Forbidden Boy Read online

  Chloe’s eyes sparkled. “Really? You think? But I was really hoping that you guys might, you know, hit it off tonight.”

  Julianne, detecting the sparkle of interest in Chloe’s voice, grinned at her sister. “Go for it. You should definitely go for it,” she encouraged. “Besides, you always tell me that you have excellent taste…”

  Chloe giggled but didn’t have a chance to answer. As she opened her mouth to speak, a skinny brown-haired guy came hurtling across the beach—propelled by the force of someone’s sloppy keg-stand dismount—and tumbled directly into her, knocking her down with him.

  The brown-haired guy panted, “Good to know that gravity’s still working.” He turned to Chloe. “Are you okay?” Chloe nodded, clearly a little dazed, and dusted the sand off of her denim skirt. He shifted his gaze to Julianne and smiled. “How about you? I didn’t take you out, too, did I?”

  “Nope. Still standing. Are you okay?” She smiled at him, pulled her hair out of its bun, and let the curls spill down her back.

  The reflection from the bonfire lit his face and his dark eyes shimmered. Julianne felt a flash of jealousy. There was a part of her that really wished that this skinny, possibly-concussed stranger had managed to land right smack on top of her instead of her sister.

  The brown-haired guy’s mouth was pasted into a perfect half smile. She felt like she was in the middle of every single musical where the dancing stops and the star is suddenly backlit by one huge glowing spotlight.

  “Yeah, fine. Who knows? Maybe this is the start of a promising career in roller derby?” He had one of those wry, almost winking, smiles. He was tall, skinny without being gawky, but definitely a little bit awkward in a really endearing way. Julianne wanted to tousle his hair or make sure he drank enough milk. His eyes were huge—dark and fluid.

  “Hey, Crash,” she joked. “Do you have a name?”

  He blushed. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. First I plow over your friend, then I’m flat-out rude. I’m Remi.”

  “Remi, huh? Cool name.” Julianne held her hand out to him. “Julianne. And you just met my sister, Chloe. She looks different upright, though.” She gestured to Chloe, who was fixing her hair and talking to unfortunate-keg-stand guy and Michael, who had rushed over to make sure she was okay. Remi saluted in Chloe’s direction.

  “Way to make an entrance!” Chloe called back in their direction.

  Remi looked sheepishly at Julianne and smiled. She felt time start slipping into cinematic slow motion again and grasped for some sort of normal human social question to ask next. “Do you, um, live around here?” she stammered.

  “Seattle, actually.” Over his shoulder, the waves were crashing against the beach.

  “Oh.” Julianne felt her throat closing. She’d known this guy for maybe thirty seconds, but the thought of him not being in LA this summer made her queasy.

  “Yeah, I’m in school up there. But I’m around for the summer. My parents just moved here.” Julianne felt herself relax instantly. “Are you from the area?” he asked. Julianne thought she detected hopefulness in his voice.

  “Unfortunately.” Julianne laughed and rolled her eyes in the direction of a group of girls, each doing a variation on the same Malibu Barbie impression, struggling to form a human pyramid a few feet away. “No, actually I love it here. Just don’t judge all of us by the Pussycat Dolls over there.”

  “Maybe you could show me around sometime? Save me the effort of having to get to know the place better all by myself before I get the wrong idea?” Remi paused. “I mean, if you don’t have too much going on this summer.”

  “Sure. I can do the tour with my eyes closed. No human pyramid, though.” They laughed, and Julianne felt her entire body filling with warmth. She knew she was beaming like an idiot. At least she wasn’t the only one. She’d never felt this comfortable talking to someone before, and yet so awkward at the same time. Somehow, talking to Remi was like breathing. She wasn’t sure she would know how to stop. She was pretty sure that she didn’t want to. Remi and Julianne made eye contact again, grinning at each other like fools. Faces illuminated by the moonlight and the distant bonfire, they stared at each other until it felt like time had completely stopped.

  Suddenly, Julianne felt a hand on her back and whipped around. “Sorry to break up the party,” Chloe said, rubbing her temples, “but I have a headache and need to go home. Jules, can you drive?”

