Unmasking Juliet (20 page)

“Someone get him off of her. Right now.” Her mother had resorted to screaming, which was probably the last thing Leo’s head needed.

He groaned again. Louder this time.

“Why is he calling you
baby?
” Gina jammed her hands on her hips, clearly more concerned about the intimate nature of her brother’s semantics than his health.

“He fainted. He’s...disoriented. That’s all.” Juliet’s face grew hot. Her eyes darted toward Alegra.

A little help here?

“Of course,” Alegra stammered. “He’s confused. He has a head injury.”

“Well, he’s about to have another one.” Nico reached down and grabbed Leo by the shoulders, hauling him off of Juliet.

“Do not hurt him. If anyone is going to hurt him, it’s me.” Gina swatted at Nico, until he released his hold on Leo.

Leo was upright finally. Sort of. He sat on the floor slumped against a wine barrel. Gina reached down to whack him in the head, and he pushed her hand away.

He kept his arms up like a boxer in a prize fight, just in case she wasn’t finished. “Enough with the hitting.”

“Gina, stop hitting your brother.” Leo’s uncle Joe made a feeble attempt at restraining her.

“Yeah, my head hurts enough as it is. Why are you so bent out of shape? What the hell did I do?”

“Her!” Gina pointed a furious finger at Juliet.

Oh, no. Oh, no no no no no. Juliet wondered if anyone would notice if she crawled under the banquet table and stayed there until the ambulance arrived. Given that every eye in the room was now glued on her, probably. She scrambled to her feet, figuring it would be easier to face this situation with dignity if she weren’t sprawled on the floor. Besides, if she were standing, it would be easier to run away from Gina if the need arose. From the looks of things, fleeing was more a matter of when, not if.

“Gina.” Leo still looked groggy, but he managed to inject a warning in his tone nonetheless.

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe this.” Gina shook her head and aimed a pointed glare at her husband. “She’s the café au lait, isn’t she?”

“The café au lait?” Juliet’s dad echoed.

“The café au lait!” Joe Mezzanotte clutched at his chest.

Nico raised his brows and shrugged. “I could use a café au lait right about now. That sounds good.”

Gina gaped at him. “That’s disgusting. She’s your sister.”

“Why is everyone talking about café au lait? I don’t get it.” Alegra threw her arms up in the air.

Even Juliet had begun to lose track of the conversation. She didn’t know any better than Alegra why everyone was talking about coffee. And she especially didn’t know why they seemed to be comparing that coffee to her. But she had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t good.

“Marco.” Leo shook his head, winced, then squeezed his eyes shut. “Thanks a lot. I’ll remember this next time you need me to keep a secret.”

“Secret? What secret?” Juliet’s mom had grown very pale in the past few minutes. She was as white as Joe Mezzanotte was red.

“Don’t look at me. I didn’t say anything, Sparkle,” Alegra said. It was all Juliet could do to stop herself from clamping a hand over her mouth. “So don’t even think about taking back my iPad.”

“Sparkle?”
Leo’s uncle Joe and Gina said in unison.

“I didn’t say a word either, bro. You’re the one who let the cat out of the bag when you practically had sex with her right there on the floor.” Marco smirked at Juliet.

His words pretty much cleared things up. Café au lait, iPads and sparkly nicknames aside, everyone in the room finally realized exactly what was going on.

Juliet braced herself for yelling, screaming and, especially in Gina’s case, physical violence. Which only made the ensuing silence even harder to digest.

No one said a word. Not her mother, not her father, not Joe Mezzanotte. Not even Gina. By all appearances, each one of them seemed too shocked to utter a syllable. But words weren’t necessary for Juliet to feel the tidal wave of disappointment, judgment and condemnation crashing down on her. Her father couldn’t even meet her gaze. Someone sniffled, and to Juliet’s horror, she realized it was her mother. She couldn’t remember seeing her mother cry before. Ever.

George cleared his throat, walked to his chair and returned with a flat manila envelope. Silently, he tore it in two and tossed the pieces in Leo’s lap.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said, his voice rough with pain. “I’m so sorry.”

He wasn’t talking to George, however. He was looking right at Juliet.

Tears clouded her vision, and as she looked into his eyes, all she could remember was the way she’d felt that night when he’d held her face in his hands and whispered the impossible—and everything between them had changed.

