Loving Your Lies (29 page)

A knock sounded on my door, and Marie popped
her head inside a moment later. She gasped. “Good lord, Jona. You
look beautiful!” My aunt strode toward me to feel the fabric
between her fragile fingers. “Is this not the dress we saw in
town?”

“Yes. Julian bought it for me,” I said
quickly. I hoped she didn’t think I’d stolen it from the shop while
she was trying on her many clothes in the changing cubicle. “I
guess he wants me to wear it for the party. But I don’t feel
comfortable in it.”

“Oh, that is so nice of him. You absolutely
need to wear it,
chérie
. It fits you perfectly.”

Strangely enough, it did. He’d picked the
right size. The dress hugged my body as though it was
custom-made.

“And if it was a present from Julian, he
might be very upset if you are not going to wear it.”

I sighed. “I guess I have no choice
then.”

“Now come, quick. Most of the guests have
arrived and the party is about to begin.”

I looked out the open window. “They’re here
already? I don’t hear anyone down in the garden.”

“Because we decided to celebrate in the
vineyard. There is more room for the band and the tables.”

“Oh.” A band? And this only for a small get
together with a few friends? I directed a questioning glance at
her. But she only waved her hand to spur me on, so I slipped into
my boots.

“
Mais nó
!
Nó, nó,
nó
!
You will not wear
those
with this beautiful
dress.” Marie’s accusing finger pointed at my raggedy Martens.

“I don’t have any other shoes. And I can
hardly walk bare foot, can I?”

“You wait here. I will be back in one
second.” As she swirled out of my room, I could only stare after
her in wonder. With a pair of white sandals clasped to her chest
she appeared again.

She presented them to me. The light in her
eyes infected me with her enthusiasm. “Try these.”

I took the shoes from her, sat on the edge
of my bed, and buckled the straps around my ankles. Taking a few
daring steps across the room, I realized they were the perfect
size. Their short, broad heel clacked on the parquet, making me
feel like running down the cat walk.

“Thank you,” I said to Marie, who clapped
her hands together without taking her eyes off my feet.

She ushered me out of the room and
downstairs, where she fetched a cake covered with a plastic
container. My ankles wobbled a bit on the stroll across the garden
and down the lines of vine.

Some three hundred feet away, where the
paths between the yards crossed, a handful of long tables were set
up. People gathered in the clearing in the middle. Some were
seated, others stood in groups of twos or threes. The sun set over
the lush vineyards, but lanterns of various shapes and colors
bathed the place with soft lights.

As we drew closer, I even made out what
Marie had referred to as the band. It was Albert with an accordion
strapped to his chest and two other men flanking him. One played
the guitar and the other, with long dark hair, also held an
accordion. But his had all buttons instead of keys like a piano.
Several couples boogied to their merry song on the square dance
floor made of simple wooden boards.

A call from one of the guests nearby stopped
Marie and me. We both turned in the direction of a tall man, who
carried a toddler on his arm. The little girl fixed me with her
round, deep brown eyes. One arm wrapped around the neck of the man
who carried her, she twisted a curl of her white blond hair around
her small finger.

“
Bonsoir, Pasqual,”
my aunt greeted
the man, who cast an intrigued glance at me. He only looked away
from me when Marie stood on her toes to kiss him and the girl with
the green flap trousers on the cheek.

Holding the cake in one hand, she shoved me
forward with the other. “
C’est ma niece. Jona. Elle est la fille
de Charlene.”

And it began already. Even though her words
were Greek to me, I was sure I’d be shown around as the newly
discovered daughter.

“This is my cousin, Pasqual, and his
daughter, Claire,” she then said to me.

Waving at the child, I gave in to my aunt’s
push and stepped toward them. “Hi.”

Pasqual shook my hand with a firm grip.
“
Bonsoir, Jona. Je suis heureux de vous recontrer.”

Yeah, whatever.
I smiled politely but
kept my mouth sealed while Marie talked some more to her cousin. An
awkward tension gripped me. I scanned the crowd for Julian, hoping
I could use him as an excuse to leave Marie’s side. Hands laced
behind my back, I only tilted my head first, but when I couldn’t
find him, I pivoted on the spot.