  “Oh God, was it—” Remi started, but Chloe cut him off.

  “No worries,” she assured him. “I’ve taken worse falls than that. Besides, Michael’s buying me dinner tomorrow to make up for it. These frat guys have loyalty down to a science, huh?” Chloe grinned. “Anyway, it was good running into you. Get it? Running into you? Oh God, I actually said that out loud. I need to go home.” Chloe started off down the beach toward the car.

  “Okay, well, see you around.” Julianne looked down at the ground. She could barely breathe.

  “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you.” Remi’s voice was barely audible, his shoulders sloping downward.

  Jules felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, but she tossed her shoulders back, laced her fingers through her belt loops, and straightened her back as she started to walk away. Fifty yards down the beach she heard Remi’s voice.

  “Hey, Julianne!” Remi was suddenly right beside her again, breathing heavily after his sprint. “You forgot this.” He tucked a scrap of paper into her hand. “My phone number.” Not smooth—definitely not smooth—but very cute. “You know, in case your sister needs it for health insurance or whatever. And so you can give me that tour. It’s hard work getting jaded on your own, you know.” He grinned.

  “Definitely.” She smiled back. “I wouldn’t want to leave you hanging.”

  Remi’s face softened as he stared right into Julianne’s eyes. She felt like he could actually see inside her head—that somehow, effortlessly, they already understood each other. Softly, he put his hand on the side of her face and Julianne felt like the spot was on fire. Her heart started to race with a mix of giddiness and panic. She had just met this guy, and she was already feeling totally swept away. Was she completely crazy? Swimming inside the feeling, Julianne shut her eyes. She felt their bodies move closer to each other, and then his lips touched hers. Julianne felt like she was floating above the beach—watching the moonlight reflecting off the water, the huge expanse of perfectly flat sand, the couple on the ground kissing. It was as if fireworks were exploding everywhere. She felt like the entire beach had been electrified by their kiss.

  “I’m sorry—I’m really, really sorry,” Julianne murmured, breaking out of Remi’s arms. “I have to go. I don’t know where Chloe went, and I don’t know if she’s okay. I need to find her.” Julianne’s throat was dry. It was like the very worst part of every fairy tale. Suddenly she was Cinderella at midnight. “I’ll call you, I promise.” She flashed the scrap of paper with a triumphant smile before taking off down the beach in search of her sister.

  Julianne drifted toward the small parking lot where they’d left the car a few hours earlier, calling Chloe’s name over and over. She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. It had just felt so meant to be somehow. A guy she had never seen before had literally fallen right into her lap—okay, well, her sister’s lap, but close enough—at the start of the summer, on the beach she loved.

  And he wasn’t just any guy. Julianne couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something special about Remi. As she scanned the tiny parking lot, she made a mental note to give Chloe some “I told you so” points for dragging her out to this party.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Julianne saw Chloe sitting on the ground, leaning against the bumper of their car, her head resting next to a faded “Imagine Whirled Peas” bumper sticker that their dad had stuck on. Julianne crept over and put her hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “Chloe,” she said softly, kneeling next to her sister. “Sorry I disappeared, I was just…saying goodbye to someone. C’mon, let’s
go.”

  Chloe opened her eyes, and turned to face Julianne. “Not so fast, Missy. You were so not just giving out casual goodbyes. Look at you—you’re glowing! I can even see it in the dark with major head trauma! Tell me everything.”

  Julianne smiled. She couldn’t stop beaming. “I think this will tell you everything you need to know,” she intoned dramatically as she dug her hand into her right pocket to show Remi’s phone number to Chloe. But all she felt was the fabric. She could have sworn it was in there. She reached into her left pocket and came up empty-handed again. Horrified, she thought back to saying goodbye to Remi. Suddenly, she realized that she’d never put the paper in her pocket. She had been holding it when she dashed off. Now, clearly, she wasn’t clutching the little scrap of paper anymore. She must have dropped it on the beach. Julianne felt her heart drop to the sand as she helped Chloe into the passenger seat of the Toyota hybrid they were sharing this summer. She thought she was going to be sick.

