A Thief of Nightshade(16)
Mrs. Wright had busied herself with ordering the hired help to ready the living room for their arrival and had just stepped back into the dining room where Aubrey and Grant stood. “Shall we?” She motioned toward the door behind her.
Jullian, wearing a smile broader than anything she’d seen on him yet, walked Aubrey into the den and as soon as the Wrights sat, he got down on one knee.
Grant shifted uncomfortably in his chair and her father hit him on the arm. Grant looked at him in astonishment.
“Aubrielle, I love you, completely and without condition. I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you, knew even in that brief moment that your soul was meant for mine. In the few short months we’ve courted, my heart has opened like I never thought it could. I can imagine no greater honor, no finer privilege and no deeper pleasure than having you by my side as my wife. Will you marry me?”
“Yes, of course I will.” She numbly watched Jullian slide the ring on her finger.
Mr. Wright patted Jullian on the back, lending him a hand to help him up.
“Welcome to the family, Dr. Sellars. May I call you Jullian?”
Jullian squeezed Aubrey’s hand.
“Nothing would please me more.”
Mrs. Wright had her usual controlled demeanor about her when she spoke. “I suppose we should meet with a wedding coordinator. Free up a day in your schedule next week, Aubrielle.” She seemed mystified by her husband’s response and she wasn’t alone; Grant was beside himself.
“I’m sure Harrington has mentioned the boys’ monthly hunting trips,” Mr.
Wright said. “Jullian, as a future part of
the family, why don’t you start going with them?” Grant, at Mr. Wright’s insistence, handed Jullian one of the three cigars he’d pulled from the antique desk in the corner.
Jullian took the cigar and nodded sharply. “I haven’t hunted in quite a while.
I would love to go.”
Grant spared Aubrey a glance, his lips held in a tight smile, his eyes dull and unfocused. He cleared his throat and suggested the men go out to the lanai and have another drink while they enjoyed their cigars.
Jullian, surely tipsy from the drinks he’d had with her father and brother, sat grinning like an idiot in the passenger seat of her Land Cruiser as they pulled out of the driveway. He didn’t usually care for spirits, let alone enough to drink her brother under the table. Aubrey, reeling in the shock of how the evening had unraveled, drove.
“What did you say to him? And you might want to get used to saying ‘no’
unless you intend on becoming an alcoholic, which is fine—I’m used to it, considering the majority of my family drowns in the stuff.”
He laughed, but it wasn’t a drunken laugh. In fact, he seemed completely composed. When she stopped at the guardhouse to let the gates open, she looked at him and saw clarity in his eyes.
The feeling of something off crept into her mind.
“I overheard a conversation between you and Samantha,” Jullian said. “As important as getting your father’s blessing was to me, it meant far more to you.”
“That’s the danger of eavesdropping.
You
don’t
quite
hear
the
whole
conversation.” She heard him clearly, but the feeling persisted. “You’re sober.”
He looked at her seriously. “Did you see me drink anything?”
“Grant did. He mentioned your unbelievable tolerance as he congratulated me. Jullian, he’d just lectured me with his disapproval. My parents grilled you like FBI interrogators and suddenly everything is fine? What happened in that room?” He made no motion to respond to her and as the strange feeling intensified, she pulled over to the side of the road. Had Grant been mistaken, maybe he hadn’t had anything?
“What’s wrong?” Jullian unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over, touching her gently on the arm. He didn’t seem to understand why she’d stopped the car.
She couldn’t catch her breath and suddenly felt dizzy. “What did you say to my father? Better yet, what did you say to Grant on the lanai?”
Jullian sat back, keeping his hand affectionately on her arm. “Does it really matter?”
“It does to me.”
Jullian tightened his grip, his eyes brimming with sincerity and passion.
“There are moments where you must believe in more than what is probable.
Can you, just this once, take this moment as a gift and let it be without needing to know the why?”
“Just
this
once,
Jullian.”
she
whispered, the eeriness having deepened as he spoke.
He smiled and her discomfort faded a little. He leaned over, sliding his fingers through her hair. He laid his other hand gingerly over her collarbone, right where her necklace met her skin, and kissed her on the cheek. There wasn’t the slightest hint of alcohol on his breath. “Could I take back every tear you’ve ever shed in disappointment and pain, I would.” She started to speak but he touched a finger to her lips to stop her. “Love, if deep enough, can sway a magic far deeper than that of fantasy.”
Aubrey
laughed,
despite
the
genuineness of Jullian’s words. “Love can move mountains, but suggesting that it can move Parker Wright is something I wouldn’t put much faith in. It’s been a little while since my family and I had a falling out. I suppose time changes everything. It appears that in this case it has.”