Chapter Twelve

“What can I do to help?” Julian asked as he entered the kitchen.

She glanced at the table. “I think we’re in good shape.”

“Just sit down and make yourself comfortable,” Pete said, putting a pair of salt and pepper shakers on the table.

“And tell me red or white,” Judy chimed in.

“Red,” Julian said, taking a chair at the table.

She slid into the one beside him. “I picked it out earlier. It’s a pinot noir.”

His smile was for her alone as he leaned closer. “Mm,” he said as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “My favorite.”

“Be good,” she hissed.

“Trust me, I’m excellent.”

Her cheeks heated in an instant. “Not what I meant.”

His grin was unrepentant as he straightened. “You’ll just have to find out for yourself.”

As if I’m thinking about anything else.

Not after that kiss in the hallway.

Charlotte’s suggestion whispered through her mind again. What if she just tried to be herself and build something real with him?

Would he walk away from me if he learned the company wasn’t as strong as it should be? Will he leave me if I’m not the heiress he believes?

They were questions she had no way of answering.

“Bon appetite,” Judy declared, bringing over the potatoes. “Dig in.”

The plates rotated between the four of them. Julian heaped so much food on his plate she had to shake her head. Looked like he had a thing for home cooking.

“So I’ve been trying to think of the perfect wedding present,” Judy said. “Anything in particular you want?”

Holly shook her head. “Having the two of you at the wedding is more than enough.”

“Blah,” Judy said. “I got a cake stand on my wedding day that I still use with guests. We’ll think of something good.”

She glanced at Julian for help, and he nodded. “Lillian’s right. Coming is enough.”

“As if we’d miss it, my boy,” Pete said.

“Yes, you wouldn’t believe the number of weddings we’ve been to in the last few years,” Judy said. “So many of our kids have hit the age of tying the knot.”

“It must have been an incredible experience fostering children,” she said as she cut into her roast.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Judy said. “There were times Pete and I wondered what we were doing. What did we know about raising kids?”

“But you did it well,” Julian cut in.

Judy smiled his way. “Too often people are in it to try and make a buck. We know the foster system isn’t perfect. But we wanted the kids who landed with us to be treated right.”

“And they were,” Holly guessed.

Pete gave his wife an adoring look.

“Every child is wanted,” he said, clearly repeating an adage Judy had instilled in him.

“Every single one,” she agreed, reaching over to pat his hand.

Holly smiled as she cut her food. “You two are amazing people.”

How can strangers be this kind when my own father treats his kids as tools?

“It wasn’t always an easy road,” Pete said.

“No. Particularly not when we got a kid like Julian here.”

Julian groaned.

“Now, now, you know you took years off our lives,” Judy said.

“How so?” she asked, leaning forward with bright eyes.

Pete laughed. “When he was placed with us, the first thing he said was that he’d be gone soon, so we didn’t need to bother learning his name.”

She glanced at her partner. “Seriously?”

“I wasn’t an easy kid.”

“We hadn’t even hit two months before he tried to run away,” Judy added.

“Where did you go?” she asked.

“Bus station,” he replied. “But I didn’t have the fare to go anywhere. Pete found me huddled outside the building, trying to decide on my next move.”

“That time,” Pete chimed in. “Then it was the back of the school, the library parking lot, the train station, and once a neighbor kid’s tree house.”

“I wasn’t running away that time,” he protested. “I was thinking things through.”

“Point was, I wanted to ankle chip the boy,” Judy said. “Flighty as a sparrow, that one.”

“I don’t know. He’s been pretty constant since I’ve known him.”

Julian grinned at the unexpected assistance.

“I grew up,” he assured her.

“Slowly,” Judy added.

“We had a lot of kids rotate through our home,” Pete said. “Many of them still stay in touch and keep us updated. We tried to help where we could. But Julian was different.”

“He was ours,” Judy said, turning loving eyes on Julian. “From the moment he rebuffed us.”

Her heart tugged at the unconditional love she read in Judy’s expression. She’d never had that except with her sister. And Julian, a man without a family, had found it without trying.

Does he realize what a gift it is?

One she’d give anything to receive.

She may have the blood he wanted, but he had the family she’d always craved.

…

Julian groaned as Judy talked about his past.

He remembered the night at the bus stop. Yet another set of foster parents had been paraded in front of him, and this time he knew the score. No matter how nice a couple looked, it was always the same. People with easy anger or easy fists. There was a reason he’d become known as an escape artist. He wasn’t one to stick around if he had better opportunities elsewhere. And he had opportunities. They were all waiting in his head. Ideas he knew would matter. But he needed the education to cultivate them and the mentorships to take those daydreams into business ventures. Back in the early days, he’d had none of that.

It’s why they found me at the library.

He’d been trying to teach himself.

But Judy and Pete hadn’t been average foster parents. They’d genuinely invested in the kids in their care. Even now, years later, many of their foster charges stayed in touch.

It takes special people to do what they did.

Especially without ever asking a thing in return.

“How did you get through to him?” Lillian asked.

“It wasn’t easy,” Judy said as she cut into her meat. “He wouldn’t have anything to do with us for weeks.”

Those deep blue eyes turned back to him. “Shame on you,” she scolded.

“I was a teenager.”

“Still.”

“I thought I knew best.”

Her lips twitched. “Still.”

He gave in with a nod of his head. “I was a horror. My apologies.”

“There you go,” she said as she took a sip of her wine.

“Only at first,” Judy said. “It took a little time before he settled in.”

“Two years,” Pete said. “Then he got himself a scholarship and didn’t look back.”

“We tried to keep in touch,” Judy said. “But you know. Life happens.”