  How could she be so upset—she’d just met the guy—at a beach party of all places. Maybe she’d been taken in by the bonfire, the PBR, and the view from the beach.

  But even as she tried to rationalize, Julianne knew there was more to it. She knew that if she didn’t find some way to see Remi again, she would be losing out on something really wonderful.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much, Jules,” Chloe murmured sleepily. “If he’s your Prince Charming, he’ll find his way back. He has to, actually. I think it’s in the job description.” But Julianne barely heard her.

  The sisters drove home in silence. Chloe napped with her head pressed against the cool car window. And Julianne tried to fight back her growing disappointment. She had just met an amazing guy who she would probably never see again.

  This did not bode well for her summer.

  Chapter Two

  Julianne felt the sun streaming in her bedroom window and rolled over, burying her head in a smooshy pillow. She had been having such completely blissful, vivid dreams that she didn’t want to nudge herself back into reality, no matter how glorious the California morning was. She glanced at her alarm clock—it was almost noon. She’d meant to be up at 9:30, but she just hadn’t been able to tear herself out of dream world. She rolled over again, pressing her face directly into the folds of her pillow and breathing in the last lingering remnants of the lavender linen spray that Chloe always spritzed around on laundry days. The new Regina Spektor album was drifting out of her stereo alarm clock, and Julianne allowed herself to drift along with the dreamy melodies until she fully gave into consciousness. With one last sleepy sigh, she pushed herself upright and swung her legs off the side of the bed. Julianne stood up and stretched, raising her hands over her head and arching her back, trying to shake the sleep from her joints. Remi had been in every single one of her dreams, and each had been sweeter and more romantic than the last. Julianne wrapped her arms around herself, as though her cozy room somehow had a chill without Remi in it. She walked over to her closet and pulled a shrunken UCLA hoodie over her head. Shaking out the curls that caught in the hood, Julianne crossed the room again, sat down at her desk, and glanced at her perpetually-on MacBook. Quickly, she dashed off a MySpace message to Kat in Spain.

  K—

  Met a guy! Ridiculously hot, seriously funny. This is a biggie, I can just tell. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Waves have been amazing all week—wish you were here. Send pictures from Madrid as soon as you have ’em. Oh, and Hunter says hey…

  xoxo

  J

  Julianne got up from her desk and pushed the gauzy curtains back from the bay window door that led out to her balcony. She slipped on her flip-flops, unlocked the door, and padded outside. Before her eyes even adjusted to the light, Jules felt the sun beating down on her, making her sweatshirt unnecessary, and heard the lapping of the waves up against the shoreline. She walked over to the railing and leaned against it, watching the waves swell and crash. She allowed herself to drift into a few more moments of morning reverie before looking down onto the beach, which was practically glowing in the late-morning sunshine. Specks of shells caught the light and reflected like tiny prisms, casting even more light across the sand. A few sunbathers dotted the thin strip of sand directly in front of the water. People were scattered in beach chairs and on blankets, thumbing through newspapers or glossy paperback novels under the shade of palm trees.

  Jules stared out across the beach and wondered if Remi was sitting on the beach somewhere. She wondered what sort of books he read, what he did for fun, where he hung out. She imagined sitting next to Remi on a towel, him glancing over her shoulder as she sketched fellow beachgoers. Just imagining the closeness made Julianne blush—and she hadn’t even gotten around to picturing him in his bathing suit yet!

  Three distant but sharp beeps snapped her out of her daydream and she looked up, annoyed. Three hundred yards away she could see a yellow bulldozer moving around at the Moores’ place. Did these people have to ruin everything? Julianne shook her head and turned her attention back to the ocean, allowing herself to be soothed by the light sparkling off the waves. Then her father’s voice drifted up from the deck below, so she headed back inside to get ready for her day.

  After a quick change, Julianne was sitting with her father and Chloe downstairs. “Excuse me, miss. Can I get a refill?” Dad pushed his empty lemonade glass across the glass patio table toward his daughters.

