Julian (Beautiful Mine #1) by Gia DeLuca Read Free Book Online Page B

hands, looking lost in thought.
    “Forgive me?” she said, turning to me, her blue eyes wide and hopeful.
    “I need to go back to my room,” I replied curtly. The morning was as good as ruined for me.
    We walked back inside in complete silence with nothing but the fog from our breath surrounding us and the crunch of decaying leaves beneath our shoes. She walked quietly behind me as I climbed the stairs, and she watched as I crawled back into bed and covered myself up. We didn’t exchange a single word.
    “I’ll make you breakfast,” she said as she walked out, lingering in the doorway.
    “Not hungry,” I said, rolling over. “Leave.”
     

 
     
     
     
     

 
    EVIE
    I soaked in the claw foot tub of my private bathroom, drowning in a sea of white bubbles. I had roughly an hour before Spencer would be picking me up for our date that night, and my stomach fluttered with a nervous, sickening excitement at the thought of seeing him once again. I just wanted him to look at me the way he did before, back when he loved me.
    I leaned back into the hot, soapy water and closed my eyes, my wet hair spilling around my shoulders and the water lapping up to my neck. I let the steam from the hot water fill my lungs as I took deep breath after deep breath, inhaling the scent of the lavender bubble bath. And just as a smile had begun to form on my lips, I was startled up by the sound of the intercom buzzing in my room.
    My first instinct was to ignore it. I was technically off the clock, and Caroline and Arthur were home. But then it buzzed again. And again. And again.
    I stood up from the tub, throwing my legs over the edge as giant waves of bathwater splashed onto the marble floor, drenching the bath mat below. I grabbed my robe and flung it around my body, my wet hair saturating the back of it. I ran down the hall toward Julian’s room, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind.
    The moment I flung the door open, I saw Julian was not in his bed. I checked the bathroom and then ran across the room to his closet. He was nowhere to be found. As I turned around, I saw him lying on the floor on the other side of his bed, in a pile of blankets as if he’d fallen.
    “Oh, God, Julian,” I said as I rushed to his side and checked him. He was unresponsive. “Arthur! Caroline!”
    My heart raced as I knew every second counted. He still had a pulse. He was still breathing. He was just unconscious. I grabbed the house phone from his nightstand and dialed 9-1-1.
    “Julian,” I said, gently swatting his cheek. I checked his vitals every five seconds, praying he’d hold on just a bit longer. As the faint sound of an ambulance in the distance grew closer, relief began to wash over me, and I ran downstairs the second I saw the flashing lights outside his window.
    “He’s upstairs. Hurry!” I said to the EMTs. They ran up the creaky wooden stairs and down the hall to his room. They knew exactly where to go, as if they’d been here a thousand times before.
    I stood back, out of the way, as they loaded him up onto a stretcher and moved him downstairs and loaded him into the back of the ambulance.
    “Can I ride with you to the hospital?” I asked one of the guys before realizing I was still in a bathrobe.
    “Are you family?” he asked.
    “No. I’m his caregiver.”
    “Sorry. Family only. You can meet us there.”
    “Please,” I begged, remembering I didn’t have a car there.
    “We have to get going, ma’am,” he said regretfully. “Sorry.” He shut the ambulance doors, and I was able to catch a glimpse of Julian through the back windows. From afar, he appeared to only be sleeping. He looked so peaceful amidst the chaos that surrounded him.
    And then my cell phone buzzed in my hand. A text from Spencer flashed across the screen, telling me he’d be there in ten minutes.
    Shit, I thought. Amidst all the pandemonium, I’d completely forgotten about my date.
    I ran inside and frantically threw on jeans and a t-shirt, tossed