Juliette
Summer – three years earlier
Two months after his last chemotherapy treatment, Noah walked back into his oncologist’s office for his check-up.
‘Your latest scans are clear.’ Doctor Hastings pushed his glasses down the bridge of his nose and smiled. ‘We’ll keep monitoring you but for now I’m happy to report that there’s no sign of the cancer. You’re in remission.’
Noah leaned back and let out a breath. ‘Doc, you don’t know how good it feels to hear that. Thank you.’
‘It is my absolute pleasure, Noah. When someone as young as you presents with such a sinister disease we hope that we catch it as early as we did with you.’
‘Yeah, who knew it would be a good thing to have a seizure?’ Noah shook his head.
‘That seizure saved your life,’ said Doctor Hastings.
‘And don’t I know it.’
‘I’ll see you in a few months, Noah. Till then take your second chance. Travel, enjoy life and, most importantly, live your life.’
Doctor Hastings extended his hand and Noah stood up to take it. ‘Thanks again, I don’t know what I can do to repay you.’
‘Stay alive.’
‘I’ll try.’ He’d been given a second chance at life. How many people could say the same? He was happy that he was in remission, he really was, because the alternative, death, well, that just plain sucked. His family would be stoked with the news. His mother would undoubtedly cry, his sisters would too, and even his old man might shed a tear. But something was missing, or more specifically someone. She wants nothing to do with you. She made that clear months ago.
And for months, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get her out of his head. Frustrated and suddenly in a foul mood, Noah punched hard on the down button and stood back, waiting for the lift to arrive. When the doors slid open, Noah felt his bad mood disappear as a familiar face looked at him.
‘Lucy!’ Noah stepped inside and gave the nurse who had been such a huge part of his cancer treatment a hug.
‘I see that you’re still with us.’ Lucy hugged him back before pushing him back to arm’s length as she looked him up and down. ‘And not looking too shabby either. The long hair suits you and you’ve got some of your muscle back.’ She poked his abs and Noah flinched a little.
‘Hey, easy there, Luce.’
‘You missed the object of your affection. She was here about ten minutes ago.’
Noah felt his heartbeat quicken in his chest. ‘Juliette?’ It hurt to say her name aloud.
Lucy nodded. ‘She had her last chemo session today.’
‘How is she?’ He tried to sound nonchalant as he shoved his hands in his pockets but from the look on Lucy’s face, she knew he was bluffing.
‘Terrible.’
Noah broke out in a cold sweat. ‘What? Don’t tell me the cancer has metastasised.’ He couldn’t help himself. His mind jumped to the worst thing he could think of but he felt a slight shiver of relief when Lucy shook her head.
‘No, I thought that too, but she said her doc was happy with her progress.’ Lucy shrugged. ‘I think she’s sad. What happened with you two? I thought there was something there.’
Noah held back a scoff. Yeah, me too. It was his turn to shrug his shoulders. ‘We lost touch after I finished treatment.’ He was lying although he knew Lucy would see through this.
‘Aha. Well, maybe you should get back in touch with her. The girl looks like she’s constantly down in the dumps, she’s not even reading those books she brings with her, most of the time she’s staring out the window like she’s looking for someone.’
‘It’s no use,’ Noah told Lucy, figuring he might as well come clean since there was no reason to continue being dishonest. ‘She doesn’t want anything to do with me. I tried getting her to have a coffee with me and she flat out refused to see me outside our treatment time.’
‘Maybe you didn’t try hard enough.’
Noah shot her a perplexed look. Was Lucy being serious? He didn’t try hard enough?
‘What? How much more could I have done? She’s the only person on this earth that doesn’t have a mobile phone and she didn’t return any of my calls…’ He held his hands up in defeat. ‘I’m not sure what else I could’ve done. Maybe she just wasn’t that into me.’
Judging by the look Lucy threw in his direction it was clear she thought his attempt to be humorous was pathetic. ‘Trust me, she was into you. Maybe more so after you left. Stop being an arse and do something about it. You’re meant to be her stalker right? So go and stalk her.’
The doors pinged open and after Lucy stepped out of the lift she turned to face him as the doors were closing. ‘You have both been given a second chance. You can waste it or take it and run. What you do is up to you.’
