Chapter 2
She'd never been angrier. Her sister had dragged her into the middle of her pitiful love life one too many times, and Juliette had had it. On three occasions she had found herself on the receiving end of some form of violent back lash when it came to Cordelia's men. In her mind, it was three strikes and you were out. She couldn't understand how Cordi could be so smart and yet be such an idiot when it came to choosing her boyfriends. Where did she find these men? Was it a special skill that one obtained to home in on the giant losers of a group and be instantly attracted? She supposed Cordelia had gotten the ability to find less than stellar suitors from their mother.
It was a never ending cycle, one that Juliette was desperate to get off of, and one that her sister was determined to keep spinning. Once, Cordi had surprised her by dating Luke Payne. The relationship lasted nearly a year and gave Juliette the hope that her sister had broken her streak and had found something that would last. The truth was Luke loved her sister. He had loved her since they were kids and running wild in the bayou. In her own way, Juliette supposed that Cordelia loved Luke too, but when Luke signed on with the Marines, Cordi had broken his heart. He'd wanted to marry her, and Cordelia was not willing to be a soldier's wife. She'd broken up with Luke the night before he was shipped out, and had left Juliette to clean up the mess that followed.
"You need to stop this Cordelia. Stay away from men for a while, I'm sick of cleaning up your messes. And I'm sick to death of dealing with your angry cast offs the next day. Grow up!" Juliette paced the floor in her living room, unfazed by the fact that she was wearing only her blue jeans and bra. The door may have been wide open, but she didn't care much about that either.
"What are you going to do Jules?" Cordelia asked, sniffling into the phone.
"We're going to talk to Duncan."
"No, I won't do it. Why should I go to him and be humiliated like that?" Juliette felt like screaming.
"You want to save face? Jesus Christ, Cordelia! Do you have to be put in the hospital before you stop protecting them? Getting the shit beaten out of you isn't enough?" Juliette rolled her eyes when Cordelia started to wail again. Alex stepped into the door way and froze. It was a conscious effort to keep his tongue in his mouth and the drool from spilling out when he saw her. He thanked God that Juliette didn't believe in modesty, because at that moment, she looked like a goddess herself. The jeans rode low and snugly on her hips, and her breasts were nestled in a black and blue lace bra. When she turned he could see a tattoo on her left side that peaked out from under the waistband of her jeans. From what he could see of it, it looked like rosary beads. He wondered if that could have been considered sacrilegious. Her caramel colored skin seemed to glow, and while he knew he should have turned around he not only couldn't take his eyes off of her, but figured it didn't matter to her one bit since she was the one who had left the door open.
"I won't go, Juliette. Dirk and I are going to work things out."
"The hell you will!"
"We are. You can't stop me, Aribella."
"Cordi..."
"No, I've made up my mind. He's coming over here right now. Once we've worked it out I'll make him come back to see you and apologize." Cordelia was determined, and that fact made what Juliette did next even more heartbroken.
"I'm done with this Cordelia. I can't keep running to help you when this is what you do. You're my sister, and I love you, but I don't want you to call me when you find yourself in trouble any more. I'm not being put in the middle again," suddenly weary, Juliette sank onto her couch and leaned back to close her eyes. "Don't send him to the bar Cordi. He won't be sorry and I don't want to hear any manufactured apology he may come up with. I'll see you at Mama's on Sunday." She hung up on Cordelia's protests and nearly threw her phone into the wall.