My heart did a somersault as I caught a
glimpse of the back of his head. His plain white shirt stood out
against Valentine, who had stuffed her round body into a dress as
dark as the wine Albert drank at dinner. The dragon was also in
their company.

Charlene’s astounded face was hilarious as
she spotted me over Julian’s shoulder. She clapped a hand to her
mouth then quickly corrected the awkward move by smoothing the
front of her brown blouse tucked into her black jeans. She appeared
unusually healthy today, and sheens of light in her hair suggested
it was freshly dyed in a darker shade of copper.

Following my mother’s gaze, Julian glanced
over his shoulder then back at her. It took him only a fraction of
a second to whirl around again. This time, his perplexed gaze
lingered on me for an amusingly long moment. Not taking his eyes
off me, he said something to the two women, then nodded, and strode
my way.

With each of his steps, my heart pounded
louder in my ears, soon overlapping the cheerful music from the
band. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.

Less than a foot away, Julian stopped and
raked a stunned glance over me. From my toes peeping out of Marie’s
sandals, to the bare neck I presented.

“I was right,” he breathed in my ear.

“With what?”

“You look amazing in this dress.”

Clearing my throat, I tried to steady my
voice before I spoke, not sure what I should be more embarrassed
of. Being tucked into this light-beam of a dress, or the lustful
glances Julian bestowed me with when everyone seemed to be watching
us. “Thank you for getting it for me, but you really
shouldn’t—”

“Shh.” He held his hand out to me. “Are you
ready?”

Before I dared take it, I cut him a wary
glance. “What for?”

“Unless I’m totally mistaken, you owe me a
dance.”

“Ugh. Right.” A dance in a dress that was
the magnet for stares. Maybe he wanted me to sing the chicken polka
while we did the twist as well.

I stumbled after Julian who’d grabbed my
hand and pulled me along. The pebbles crunched underneath my shoes.
A fleeting glance around ascertained that every pair of eyes was
set on me and the guests started whispering with tilted heads.

I could just hear them in my mind:
Oh
there, look at that English girl.

Great.

At the middle of the dance floor, Julian
stopped and turned. His arms closed around my waist. The very
moment his secure hold swallowed me and his sparkling blue eyes
gazed into mine, every ounce of unease slid from me. Being in his
embrace was like standing in our private little corner of paradise.
I closed my eyes, inhaling his fresh, misty scent. The sound of
waves rushing toward the shore claimed my memories.

The merry song Albert’s band was playing had
stopped abruptly and subsided to a slow, enticing melody. Julian
didn’t let me slip away. He pulled me tighter to his firm chest,
swaying me softly to the rhythm.

The skimming of my fingers up his biceps
left a line of gooseflesh in its trail. My arms sneaked around his
neck. I enjoyed his hands tight on the small of my back. The tip of
his nose brushed along my cheekbone, then he planted a mellow kiss
behind my ear, triggering a fuzzy reaction inside my stomach.

“Everyone’s staring at us,” I hissed, though
not really wanting him to stop.

“You’re imagining things. Right now, there’s
only you and me.” He reached for my right hand behind his neck. To
his directing, I twirled in front of him and dived back into his
embrace.

“Did you finally change your mind?” he said
into my ear after another pirouette.

I followed his guide to the left and then
two steps to the right with a turn. “What do you mean?”

“About dancing. You said you didn’t like it
much, but I can’t remember you ever smiling so broadly.”

“Well, it’s not that bad,” I said,
struggling to keep my happy expression under control even for a
second.

He put on a fake frown. “Not
that
bad?” In a swoosh, he waltzed with me then tipped me over backward,
his arm always securely placed on my back.

Squealing with laughter, I held tightly on
to his neck, so as not to lose my balance and drop to the hard
floor. I surrendered. “Okay, okay, it’s really nice.”