It was the second time that day he’d heard those words. Lucy was right and he wasn’t going to waste it. He wasn’t going to write another list, he was done with that. There was only one thing he wanted. Juliette. And if she wouldn’t go to him then there was only one thing left to do.
* * *
‘Oh f—’ Juliette flinched as the muffin tray she’d just pulled out of the oven made contact with the side of her hand. But that wasn’t why she had come close to uttering an expletive. In her pain she’d dropped the tray only for it to land precariously on the kitchen bench, balancing there for three whole seconds before it tumbled to the floor.
Lifting her burnt hand to her lips gave little relief. She really needed to get to the tap and run it under cold water but she was fixed to the spot, looking at her hard work lying crumbled on the floor. A bit like you, Juliette. She sighed. The cupcakes were for Shelly Barton’s baby shower. Now she would have to make another batch, wait until they cooled and then frost them with cream cheese icing. It meant she would be at least half an hour late, if not longer. Admit it, like you care if you’re late to a party where a bunch of women will spend the next three hours going gaga over everything to do with babies.
There would be oohing and ahhing and squealing over tiny onesies and booties, although why anyone would be giving booties to a mother who was due to have her baby in the height of summer was beyond her.
Finally, after mustering the energy, she shuffled to the sink, ran her hand under the water for a while then began cleaning up the mess. A few minutes later there was no trace of broken vanilla cupcakes.
If only cleaning yourself was that easy, Juliette.
The cancer was gone. She’d had her last treatment weeks ago and the appointment with her doctor had gone well. She was officially in remission. He spoke about the risks of the cancer coming back, about monitoring her closely, but then he ended their consult with ‘…now you can get back to your life.’
As if it were that easy. She was a twenty-eight-year old woman who was missing a vital part of her anatomy, a part that all women were born with and a part that women her age were beginning to want to make use of. A uterus. Without it she couldn’t have children. And she was a woman who had always wanted children. She used to joke with Chris that they would have two children, but not three because then they would be outnumbered.
Now, she not only didn’t have Chris, she didn’t have any way of having children of her own. Something her doctor had conveniently forgotten when he was marvelling upon her mortality.
‘You’re a remarkable young woman, one that’s extremely lucky to be alive. The chances of you surviving were extremely slim.’
She was destined to end up as the crazy Cole spinster who ran a bookstore. At least she had The Bookworm, it could’ve been worse. She was sure that if she weren’t her own boss she would’ve lost her job ages ago. She had great staff and would be forever indebted to them, plus the town had supported her throughout her treatment so she felt loved in some respects. But she was alone. Get used to it, Juliette, that’s how it’s going to be.
As she whipped up another batch of cupcakes, she turned on the radio and hoped that hearing some upbeat tunes would lift her mood. She hummed and sang along, and sure enough, by the time the cupcakes were baked, cooled, iced and topped with tiny baby bottles and dummies that she’d made out of fondant, her mood had improved considerably.
Juliette arranged the cupcakes on a stand and covered them with a glass cover. It was only a short walk to Shelly’s mum’s house where the baby shower was being held so she had decided to walk. The scorcher that had been forecast hadn’t eventuated so it would be pleasant out and she didn’t need to worry that the icing would melt before she got to Bessie’s.
A few hours later, as she made her way home, the mercury had risen considerably and even the short walk home was becoming unbearable. As predicted there had been a substantial amount of oohing and ahhing but Shelly was so happy and radiant, and her joy had been so infectious, that she couldn’t help but feel happy for the expectant mother. Plus Shelley had cried when she saw Juliette’s baby shower-themed cupcakes.
‘Juliette, they’re amazing, you’ve made my day.’
How could she feel anything but happy after hearing that? She loved making people happy, seeing them happy. It was one of the reasons she loved The Bookworm. The café was doing well and she had plans. Plans to make it bigger and better. She would take Maisey’s humble little bookstore and make it flourish. If she couldn’t have a family then she would pour all her energy into her business.
Swatting away a fly that seemed to have been following her all the way home, she turned to walk up her pathway and froze when she saw a man sitting on her top step.