You’re Juliet. And I’m Leo. It’s just the two of us here. No one else.

But that was no longer true, was it?

They were surrounded by people, all of whom wanted them apart. Even the ghosts of their pasts were conspiring against them. Juliet could feel the disapproving presence of their grandmothers looming over them as much as those whom she could reach out and touch. Maybe even more so.

The paramedics rushed in, and once again, chaos ruled the room. They bent over Leo, shining lights in his eyes and talking to him in loud voices. Everyone started talking, providing the EMTs with their own version of what had happened. In all the confusion, someone stepped on Juliet’s foot. She wasn’t even sure who it was. Her chest grew tight, and she had trouble catching her breath.

Just you and me, remember. No one else.

Without a doubt, she’d never stood in a more crowded room.

18

Two trips to an emergency room in less than two weeks. Leo wondered if it might be some kind of record.

Granted, the first time had been for Juliet’s dog. But it still counted, especially once Leo found out that his diagnosis wasn’t unlike Cocoa’s.

“Mr. Mezzanotte.” The ER doctor, who’d downed at least five cups of coffee since hooking Leo up to an IV and running every test at his disposal, frowned at the clipboard in his hand. “I think I’ve finally gotten down to the root of your problem.”

“Exactly which problem would that be? I suddenly find myself with more than my fair share.” He was only half joking.

As much as he disliked being poked and prodded for the entire afternoon and most of the night, Leo considered his curtained-off area of the emergency room a little slice of heaven. Uncle Joe, Gina and Marco had all insisted on accompanying him to the hospital, and as far as he knew, they were still camped out in the waiting room. Whenever he got out of here, he would have all three of them to contend with. His crippling headache was sure to make a speedy return. He wondered if he could take his IV with him when he left.

He was fairly sure they were so upset to learn about his relationship with Juliet that they’d forgotten he’d also lost the competition at the chocolate fair. He furrowed his brow.
Relationship
wasn’t quite the right word, was it? If what they had was a relationship, it had to be the most dysfunctional one on record. Especially now that the lid had so spectacularly blown off the whole thing. He had a feeling it would be a long, long time before he found himself back in Juliet’s bed. If ever.

He suddenly felt sick again, and it had nothing to do with his headache.

The doctor glanced up from the clipboard. “I’m talking about your migraine, of course.”

“Of course.” Leo nodded, feeling faintly nauseous.

His headache had been labeled a migraine within minutes of his arrival, due mostly to the fact that it was concentrated on one side of his head, and the bright lights of the hospital made it exponentially worse.

“It’s good news. You’re not suffering from any major health problems.” The doctor smiled and tucked the clipboard under his arm. “I’m afraid your fainting spell, which was brought on by the severe pain in your head, was simply a result of your chocolate allergy.”

Leo blinked. Just what kind of hallucinogens had they put in his IV drip? “I’m sorry. I must have misheard you. I thought you said chocolate allergy.”

“That’s exactly what I said.”

The metallic taste was returning to Leo’s mouth. “But I’m not allergic to chocolate.”

“I’m afraid you are. Quite allergic, in fact.” The doctor pulled a pen from the pocket of his white coat, circled something on his clipboard and shoved it in Leo’s direction.

Patient has tested positive for a level five chocolate allergy.

Leo stared at the printed words until he thought he might rip the clipboard out of the doctor’s hands and throw it across the room.

“Level five.” He swallowed. Instead of just metal, he now tasted pennies, nickels and dimes. “That doesn’t sound so bad. On what scale? Ten? Fifty? One hundred?”

The doctor aimed a serious look at Leo. “Six.”

“Six?”
Whoever heard of a scale from one to six?

“Yes, six. Five is considered a very high-level allergen. Six would indicate an extremely high level.”

Very high. Extremely high. What was the difference? Leo felt as if they were mincing words at this point. “There’s been a mistake. I can’t be allergic to chocolate. It’s simply not possible.”

“It’s entirely possible. The tests don’t lie, Mr. Mezzanotte.” The doctor was beginning to look at him as if he were crazy, which could possibly be a side effect from the implication that he was allergic to his livelihood.

“But I’m a chocolatier. I work with chocolate all day, every day. I have for years.” If he was really allergic to chocolate, wouldn’t he be dead by now? He’d consumed enough over the course of his lifetime to kill a herd of allergic elephants.

