Forbidden Boy

“There are a lot of different interpretations of beauty, Julia

Julia

She shifted her weight so that she was sitting cross-legged on the half-tiled floor, and picked at stray threads poking out from the bottom of her shredding, knee-length cutoffs. She thought for a long minute before she spoke. “Okay, so tell me about it.”

“About what? About houses? About art?” His dark eyebrows were pressed together and his forehead was lined in thought.

“About making beautiful things.” She was challenging him. But she was also desperate to know. She leaned a little bit closer and tilted her long neck to look up at him.

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Hailey Abbott

“Okay, welll. . .” Remi took a minute to get his foot-ing before the words just started shooting out of him. “I love the idea that I’m making something permanent. I like seeing something I’ve designed or built and knowing that my hands made it.” Julia

“I guess that’s it. I don’t know.” Remi stared expectantly at Julia

Then Remi stood up quickly and walked out, leaving Julia

! ! !

She floated through the rest of the day, replaying her interaction with Remi over and over in her head. Even if for just a split second, she’d felt a flash of whatever she had felt on the beach the night they first met—that kind of ease or understanding that had made her feel like she could talk to him forever. Julia

Forbidden Boy

watched the white goo harden on her skin. Remi had talked about architecture the same way she thought about art. But how could someone who felt something so pure about creating something new and exciting be so complacent about her naturally incredible beach—and the lives that people had built there? “Deep down, Remi gets it. I may have been right about him after all,” Julia

! ! !

On her bike ride home, Julia

Hailey Abbott

assumed that was why she was such a good painter. She could isolate light, isolate space, isolate movement, polish them all, and then snap them back into place where they belonged. Jules had always been messier. She didn’t re-create the things she saw around her; she broke them up and twisted them into new angles. Was that what she was doing with Remi—trying to make him into something else entirely because she wanted him to be something good? Her brain spi

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Chapter Twelve

!

Julia

Chloe, who had been sitting at her desk filling out her daily log for her internship at the Children’s Hospital, immediately snapped to attention. She popped out of her rolling chair and dove onto the bed, practically landing on top of Julia

“Tell me everything! What did he do? Oh, Jules, I knew he was bad news! So, what’s the deal? Are they selling the property and moving to Iceland? They’re not going to move out and sell it to some business, are they? That house is just ugly enough to have potential as a casino.” 127

Hailey Abbott

“No, it’s not like that,” Julia

“What, what, what?” Chloe wheedled. “Is all of their building money embezzled? Can we call the IRS and shut them down? It’s major, isn’t it? I can just feel that it’s major! Don’t leave a sister hanging here!”

“I think we might be operating under slightly different definitions of ‘major,’ Chloe,” Julia

“What a jerk! Jules, you can’t let him get to you.” Chloe poked Julia

Forbidden Boy

studied her sister’s face. “What’s wrong? Jules, are you okay? You don’t look—”

“I’m just not sure he’s such a bad guy after all,” Julia

“Oh, Jules.” Chloe sighed like a deflating beach ball.

“Of course he’s a bad guy. Look what they’re doing next door.”

“That’s the thing, though,” Julia

Plus, his family seems kind of rough. His dad showed up at the site last week, and you wouldn’t believe the things he was saying to Remi! He was awful. I have no doubt that his dad is a destroyer of all that is good, but I just don’t think Remi’s the same way. He said these things, Chloe, about making something meaningful and bigger than him that just felt really . . . true.”

“Yeah, but philosophical differences and parental pressures aside here, Jules, he’s still going along.

Whether he’s heart-and-soul on board or not, his loyalty is still with his family. What’s your deal, Jules? I mean, I know you guys, like, had a moment at the Malibu party, but that was ages ago! Besides, what prompted this heart-to-heart anyway? It sounds totally manipulative, if you ask me. If I were you, I’d watch your back. He absolutely, positively can’t be trusted.”