‘Noah?’ She hadn’t meant to say his name aloud, but she was shocked.
He stood up and shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts. His arms and legs were toned and tanned. He looked as good as she remembered, and she’d remembered him well because his was the face she imagined when she woke up and each night before she fell asleep plus about a million other times during the day. She hadn’t wanted to think about him. She’d tried so hard to forget him, but Noah’s face, not to mention the rest of him, wasn’t so easy to erase from her memory.
‘Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to let me in? I’ve been sitting here for hours.’
Juliette blinked. ‘How’d you…how’d you find me?’ She stammered, still standing in the same spot.
His lips broke into a smile that made her heart flutter. ‘You’re Juliette Cole, a legend in your town. Everyone knows who you are and where you live, but if you’re asking specifically it was Tilly, your chef.’
Juliette wasn’t sure she could feel more shocked, but knowing Noah had been to The Bookworm? ‘You went to The Bookworm?’
‘That place is amazing. It’s exactly how you described it. You should be really proud of it.’
‘Thank you, I am. Proud,’ she managed to stutter. How could she not? Noah was standing right in front of her, on her verandah.
She felt the afternoon sun burn her shoulders and decided it was about time she got into the shade. As she walked towards him she took back her earlier thought about his appearance. Nope, he didn’t look as good as she remembered. He looked better and, damn it, it was doing her head in.
‘Noah. What are you doing here?’
‘Besides waiting for you for hours in this stinking heat?’ He was trying to keep his tone jovial, but she could hear the nervousness in his voice.
‘Yes, besides that.’ Juliette swatted that damn pesky fly again.
‘I came you ask you what you thought of my present.’
Despite the heat of the day Juliette felt a chill rush through her. ‘Your present?’ she asked innocently, but she knew exactly what he was talking about. His beautiful drawings he’d presented to her on the day of his last therapy session.
‘You came all this way to ask me that?’
He gave her a lopsided grin and Juliette thought she would die on the spot. ‘You never returned my calls when I did call you and you don’t have a mobile so I can’t text you to ask, so yeah…’
Juliette opened her mouth to respond, but before she could the distinct shrill of her home phone sounded from inside the house.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, fumbling though her bag to find her keys. ‘I need to answer that.’ She unlocked the door and bolted in, making it in time before the answering machine kicked in.
‘Hello?’
‘Juliette? It’s Mick Macreedy. We’ve gotten word from the RFS that there’s a couple of blazes threatening to cross containment lines and may pose a threat to the town. The one at Barden Ridge is particularly worrying. Was hoping you and Tilly could gather some supplies and start setting up in the town hall in case we need to evacuate.’
‘Of course Mick, I’ll get onto it right away.’ As she ended the phone call with Mick, Juliette was already planning ahead. She would drive to The Bookworm, grab Tilly and they would…
‘Is everything all right?’
Startled, she grabbed her chest to see Noah standing in her kitchen. Somehow she’d forgotten about him and he’d taken it upon himself to walk into her house. She could tell him off, but she needed to get going and fast.
‘There’s a fire threatening to break containment lines and I need to go and help set up the town hall in case they need to evacuate.’ She walked to her pantry to see what she could take with her. She had a box of water bottles that had been delivered to her home address by mistake that she’d been meaning to take to the café. Tilly probably already knew about the fire and would be organising stock from The Bookworm to take over.
‘Is that the Barden Ridge fire?’
Juliette’s hand stilled. ‘How’d you know?’ she asked as she turned to face Noah.
‘I’m a volunteer firey, I just got the call about it a minute ago.’
No. She didn’t need him to be a voluntary firey. She didn’t need him to be any more irresistible. And certainly now was not the time to be visualising Noah in his fire-fighting gear. She silently chided herself. She needed to get to The Bookworm; she didn’t have time to think about Noah.
‘I need to go,’ she said as she grabbed the box of water bottles, but they were heavier than she expected and she nearly dropped them.
‘Here, let me help you.’
Before she could protest, Noah was holding the twelve-pack of bottles as if it was as light as feathers.
‘Where do you want them?’
