Read Hot SEALs: Protecting Julie (Kindle Worlds) (SEAL of Protection Book 0) for Free Online Page A

clear.
    “What are you doing here?” A woman with black hair asked brusquely. “You own this store? I thought you lived out in DC?”
    Julie nodded. “Yeah, I just opened last month. I moved out here. I needed a change.”
    “Hmm, well, I forgot I have a meeting. Sorry, we have to get going.”
    That time it was the brunette who’d been in with Summer and Caroline who’d spoken. The other women agreed and they all shuffled toward the door, putting the clothes they’d picked up down on a table near the cash register.
    “I’m sorry!” Julie blurted again before they could leave the store, never to return. “I’m so sorry. I was a bitch. I was scared and took it out on you. There’s no excuse for the things I said to you or the things I did. I was horrible and you didn’t deserve any of it. I hope you’re…okay…and if I live to be a hundred I’ll never forgive myself for what I did out there.”
    Fiona didn’t say anything, but her friend did. Alabama put her hands on her hips and faced Julie. “Fiona told us some of what happened while you guys were on the run in the jungle, but I’m guessing she didn’t tell us everything, if your trite little apology is anything to go by.” Her arms dropped and she took a step toward Julie. Caroline grabbed her arm before she could get any closer.
    “Easy, Alabama.”
    Alabama leaned toward Julie and hissed, “You were going to leave her there. Who does that?”
    When Julie didn’t respond, Alabama turned on her heel and hooked Fiona’s arm in hers. “Come on, Fee, let’s get out of here.”
    Julie watched as the women filed out of the store. The perky bell tinkled as the door closed behind them, leaving an eerie silence only broken by the music playing. Julie bent her head and rested her hands on the counter in front of her, not caring that her tears splashed onto the paperwork she’d been working on before the women had entered not five minutes earlier.
    “That was a disaster,” Julie said to nobody. “This whole thing is a disaster. What am I doing?” She lifted her head, walked to the door, locked it, turned the sign to closed, and woodenly walked to the back of the store, away from the windows, away from the world.
    She sat in one of the armchairs and curled into a ball, hugging her knees. And she sobbed.

Chapter Six
     
     
     
    “I can’t believe she had the nerve to move here ,” Alabama groused. “I mean seriously.”
    “I know, and to open a store, here, where Fiona lives. I mean she treated Fiona like crap down in Mexico, why would she want to start a business here when her dad lives out in DC?”
    “And she used her daddy’s money to open it too. She’s so spoiled.”
    The nasty comments continued around the table as the six women regrouped after having their world rocked that afternoon. Caroline was silent as the others continued haranguing Julie and her existence in their little corner of California. She noticed that Fiona was also quiet.
    “You all right?” Caroline asked Fiona during a lull in the conversation. “That couldn’t have been fun.”
    “I’m okay,” Fiona told her friend. “I just…”
    “What?” Caroline urged. She was concerned and didn’t want her to have any kind of flashback, just as she’d had before. She thought Fiona was past that, but seeing Julie again could easily make her regress in her healing.
    “Did she sound sincere to you?” Fiona looked Caroline in the eyes as she asked.
    “Sincere? I’m not sure—”
    Caroline cut Alabama off. “Yes, she did.” She looked at Alabama. “I know you’re protecting Fiona and that you’re just as upset about this as the rest of us are, but think about things for a second. Okay?”
    Alabama bit her lip and waited for Caroline to keep talking.
    “We liked Julie when we were there last week, right?” When Summer and Alabama nodded, she continued. “She was funny, gracious, and super open. If asked after we left the store if we thought she was a bitch,