Julian tilted over me, and I gaped into his
beautiful blue eyes. He leaned further down to press his lips on
mine. The taste of his last drink lingered in his kiss. Coconut
cream. I closed my eyes and kissed him back with the passion that
had been rising in me all day.

Close by, the clangor of breaking glass was
followed by feminine cursing. I grinned under Julian’s lips. “I’ll
eat my hat if that wasn’t my mother dropping her drink.”

“Apparently, she has a dramatic streak.”
Julian chuckled, pulling me to a stand.

“You’ve chosen an interesting moment to
expose
us
. She’ll totally freak out.”

“No, she won’t. Not tonight.”

“What’s special about tonight?”

But before he could explain, Albert and his
friends began strumming a new song behind us, one that was unique
around the world and made me turn toward the band with
confusion.

“Is it your birthday?” I asked Julian, but
he said nothing. His hand wrapped tight around mine as he led me up
to the longest table, where several people had already taken their
seats.

Everyone joined in singing along with the
band. Valentine and Henri scooted down the bench to make room for
us, while my mother, at Marie’s urging, lowered to the chair at the
head of the table.

My aunt then rushed to the makeshift bar to
retrieve the cake she’d brought. Only now it was lit with a sea of
candles. She placed it in front of my mother’s beaming face.

Shit
.

My stomach slid to my feet. This must be an
evil joke. They couldn’t possibly have brought me to my mother’s
celebration. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

Julian placed his hand on my thigh, trying
to soothe me. And it almost worked as when he’d touched me before.
But this time I wouldn’t let it happen. I shoved his hand away and
charged my scowl with all the disgust I felt.

“It was hard enough to make you agree to
come when you didn’t know,” he said with a stern face. “If you’d
suspected it was a party for your mum, you would have never even
considered showing up.”

“Damn right! And you shouldn’t have tricked
me into it.” Not today. Not after the beautiful time we’d had
together.

And suddenly, it clicked into place. He’d
lured me away from the house so I wouldn’t notice anything during
the day while they prepared for the celebration. Hadn’t I also
overheard him forbid Marie and the others to talk to me about it?
What a bloody betrayal!

As the birthday song ended, everyone
applauded my mother. I folded my arms over my heaving chest.

Marie then insisted on her making a wish.
Charlene’s glance traveled to me, hope filling her features. It was
obvious what kind of wish she’d like to make.

Forgiveness.

Even though her perfect make-up brought out
a beauty I’d long since forgotten about, the evidence of her
illness lay just underneath. Her eyes, sunken and troubled, and her
standing out cheekbones reminded me of a starving woman. Although
tonight, it felt as if she was starving from something else than
food. I realized I had a powerful instrument in my hand. It was
like I could play God and decide whether this woman would be happy
or suffering from immeasurable pain.

I didn’t know what brought this on—spending
too much time in Marie’s love filled house, or having found a place
in Julian’s heart at last—but in that moment, I hated to have this
power. Over Charlene. Over Marie. Over anyone who tried to get near
me. All I wanted was to be left alone. For the first time in a long
while, I didn’t wish my mother anything bad precisely. But I was
also far from giving her what she wanted.

“I wouldn’t waste a wish on that one,” I
said under my breath as she blew at the candles. It earned me a
poke in the ribs from Julian, and I winced.

“Be nice,” he said.

Rising from her seat, Charlene drew a deep
breath then spoke loud enough for those in the last rows to hear.
“Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate with me tonight!”

Her glance lingered on me. And that she
spoke in English and not in French, so everyone else would have
understood, left no room for interpretation. I narrowed my eyes to
irritated slits and clamped down on my teeth. However, my rage was
directed to someone else tonight.

When she started to cut the cake, I seized
the moment and rose from the table.

“Where are you going?” Julian’s hand around
my wrist caused me to slump back onto the bench.

“Going for a walk. I need some fresh air,” I
hissed.

“We’re outdoors. Where would you find air
fresher than this?”

Leaning in a little closer, our gazes met
from only three inches apart. Words came out in a sinister growl.
“Maybe. But certainly I’ll find a place where I don’t have to sit
next to a traitor.”