Juliette, jaw dropping, was staring at his bulging biceps as he carried the box. All she needed to do was to start drooling. As the realisation of what she was doing hit she felt her face flame. ‘Umm…’ Juliette cleared her throat in an effort to gain some composure and fought off the urge to fan her face. ‘In the car.’ She grabbed her keys and headed out, and Noah followed.
Juliette opened the boot so he could put the box in. ‘Thanks,’ she muttered and slid into the driver’s seat. She was about to drive off when he bent down and stuck his head in the window. He was close, too close. She could smell his aftershave; it was woody, masculine. He smelt divine.
‘I’ll meet you at the town hall later.’
‘But I don’t…I can’t…’ Juliette’s feeble protests were stopped by the swift shake of Noah’s head.
‘We didn’t finish our conversation, Juliette.’
‘We didn’t?’ she asked innocently.
‘No. We didn’t. I need to join the crew, but I’ll see you at the town hall later tonight.’
As soon as Noah stepped away from the car she was off, and for the next few hours Juliette didn’t allow herself to think about Noah. The town hall had been transformed into an evacuation area. Dave McKinney from Elle’s was coordinating a food and drink station, the Flemings were carrying in toiletries and other essentials and Boof Hawkins and Johnno Taylor were setting up the beanbags and beds.
Tilly made a beeline for Juliette and placed a box on the table in front of her. ‘I found a whole heap of colouring books and scrap paper as well as textas and crayons.’
Juliette peered inside. ‘Thanks, they will definitely come in handy if they do give the orders to evacuate.’
‘You really think it’ll happen?’ Tilly asked, concern clear in her voice.
‘I really don’t know,’ Juliette sighed. ‘Latest reports are that the fire is still contained, but we all know how quickly things change.’
Last summer they’d almost lost half the town and they were lucky that no one lost their lives. They weren’t going to make the same mistake again, even if Mayor Moody had thought it all an overreaction. If the Rural Fire Service and the Police Local Area Command said otherwise, Maurice Moody had to listen.
‘Yes, those fires have a mind of their own. Thank god for those fire-fighters, huh?’
At the mention of fire-fighters Juliette’s mind flicked to Noah. Damn. And she’d been doing so well not thinking of him. Desperate not to picture him in the act of heroism, Juliette wandered around for the next couple of hours, keeping herself busy, when word came though that they were evacuating the northern part of town.
‘The fire’s jumped the containment lines. We’ve got one volunteer firey injured,’ Mick briefed them all.
Noah. Juliette felt faint. Her heartbeat was so loud she could hear it reverberating in her ears. ‘How is he? Do you they know who he is?’
Mick shook his head. ‘Not sure. All I know is that he’s on his way to Coffs Hospital as we speak. Now…’
Mick continued to debrief then on the evacuation process. The northern end of town wasn’t huge, but they were still going to be close to capacity once all the residents were in.
And they were, but because they were prepared, the evacuated residents came in calmly and, for the most part, were in good spirits.
Mavis Vaughn, who was relatively new to Ellesmere, was helping Tilly serve coffee and as she gave one to Joyce Mather, Juliette overheard her ask if there was any Milo instead. Juliette gave a little chuckle as she walked away and tried to pin down Mick to see if he had any news on the injured firey.
‘Nothing. Sorry, Juliette. Do you know anyone out there tonight?’
‘No.’ She shook her head, lying through her teeth. ‘Just concerned, that’s all.’
‘Well, if I hear anything, I’ll let you know, okay?’
‘Thanks, Mick.’
Mick didn’t hear about the injured fire-fighter. The fire not only jumped the containment lines but wind gusts were fanning the blaze and it had ended up coming within a couple of hundred metres of a number of outlying farms, so Juliette knew that the fighters and volunteers had their work cut out for them.
Thankfully by midnight, the blaze was still burning but the wind had died down.
Most of the evacuees were asleep save for a few kids who thought the whole experience was more adventure than anything. The hall was quiet.
‘We’ve got things under control, Juliette, you can go home if you like,’ Mick whispered.
She could go home. Really, there was nothing stopping her. Except for the fact that Noah told her he still wanted to talk to her and right now she was just hoping to see him unhurt. What she would say to him, well, she would just deal with that when the time came.
‘I’m good, Mick. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to stay.’
