“We talked, and I’m pretty sure she knows about twenty percent of our families’ history. I’d always assumed that she knew the whole thing. I’d never understood why she hated my family so much when it should have been the other way around, but I’d accepted it. Like a fool, I’d just accepted it all without fighting or questioning it.”

“I knew it. I knew she didn’t know.” He snapped his fingers like he had just stumbled on some world-altering knowledge. “So, did you tell her the whole story?”

“I started to, but then she started talking about Romeo and Juliet, and I might have gotten a little distracted.”

I refused to fill Dane in on every single detail of the night I’d shared with Julia. Some things were private, and even though I’d told him everything in the past, this time felt different. I cared about her too much to lay it all out there.

Dane let out a loud laugh as he adjusted the pillow behind his back. “Shit. How have I never put that together before? You guys are the damn Montagues and Capulets in present-day form. Why did they hate each other anyway? Same reason as you guys? A bad bet gone wrong?”

And, now, Dane was completely distracted.

“I have no idea. Read the book and get back to me,” I said, trying my best to sound annoyed. “Can you please focus?”

“Stop yelling at me. Someone didn’t get any last night.” He yawned. “Tell me you at least kissed the girl,” he said, his tone filled with hope more than anything else.

I nodded in response. When his face practically lit up, I had to stop myself from grinning back.

“And then what? Her dad came over and cockblocked the rest?”

“He didn’t show up until this morning. I might have had to hide in the closet,” I said, completely fucking embarrassed as I burned a hole in the carpet instead of looking at his face.

“Might have?” he asked, holding back his laughter.

“Fine”—I looked right at him—“I definitely had to hide in the closet.”

He exploded, the laughter spilling out. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” He continued to laugh, his entire body shaking. “Oh, man. So, now, what? Will you see her again, or was it a one-time, get-it-out-of-your-system kind of thing?”

My insides instantly raged. A one-time thing with Julia had never been my intention. “You know it’s not like that.”

“I know it’s not for you, but was it for her? Did you even ask? Are you guys on the same page?”

I suddenly grew nervous as Julia’s last words played out in my head. “It was one night, James. You never had me.”

Hearing them repeat, if only in my mind, was just as brutal as hearing them spill from her lips the first time. My chest instantly ached.