she insisted Noah go home so they didn’t see each other before the ceremony. He refused, claiming he would not spend another night without her in his arms.
She felt Noah’s hands on the top of her pyjama bottoms before sliding them down and taking her undies with them. She took off his briefs, thankful that he was a minimalist when it came to bed attire.
She closed her eyes as Noah filled her.
‘Open your eyes, Juliette,’ he whispered and she did, keeping her gaze locked onto his as they made love, only losing focus when her vision blurred as her climax rolled though her.
It might not have been a traditional start to a wedding day, but it would end traditionally and it would be filled with love.
* * *
In the garden of Ellesmere House, under the searing glare of the late spring sun, Noah Bradley stood awaiting his bride.
When he usually heard people talk about small intimate weddings they would often follow it up with a number they considered small, usually between fifty and one hundred. But this wedding, his wedding, their wedding was truly one that be could be called small.
Besides Juliette and himself there was Dave, the celebrant, who was also the local publican. Sera and Anna, of course, who were both maids of honour, as well as Jack, the town lawyer who had a thing for Anna (and it seemed the thing was mutual), and Sera’s boyfriend, Patrick, who just happened to be the mayor, and his son, Levi. Lastly, there was Tilly the chef who worked at The Bookworm, and Teddy the barista.
He knew the whole town wanted to be present; after all Juliette was a Cole and pretty much Ellesmere royalty. So they compromised. While their wedding ceremony and lunch would be intimate, they would head to Elle’s tonight to allow people to come and join the celebration.
None of his family would be present. It was his choice. He would tell them, eventually but he doubted they would understand. His mother and Nerida would think he’d done it out of pity, which was so far off the mark. Natalie, perhaps, would understand. The last few years had been pretty rough on her and it’d brought him closer to his middle sister.
He hadn’t told Juliette, but Nat lost the baby, a little girl born very premature at twenty-six weeks. Watching his sister in her pain had been excruciating and then watching as she lost another baby, he wondered how she had the strength to go on.
It turned out she was barely keeping it all together. One day Nat had decided it all was too hard and she had swallowed a handful of sleeping pills with the intention of never waking up. Luckily Nolan found her in time and Natalie ended up getting the help she needed to support her through her depression. So his family was not perfect – and he wasn’t even going to get started on his mother and Nerida. So not having his family here worked just fine for Noah.
He glanced at his watch. Five minutes, he only had to wait five more minutes until the ceremony was due to start. That was if Juliette was on time. If it were up to him Noah would’ve married Juliette the moment she said yes, right in that hospital room. But there was some minor details about a dress and a cake and flowers and, oh, yes, rings. He’d waited three years, what was another ten days or so?
Jack walked towards him and gave him a friendly slap on his back. ‘She’s ready.’
Noah felt his pulse quicken. This is it. She’s finally going to become my wife.
He’d waited three years for this moment and the moment he saw her standing at the end of the aisle he knew he was the happiest man on earth.
* * *
They exchanged vows they’d written together. Their words would bind them for only a brief moment in time, but they were words said from the heart.
Juliette’s hand trembled slightly as Noah slipped the wedding band onto her ring finger. The shiny gold ring fit perfectly and felt so right.
When Dave declared that they were husband and wife, Noah dipped her and sealed their vows with a kiss. And just like that they were married.
As they walked together down the aisle, hand in hand, fingers entwined, Juliette promised herself that today she would not allow herself to think about her cancer or the curse. Today she was like any other bride, high on love and full of hope for her new life. And she was going to live life to the fullest for as long as that might be.