Juliette scowled at me. “Dylan, stop, it’s fine! We’ll go to the station.”
I pressed the phone against my shirt to muffle our voices. “No. It will be easier on you here.”
Juliette sighed and leaned into me. I wrapped my arm around her and pressed a kiss against her temple. Just as Quint started talking again, she reached up and snatched the phone out of my hand.
“Juls!” I yelled as she walked away and brought the phone to her ear.
“Quint, it’s Juliette. Next time please call me directly. We’ll come to the station in about an hour, okay?”
She listened while he said something I couldn’t hear.
“It’s fine. If he won’t bring me, I’ll call a friend.”
A growl built up in my chest. “You’re not going without me.”
Juliette turned her back to me. “It’ll be okay, don’t worry,” Juliette said kindly to Quint. “See you soon. Thank you.”
She hung up and spun to face me, fury and pain burning in her eyes.
“I don’t need you to speak for me or make decisions for me. I told you it was okay to go, and you ignored me.”
“Juls, I didn’t ignore you. I was trying to help.”
“By showing Quint that I can’t make my own decisions? You made me feel small to make yourself feel better.” Juliette winced and touched her lip as she spoke.
My heart dropped. “Easy, baby, don’t hurt yourself. I’m sorry if it felt like that. That’s not how I meant it.”
Juliette vibrated with anger. “Fine. I’ll just stop talking. Let’s keep making tacos. Switch though. You mash the avocado, I’ll chop the tomatoes.”
Fuck. I didn’t want to say no to her obvious challenge, but the thought of a knife anywhere near Juliette made me sick to my stomach.
The seconds dragged on, my lack of an answer sparking more rage from her, but I couldn’t give in. Separate from my admittedly irrational fear from the attack, rage-chopping tomatoes could only end in disaster.
“That’s what I thought! I’m surprised you even gave me a fork to mash with!”
“Juls...” I didn’t know what to say. She was right, but she was so wrong.
“I’m not helpless! Don’t treat me like I am!”
“I know you’re not helpless. You’re so damn strong! You’re handling all this better than I am. It’s me! I can’t deal with what happened to you because of me.”
“Dylan,” Juliette’s voice softened, but she remained stiffly out of reach. “You have to let go of your guilt. It’s not your fault Kayla screwed up her life, and it’s not your fault she hurt me. You have to let it go because your guilt is making me feel worse.”
“I don’t know how. I’d do anything to take away your pain. I hate that you got hurt.”
“I’m okay,” Juliette said, finally coming closer to me.
I dragged her into my arms. Buried my face in her neck, breathed her in, and held her like I’d never let her go. “I’m sorry, baby. The last thing I want to do is hurt you more.”
“You’ve always believed in me. You made me feel strong. But now… I’m not helpless.”
“Juls, baby.” I drew in a shaky breath. “You survived that attack, and that wasn’t a certainty. You said and did everything right, and you’ve been so resilient getting through everything since then. Thinking about you having to fight for your life, talk your way out of peril, run away from danger... The very idea of it terrifies me. I hate imagining how scared you must have felt, and it terrifies me when I think about how much worse it could have been.”
“I didn’t talk my way out of it, and I didn’t run away. I made her angrier, and I twisted my ankle.” The defeat in her voice was gut wrenching. “You knew it would happen, too. You were worried that I couldn’t get away if something happened.”
“Juls, no! I worried because I love you and don’t want you to get hurt—not because you aren’t capable of handling it. That’s about me, not you.”
Juliette’s tear-filled eyes met mine. I pressed a kiss against her forehead and held her close, praying she believed me. “I’m a caveman when it comes to you, baby. Remember? I want to cushion you against everything hard in life, not because you need it, but because you deserve it.”