Lillian frowned at him.

He held up his hands for peace. “They lost touch with me,” he clarified. “I never lost touch with them.”

She rolled her eyes. “You were what, watching them from afar?”

“Exactly,” Judy said. “Never knew it until he bought this place for us.”

“So you disappeared for years and tried to solve it with money?” she asked.

He opened his mouth before closing it. She had a point. That was his usual strategy. In his defense, it worked more often than not.

It wouldn’t with Lillian.

Any more than it had with his foster family.

“He was a busy man,” Judy defended him, ever his staunch supporter.

“Family matters,” Lillian replied.

Judy smiled before nodding. “You’re right. He made a mistake.”

He groaned. “By the rules of marriage, you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“We’re not married,” she said tartly. “And you were definitely in the wrong.”

“You’re condemning me without hearing my side of the story.”

She tapped her finger to her cheek, considering, before shaking her head. “Nope, I believe Judy on this one.”

“Good girl,” Pete weighed in.

“Thanks,” he said drily.

Pete clapped him on the shoulder. “The women are always right, son. Learn it now.”

Probably sage advice.

Sighing, he stabbed a potato and stayed silent.

“Tell me more about what he was like when he was younger,” Lillian said. “I’m sure he was a handful.”

“You have no idea,” Judy said. “I once caught him teaching another one of our foster kids how to pick pockets undetected.”

“Come on, he wasn’t going to last, and he needed a skill,” he defended himself.

“What did I tell you about your illegal abilities?”

“Use them in a magic show.”

“Otherwise they aren’t for polite consumption.”

He rolled his eyes, but Lillian giggled, appearing to be enjoying herself more than he thought she would. His chest warmed.

“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe the kid used those skills for good.”

“Gareth is in jail for grand larceny,” Pete piped in.

Oops.

“I can’t tell you how many nights I spent awake thinking Julian would wind up in jail,” Judy said with a shake of her head.

“And here I am, your most successful foster.”

“Hey, now, Alexis is a corporate lawyer,” Judy said, her voice full of pride.

“And Jim started his own shelter,” Pete put in.

He rubbed his jaw to smother a smile. Some might think a billion-dollar empire would trump a soup kitchen, but not his foster parents. They were equally proud of all the kids that had lived under their roof. But of the dozens of kids who had graduated from their home, he was the one they claimed as family. Even when he’d done all but ignore them, they’d always been there cheering him on.

They loved me when I had nothing.

And they loved him just as much now.

“I take it he never landed in jail?” his companion asked.

“Not on our watch,” Judy said. “But he left as soon as he could get into school, so who knows.”

“I have dinner with the chief of police every other month,” he said.

“There you go. He’s either an upstanding citizen or planning a heist,” Pete said.

Lillian chuckled. “Let’s hope for the former.”

He eyed his partner in crime, noting her shoulders had relaxed and her smile was bright and easy. Sometimes she seemed to be holding her breath around him as if she were waiting for some shoe to drop and crush her.

But tonight, her guard was down. She was relaxed and open in a way he hadn’t seen before.

And it’s addicting.

“What was your childhood like, honey? Do you come from a big family too?” Judy asked as she ladled more peas onto Lillian’s plate without asking.

She eyed the vegetables but didn’t protest. “No,” she said. “I lost my mother young, so my sister and I basically raised ourselves.”

What?

“You had your father,” he added.

Her gaze skittered away from him. “Yes.”

“Where’s your sister now?” Judy asked.

Watching her as closely as he was, there was no missing the slight tightening around her lips. “She’s out of town at the moment. Hopefully, you’ll meet her at the wedding.”

“But you’re close?” Judy asked.

Those blue eyes returned to his with steel in them he didn’t understand. “Yes,” she said, her voice more confident that he’d ever heard her. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”

What am I missing here?

Did she think he’d try to separate her from her family?

“I’ll look forward to meeting her, then,” Judy said, oblivious to Lillian’s odd behavior.

“I’ll introduce you,” she said, her focus returning to her food.

He opened his mouth to investigate further, but then a clap of thunder shook the house.

“What was that?” Lillian asked, dropping her spoon.

“Oh dear,” Judy replied, going to the window and peering out into the darkness. “Julian, you’re not going to like this.”

He groaned. “I checked the weather. There was only a thirty percent chance of rain.”

“I think you can up that to a hundred percent now,” Pete said as droplets pattered on the window pane.

“Should we cut dinner short?” Lillian asked. “It’s a long drive back if it’s bad weather.”

“Not a terrible idea,” he said, considering.

“Bah, you can’t head out in this,” Judy said as lightning lit the windows. “You know what the roads are like around here. No streetlamps this far into the country.”

“Did you have an appointment in the morning?” Lillian asked him.

“Not till the afternoon, but I planned to get some work done.” He rubbed his jaw, debating the safety of jumping in the car versus waiting it out. “Maybe it won’t be a long storm.”

Pete snorted. “We get some wicked summer squalls up here. Just sit tight. We have room, don’t we, Judy?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Everything’s all set.”

Alarm lit Lillian’s eyes. “Oh, I don’t think…”

“It’s got a nice queen bed, so you’ll have tons of space,” Judy said.

“Isn’t there another room?”

“Everything else is booked, I’m afraid,” Pete said.

She chewed on her lips, and her indecision made him come to a verdict of his own.

The rain might be doing me a favor.

“You’re right—the safest choice is to spend the night,” he declared. “It doesn’t put us out too much, right, Lillian?”

She sighed. “No, you’re right. Safety first.”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll stay.”

And he’d do his best not to let his mind wander to all his decadent fantasies that featured his fiancée and a private room.