“I’m afraid a person can develop an allergy to anything at any time. Just last night we had someone in here who went into anaphylactic shock after eating a slice of key lime pie. Turns out he was allergic to citrus. Forty-five years old and just started breaking out in hives last month. Came out of nowhere.” The doctor shrugged.

Leo really didn’t give a damn about the guy with the citrus allergy. Not now.

His doctor continued. “This has probably been sneaking up on you for a while. It’s rare that your initial attack would be as severe as the one you experienced today. Have you been suffering from headaches lately?”

“No, I haven’t. I mean, I’ve had some pain for the past few weeks, but that was just jet lag.”
Dear God, please let it have been jet lag.

“I doubt it was jet lag.” Dr. Bad News raised a knowing brow.

The headaches had been bad, but not so excruciating that Leo couldn’t live with them. Until today. Obviously, he couldn’t go around losing consciousness on a daily basis. He would just have to deal with the situation. Consume less chocolate. He couldn’t stop eating chocolate altogether, but he could cut back. “So, what happens now?”

“It’s rather obvious, isn’t it? You stop eating chocolate.”

This doctor just wasn’t getting it. Leo being allergic to chocolate was like him being allergic to sick people. “And if I don’t?”

“Your symptoms get worse with each episode until you go into anaphylactic shock like Mr. Key Lime Pie. Then, if you don’t get medical attention quickly enough, your throat closes up and you die.”

Leo had trouble swallowing all of a sudden. He remembered standing in front of the judges at the chocolate fair and feeling as though he couldn’t breathe as he presented his tasting plate.

“Any more questions?” the doctor asked as he stood with his hand on the privacy curtain. Clearly Leo’s time with him was up.

“No. I think I’ve got it.”

He sat on the hospital bed for a few more minutes waiting for the news to sink in. It started to feel a little more real when a nurse in navy blue ER scrubs came and gave him an epinephrine auto-injector that he was supposed to keep with him in case of emergency.

She handed it to him. It looked sort of like a small flashlight. “If you suffer a life-threatening allergic reaction, you may experience swelling in your face. Your throat will begin to close up, and you’ll have trouble breathing.”

Terrific.
He willed himself not to swallow.

She showed him how to inject himself in the thigh with the injector. Apparently, if he did it the wrong way, he could give himself a heart attack. “In the event of any of those symptoms, inject yourself with the EpiPen and get to the nearest hospital immediately. A few gulps of liquid Benadryl wouldn’t hurt, either.”

This was getting worse by the minute. What was he supposed to do? Carry around a flask filled with grape-flavored children’s allergy medication? “I understand. Thank you.”

He shoved the EpiPen in the white paper bag she provided, and once he was unhooked from the IV, headed for the waiting room. Still a little rattled, he didn’t bother girding himself for an interrogation on the Juliet situation. So he was relieved to find Marco watching television and waiting for him alone in the row of orange plastic chairs.

“Hey.” Leo slumped into the seat next to him. He still felt a little off center, but at least it no longer seemed as if there was an axe protruding from his head.

“Hello,” Marco said, taking his eyes off the TV only briefly. Leo was pretty sure
Dance Moms
was on the screen, but he didn’t have it in him at the moment to mock his brother-in-law. “Are you going to live?”

“Looks that way.” Leo glanced down at his white coat, still streaked with chocolate from Juliet’s spatula. He crossed his arms so he wouldn’t have to see it. “Where is everyone? Home, I hope.”

“Yep. Gina took Uncle Joe home. He said there were some important things he needed to take care of.”

More important than his nephew being treated in the emergency room? Interesting. Leo didn’t much mind, though. He simply counted his blessings that he wouldn’t be forced to deal with the Juliet fallout right now. “Don’t you wonder who he’s on the phone with all the time? His cell seems permanently glued to his ear.”

“Who knows?” Marco shrugged, and slid his gaze back to Leo. “Tonight he was in a panic over the whole Royal Foods contract, you know. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so upset.”

The contract. Leo had forgotten all about it, since he no longer had any intention of signing it. Of course, no one else was privy to that information. Except possibly Juliet, but as far as he could tell, she was still in the dark.

“Can we not do this right now?” Leo jammed a hand through his hair. “I just want to get out of here.”

“Sure.” Marco stood and stretched his arms over his head. “What’s up, though? Are you okay? Did the doctor find out why you passed out?”

