Unapologetically, Juliet

Chapter Thirty-Four

"YOU'RE doing what?" Ro silently demanded in ASL, standing up abruptly and staring at me like I was a lunatic. I'd waited until two days before my last day at work to tell all the Burke siblings about my big life decision.

"I'm moving to Ashgrove," I repeated, but he didn't even watch my hands or really seem to internalize my response.

"That's like six hours away from here. You can't do that." I hadn't expected his reaction, so I wasn't quite sure how to respond. He actually looked pretty disappointed. I'd never thought I'd see that expression pointed in my direction again. But I was wrong.

I started and stopped signing a few times, trying to find the right words to defend my decision, when Trixi jumped in to save me. "She's going to live in a cemetery and write her horror stories. It's a dream come true. Don't you see that?"

I loved the way she could paint pictures with her hands.

"No. I don't see it. I see a girl running away from her problems. Again. You did it when we were living back in Clearwater and you're doing it now."

I stared at Ro with my mouth hanging open. He wasn't necessarily wrong, I just never thought he'd throw it in my face like that. "I'm going because I want to." I finally managed to put some words together in a semi-coherent sentence, but it was like he didn't even notice me.

"And what about Saber? You're just gonna leave him behind too? What about your job?"

I couldn't meet his eyes when he was giving me the third degree like that. I thought maybe Grimm or Les would jump in, but neither of them did a thing. "I put in my two weeks' notice already. My last day is on Friday."

Ro sat down hard in his chair and he dropped his face into his hands for a second before he started signing. "Shit, Jules. I'm sorry. This is good. This is a good thing. You've got it all planned out, right? 'Cause if you're just flyin' by the seat of your-"

"No. I'm not. I have it planned out. I promise." I jumped in as quickly as I could, but still, none of the guys would really look at me.

With an apologetic expression, Ro took a deep breath and calmly signed, "I'm sorry. I'm not pissed at you. Promise. This is a good idea. It's just... bad timing, I guess. Our week was shit."

"Anything I can do to help?" I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Ro just shook his head, and shot a look in Les' direction when he made a grunt of disagreement. "What? What's going on?"

"Your brother's been placing some bets with us and he hasn't paid up in a while. Ro was gonna see if-"

"What? Chance doesn't gamble. What the hell are you talking about?" I demanded, immediately turning to Shel and Trixi, sitting on the couch to my left. "Did you know about this?"

Ro waved his hand at me to get my attention and started signing. "It's Pierce. He's made a bunch of poor bets. He's thousands in the hole. I tried to let him off a few times, but he just keeps getting deeper and deeper in debt. I thought if you could keep an eye on him, make a payment plan or whatever, everything would be fine. But..."

"But I'm moving six hours away and I can't keep him from betting with other bookies too," I finished his thought, my head spinning. I knew Pierce liked number games, but I never expected him to get hooked on them. "Even if I was staying in town, you think I'd be able to keep him out of trouble? Seriously?"

"No. But you could at least fucking try." Grimm looked at me like I'd killed his cat. "I just found out I have a kid and you're taking off. Shit's changing too fast." He got up and stormed out of the room.