Page 42 of Born Free

“Well, now we have a royal walking around our city, and who the hell would have ever guessed that Roman De Luca should actually be sitting on a throne? I don't think there is any such thing as normal anymore, Juliet. But at least some things are being set right in this world. It looks like you and Roman are figuring things out?” she says as she raises an eyebrow at me.

I let out a sigh. I'm not all that good at this girl-talk thing. She knows this, yet she never hesitates to dive right in. “Somehow, you were right,” I admit. “I still don't know how you could see it, because I sure didn't. You pretty much gave me a heart attack when you told me that I was in love with Roman at the party. When did you become a psychic?”

Elena lays her hand over mine, the one stretched over the back of the couch. “I know it never has been and never will be your fault, but sometimes it becomes glaringly obvious that you are a little emotionally stunted.” That would sound insulting, but she says it with the most loving, genuine smile in the world. “Something changed that day you walked out on your engagement party. Roman disappeared and then returned a few minutes later, and everything was different after that. The way you looked at him. The way you gravitated toward him. I saw it in your eyes, the both of you. You were keeping each other’s secrets, and you only trusted each other. Roman has never trusted anyone in his immortal life. And I know you trust me, but it was different with him, Juliet,” she says as she shakes her head.

Things settle inside of me as I face the truth and reality. “I really did not think I was falling in love with him. I was in no state of mind to fall in love with anyone after what happened with Sebastian. I've always been one to save myself because there were no other options. But during that time?” I shake my head. “I needed someone right then, and Roman was the very last person on this planet I expected to fill that role. Sebastian has been convinced that he and I were having an affair, but the thought truly never, ever crossed my mind until you said what you did at the party.”

Elena nods. “I know, babe.”

I don’t want to feel like I have to make that definition to everyone in my entire life. But I do. Chalk it up to going through three relationships in less than a year. It would leave any girl feeling a little defensive.

“So, have you told him yet?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

I feel my face blush. I don’t like this conversation, yet in the weirdest way, I’m craving it. “Yes.”

“And he undoubtedly said it back,” Elena says—a statement, not a question.

I roll my eyes. “Yes. But can you finally tell me what the hell you meant at the party? You said Roman had been in no rush.”

Elena just gives me this look like I’m a huge idiot. “Juliet, you don’t have that kind of insane emotional reaction to someone you don’t have feelings for. Roman took one look at you, and you set every alarm bell off in his system. He’s pretty emotionally stupid, too, so I think it took him just as long to figure out what the hell he was feeling as it took you. But you two figured it out eventually.”

Is she right? Has Roman been holding on to… some kind of feeling for me since the second we met?

I shake my head.

I don’t want to think that.

But maybe that’s why he hated me so much early on.

I was with Mason, even though everyone knew it wasn’t going to work out, including me and Mason.

Then I was with Sebastian, and it looked like it was a match made in heaven, except we were both the same kinds of broken, and our pieces couldn’t fit together.

And then there was that protective side of Roman that came out the night of the engagement party. When he saw that I was breaking, that I was scared. And he stood up when I couldn’t do it myself.

Maybe thiswasthere all along.

“So, I might not be your best friend anymore because best friends aren’t supposed to be the last to know your secrets,” Elena razzes me because it wouldn’t be us otherwise. “But can I at least be your maid of honor at the wedding?”

“Wedding?” I blurt out, my eyes turning huge. “You need to slow the hell down because my head is still spinning every time we even kiss.”

She laughs, a genuine and uncomplicated thing. “Ugh. I’ve missed this. This right here almost feels like the old days. You know, the ones before you were a vampire, and everything went completely crazy.”

“Speaking of crazy,” I say, leading us into the next phase of the conversation. “I can tell Jon has been here. What’s going on with you two?”

Her smile turns into a little bit of a cringe. “Okay, I realize how shitty of a friend I was being there for a while, because I’ve been so scared of what you were going to think of this, and I gave you so much crap about being with Mason, so, first off, I’m so sorry for the way I acted.”

I give her a half smile. “I appreciate that. It was hard. Even if you were right in the end.”

She shrugs. “Still, I never wanted to cause you pain or put a divide between us. And so, I hope that maybe you might be open to listening.”

Ugh. This is so complicated. So weird. But this is about two of the people I care most about in this world. “I’ll listen, of course.”

Elena takes one deep breath, letting it out in a huff as if she’s gearing herself up for this huge thing. “Sometimes there is just a spark, okay? Two people meet, and they don’t even know each other yet, but it isn’t all about physical attraction, and there’s just something there. You know my track record with men. They’ve sucked. And honestly, I was okay with just being single for the rest of forever. But when I saw Jon…”

I close my eyes.You have to separate him right now. When Elena is talking about him, Jon is not your dad.I take a breath and open my eyes again.

“I haven’t felt like this in, well, to be honest, ever,” Elena admits. She looks so worried, so scared about what I’m going to say. There’s tension in her shoulders, her spine, her nervous hands in her lap. “And talking to him… Most men think I’m just too much. But I don’t feel like that around Jon.”

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