‘No worries, love. Find a spare mattress and make yourself as comfy as you can.
Juliette highly doubted she was going to be comfortable on the tiny blow-up mattress, but somehow as soon as her head hit the plastic pillow she was gone.
Her sleep was fitful despite her initial fatigue and each time she fell back asleep she tumbled into a dream. She was in the middle of a nightmare about Noah being injured when she heard someone calling her name.
‘Juliette…Juliette. Hey, wake up, sleeping beauty.’
Her body was jolted out of the dream and straight into Noah’s arms. ‘Noah. Thank god you’re here.’ Her breathing was fast and furious and she clung to him for dear life.
‘If I knew this was the way to get you into my arms I would’ve become a real stalker and broken into your house months ago.’
She laughed through her tears. He smelled like smoke and sweat; a whole lot different than when she had seen him nearly twelve hours ago.
‘They said someone was hurt and I was so scared that it was you.’
‘So you do care,’ he teased.
She pulled back and through the first light of the day she could see his face was covered in soot and his eyes were tired, but he looked at her like there was nowhere else he’d rather be than right here, right now, with her.
‘The fire?’ Juliette asked.
‘Still burning, but under control.’
‘Thank goodness.’ She breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Come on,’ Noah stood up and took her hand to help her up.
‘Where are we going?’
‘For a walk.’
They tiptoed out of the main hall. It was still early, only a little after six a.m., and as soon as they walked outside, Juliette saw her hometown blanketed in a thick, smoky haze. It wasn’t the first time fires had come close to the town, but she never became complacent about it; it always felt eerie.
Noah reached for her hand and she didn’t stop him. His touch felt good, his skin against hers, palm to palm, it felt right. She snuck a sideway glance at him and felt her heart flip-flop.
It was true what they said about a man in uniform. They walked in silence until they reached The Bookworm.
‘So this is your place?’
‘Is this why you asked me out for a walk, to see my shop?’
‘Well, it was the excuse you gave me every time I asked you to have a coffee. So I thought if I asked you out for a coffee now and you used the excuse that you needed to get back to the shop…well, you get the picture.’
‘Smart…cunning, but smart.’
‘So will you?’
‘Will I what?’
‘Have coffee with me? I know this great little café…’
Juliette laughed and shook her head. ‘You’re impossible. All right, come in and I’ll make you a coffee.’ She dug into her pocket to grab the key.
‘Wow, this place, Juliette, it’s amazing. I thought so when I walked in yesterday.’
She watched as Noah walked around The Bookworm before returning to her side.
‘It’s small, but cosy. The place next door may be going up for sale soon and I’m hoping to grab it and expand—’
Noah silenced her with his lips. Soft and slow. He tasted of soot and smoke and thank goodness he knew how to put out fires because there was one smouldering within. When his lips left hers, disappointment flooded her. She wanted them back on hers, now. Through heavy lidded eyes she peered up and locked her gaze with his. After what she’d just felt, the feelings she’d been trying to deny all these months, the reasons why she couldn’t let her friendship with Noah develop into something more, all seemed insignificant. Every single reason had disintegrated because of one simple kiss.
‘I want you, Juliette. I’ve wanted you for months. The question is, do you want me?’
Juliette felt her heart thump so wildly in her chest that she thought it might explode. There was only one thing she could say.
‘Yes,’ she managed to breathe out as his lips came down and crashed upon hers, this time not so slow and definitely not soft. She offered, he took, and as his lips explored Juliette felt her body slowly come out of hibernation. It’d been such a long time since she had felt this alive. It was like she was breaking a famine. Every single cell in her body sang with pleasure.
When he finally pulled his lips away she felt her body sway slightly. She felt drugged, high on whatever illegal substance he’d injected into her body with his kiss. She licked her lips, desperate to savour, to get another hit, another taste of him.
‘I didn’t quite catch that.’ His breathing was ragged and knowing it was because of her gave Juliette an extra kick of pleasure.
‘Was that a yes?’
‘Yes.’
This time she didn’t wait for him, she moved her hands to the back of his neck and pulled him to her. To hell with the Cole curse, she deserved to be happy and Noah was her happiness.