  Julianne rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. “First you want sunblock, then you want the umbrella down.” She pointed to the oversize blue-and-yellow umbrella jutting out of the middle of the table like a Technicolor palm tree. “And now you want refills? I bet you’re not even going to tip….”

  Refilling her father’s glass from a huge, blown-glass pitcher, she turned her eyes back to the beach in front of her. It was a perfect early-summer afternoon—hot without being humid, the sun the color of butter.

  “I’ve got a tip for you—don’t quit your day job.” Edward Kahn chuckled softly to himself, pulling Jules’s attention back. “You have many talents, Julianna Banana, but waitressing isn’t one of them.”

  Chloe reached across Julianne, grabbing a piece of corn on the cob. “Good thing you decided not to fill out that singing-waitress application at Nifty Fifties then, huh?” she teased.

  Julianne practically wrapped herself around the umbrella post in pursuit of the potato salad and sloppily scooped a helping onto her neon plastic plate. “Alas, no roller skates and poodle skirts for me this summer. Just fresh air and building things.”

  Chloe sat up straight in her chair and squinted through her giant gold-rimmed sunglasses. “Speaking of building things, what’s going on over there?” She jerked her thumb toward the construction equipment gathered around the new neighbors’ property. All sorts of destructive-looking vehicles were lined up around the house.

  Julianne followed her sister’s gaze with one eye while monitoring her dad’s face with the other. “Beats me. I heard some construction noise when I was out on the balcony before, but that’s it. Dad?”

  “Nuuhmuh.” Dad shrugged between mouthfuls of fruit salad.

  “Come again?” Chloe asked.

  “I said, ‘Nothing much,’” their father repeated. “It’s the same thing that always happens. People move here for a summer kingdom and start building their castle. They’ll get bored and go back home soon enough.” He leaned over the side of his chair to pick up a grape that had escaped his grasp and wedged itself between the wood slats of the deck.

  “The bulldozers don’t strike me as a sign of boredom,” Chloe started, shaking her head.

  “They showed up last month, immediately dug a foundation, and erected this crazy greenhouse-looking thing. It looks like they’re trying to expand down toward the beach now.” Julianne glanced over at the mess of Tonka trucks come alive. From a few hundred yards away they almost looked like a bunch of mechanical bees swarming around a big glass hive.

  “Can they do that? Just k
eep going and going like that?” Julianne wondered out loud.

  “Yeah,” Chloe added incredulously. “If they keep moving at this rate, they’re going to plow that whole stretch of beach right under.”

  “In a few weeks, they’ll decide it’s all more trouble than it’s worth and sell the property for twice what they paid for it. Just wait. Don’t lose any sleep over it, girls. It’ll be fine,” their father assured them. “But, speaking of sleep, it was nice of you to wake up and join us for lunch, Julianne…” he continued slyly.

  In the distance, Julianne could hear kids laughing as they rushed up to the water’s edge and dashed away, squealing, as soon as the tide approached. Wow, I can’t believe he noticed… she thought.

  Chloe said as much out loud. “Gosh, Jules, you must have been out cold to make Dad notice you snoozing the morning away. He’s been in his studio all day. Way to make your absence known. Hmm…I wonder what you possibly could have been dreaming about until almost noon…” Julianne could hear the slightest shade of glee coloring her sister’s voice. She was right, though. Their father, a children’s book author, was pretty single-minded writing. Mom had always joked that if she hadn’t illustrated his books, her husband would have forgotten who she was entirely while he was writing.

  Abruptly changing the subject, Chloe burst out with, “Hey, didn’t the Moores come over with their surveyor practically first thing when they moved in?”

  “Chloe, don’t get all worked up over nothing,” Dad said. “Both of you girls worry too much. The neighborhood might be changing, but it doesn’t mean much for us. Well, except for longer, meaner lines in the supermarket,” he added, winking. “The Moores aren’t going to win any conservation awards for building up all that ground, but their crazy glass mansion won’t really affect us.”