“Yes, I am. And yes, he did.” Leo rose to his feet and met Marco’s gaze without elaborating.

“All right.” Marco frowned for a minute and then dug his car keys out of his pocket.

They walked across the tile floor and out the automatic doors before he noticed the white paper bag in Leo’s hand.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked.

A needle full of drugs to keep everything I’ve worked for from killing me.
Leo gripped it more tightly in his fist. He felt physically incapable of saying the words.

He shrugged and kept his eyes focused fully forward. “You know. Ordinary hospital stuff.”

Ordinary.

Right.

* * *

Juliet was being stalked.

By members of her own family.

If she’d been a teenager, she supposed she would have been grounded. But since she was a grown woman, her mother had to find another way to keep her under lock and key. And apparently her method of choice was making sure that Juliet was never alone. Every breath she took, every move she made, there was an Arabella right there beside her.

She wondered if they had a flow chart or something to keep track of who was on duty at any given time.

Nico had taken the first shift, driving Juliet home from the chocolate festival under the guise of helping her take the wineglasses and other leftover supplies to the shop on the way. But instead of just dropping her off afterward, he’d stuck around.

“I can’t believe you let him touch you,” he’d said at one point, staring at the road ahead of them with a twitch in his jaw.

Juliet had been too tired for a lecture. “Enough. Who are you? Mom?”

That had been sufficient to shut him up. Even though what she’d really wanted to say was, “Believe it. And someday I just might let him touch me again.”

But she shuddered at the sort of surveillance such a statement might invite, so she’d kept her mouth shut. Besides, if sleeping with Leo once had led to the kind of brouhaha that had taken place at the chocolate festival, there was no telling what kind of chaos would rain down on them next time.

Nico had still been sprawled out on her sofa when she went to bed that night. The next morning at the stroke of ten, right when Nico finally dragged himself upright, Alegra rang the doorbell. Naturally, she’d been carrying an overnight bag.

Such was Juliet’s life at the moment.

Technically, she could have kicked them out. But she didn’t much feel like being alone, anyway. And Nico and Alegra were far better than the alternative—her mother.

“How long are you all planning to keep this up?” she asked Alegra as they climbed into her car and headed for Arabella Chocolate Boutique on Monday morning.

Alegra slid on her sunglasses and cranked the engine. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “Please. Yes, you do.”

Alegra shrugged. “Come on. It could be worse. First off, you know I can be bought. Although at the moment, things are so crazy that my price has gone up. Way, way up.”

Juliet didn’t even dignify that with a response.

“Besides, we had fun last night, didn’t we?” Alegra turned the car onto the main road that led to the store.

The street was lined with olive trees, their narrow leaves covered with a thin layer of dusty white. Olive trees were almost as common in Napa Valley as grapevines. They were prettiest this time of year, when they bloomed tiny delicate flowers that would one day become olives.

“Yes, last night was fun.” There’d been a
Chopped
marathon on the Food Network, and they’d fallen asleep during the second-to-last episode. Juliet had dreamed of teams of men in white chef coats with indistinguishable faces and capable hands. “But that’s beside the point. I want my life back.”

“It’s been two days. Less than two days, actually. Give it time. Everyone was thrown for a pretty major loop, you know.” Alegra guided the car into the parking lot of Arabella Chocolate Boutique.

Juliet glanced across the street, and a ribbon of relief wound its way through her when she spotted Leo’s sleek sports car. She hadn’t heard a word about what had happened to him since the ambulance had carried him away from the chocolate festival.

She opened the car door a crack. “They’re about to be thrown for another one.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Alegra’s head spun around. “Oh, my God. You’re not going to marry him, are you?”

“George? Of course not. I thought I’d made that clear. Besides, I’m pretty sure he no longer wants me as his wife.”
Thank goodness.

“I wasn’t talking about George.” Alegra lifted a brow.

Juliet’s neck grew hot. “Leo? You can’t be serious.”

Marry Leo. The idea was so far-fetched she couldn’t even imagine it.

Not that she wanted to imagine it. Or even think about it. Because of course, she didn’t.

“Are
you
serious? That’s the real question, isn’t it?” Alegra’s gaze darted across the street to Mezzanotte Chocolates.

Juliet wished she’d stop looking over there. “Hardly. I haven’t even spoken to him since he passed out face-first in my cleavage.”