Authors: Casey McMillin
Nadine opened the front door to see Julien Breaux in all his glory standing there on the front stoop, holding a bunch of roses. She blinked a few times, thinking her eyes must definitely be playing tricks on her.
"Julien?" she said. Her face was almost comically confused, and
Julien looked over his own shoulder to make sure he wasn't missing something.
"Yeah," he said. "I hope it's okay that I came."
She continued to stare at him with that same blank expression. "Of course it is, but you know I'm leaving tomorrow, right?"
Julien hadn't even thought about that. It would sort of seem like a waste to come all the way to France to see someone the day before they were headed to where you were in the first place.
"I didn't want to miss the birthday party," he said.
She stared at him while she processed everything.
"I'm so glad you're here. I just don't want you to think the party is going to be anything magical or anything. My mom only invited family and like one or two friends."
"It's not really about the party," he said. He handed her the roses and pulled her into his arms so thankful to see her in one piece.
"I just wanted to meet your people and I thought the birthday party would be a good excuse. And yes, I know you're headed home tomorrow. I would have booked the same return flight, but I didn't have your itinerary."
"When do
you
fly back? she asked.
"I got a one way ticket. I'll just book my return flight later."
"Not much later I hope, or I'll be back in the states and you'll be stuck here with my mother."
Julien squeezed her near to him again. She seemed so delicate, and he felt like he wanted to never let her out of his sight. At least not until this Pierre guy was out of the picture.
"Are you ready to meet my family?" she asked.
"
That's why I'm here," Julien lied. They turned and walked into the house together.
"My mom and dad are the only two here right now. My sisters are at their own places with their families." Nadine stopped and turned to Julien before they reached the threshold of the next room. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "My sister knows about you, but I just want to warn you, my parents have no idea who you are."
"That's okay," he said with a smile, "my parents have no idea who you are either." She reached up to kiss his cheek. "Also, they're gonna speak a lot of French, but I'll translate."
Julien lifted her chin and put a kiss on her lips before they rounded the corner into the main living area.
She breathed in the familiar smell of him, unable to believe she'd just talked to him on the computer, and now he was standing next to her. He was so gorgeous it took her breath away, and she couldn't help but feel like it was all too good to be true.
Nadine's parents were in the kitchen, looking
like your typical family. Her mom was emptying the dishwasher, and her dad, who had just retired, was enjoying the option to stay in his house slippers until 10AM.
They both assumed the
knock on the door was a package they were expecting, so it took them by surprise when Nadine rounded the corner with a dark-headed stranger standing with her. Their eyes went to the flowers she was holding, and she lifted them casually.
"Aren't they beautiful?" she asked. Then she continued before either of them had the chance to say anything. "
This is Julien. He brought these for my birthday. He's here for the party."
Nadine's mother smiled and spoke in French. Julien could tell by their expressions and the tone of the conversation that her mother thought he was
from around there. He watched as Nadine explained to her mom that Julien had come from America. Her parents seemed to share Nadine's confusion as to why Julien would come all the way over there the day before she was headed home, but Nadine told them some things in French that seemed to satisfy their curiosity. Julien just sat there, listening to, but not able to understand what they were saying. Nadine's mother crossed the kitchen and put her arms around Julien telling him her name was Jolene before taking the flowers from Nadine and beginning to search for a vase.
"Where your things are?" she asked. Her accent was extremely thick, and her English was broken at best.
"I've already checked into my hotel room," Julien said. Nadine said a few words in French and then her mother replied with something else. "My mom says you are a guest in our home," Nadine translated.
During
the next few minutes of conversation, Nadine's family talked Julien into staying at their house. When Nadine learned that he had his bags in the car, she called the hotel herself to cancel his reservations. She even went as far as to sit down with him and make the reservations for his return trip home. They'd leave France the next afternoon, and both fly on the same flight from Paris to Atlanta. From there, they had to split up since Nadine's flight from Atlanta to Baton Rouge was sold out. Julien would make it home two hours later than her.
"At least we're on the same flight for the long one," Nadine said. "I hope they can work it where we sit next to each other."
"If not, I'm sure someone will trade with us." Julien was playing along, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he expected they'd have to push back their flights anyway. He hoped he was wrong about that.
****
By the time they headed for downtown Paris, The LaBelle family had fallen in love with Julien and he with them. If he had any doubts about Nadine being who she said she was, they were erased after the hours spent in the company of her family. There was definitely a language barrier with her parents, but with Nadine and her sisters there to translate, he had an easy time getting to know all of them.
He asked a few questions about Pierre when it seemed like a natural time to bring it up but he didn't get any information other than the fact that Emile and Eric had run into him recently. Julien asked if anything seemed weird about him, and they all joked about him being weird in general.
Everyone left the house at 6PM, headed for The Jenner Room. There was a spread of catered food and drinks set out on tables when they first came in, along with a huge sheet cake that read
Joyeux Anniversaire Nadine
. Julien marveled at the fact that they'd described it as something they'd just thrown together. The hours leading up to it, and the birthday party itself were so full of activity that Julien hardly had time to form a plan. He knew how the shooting scene went down in Shea's book, but that didn't mean it would happen the same way here… if it happened at all.
He had a Glock strapped to his side
under his jacket just in case.
The food and drink were all set out in the room where you first walk in, but the guests were told they could take their
refreshments into the main atrium. Julien stayed right by Nadine's side except for the time she excused herself to go to the ladies room.
"
Julien have you yet to meet Pascal and Ian?" Nadine's mom, Jolene, asked coming up to stand beside him as he waited for Nadine to emerge from the restroom.
He turned and smiled at
her. "I met them when we first got here," Julien said.
She barely spoke English, and i
t took her a few seconds for her to process what he was saying, but she finally got the idea that he'd already met them. He was still smiling at her, cursing the language barrier when he saw her expression shift.
There were roughly twenty-five people there in total, and Jolene stared into a group that was standing around the entrance of the main garden. She cursed under her breath and excused herself before heading to the door to investigate something. Julien was immediately on edge, and he put his hand on the gun that hung at his side. He watched Jolene like a hawk, trying to figure out what
was causing her concern. His palms started sweating as the reality of the situation sunk in. He was watching Jolene so intently that when Nadine came up from behind, it really startled him.
"Shit Nadine, you can't do that. You scared me," he said.
She gave him a silly smirk. "I wouldn't take you for the type who's easily scared," she said.
"I'm not
, usually," he said, not moving his eyes away from Jolene and the young man she was approaching. "I'm just trying to keep an eye on—"
And, before he could get out another word, the proverbial shit hit the fan.
One second, Nadine was standing there talking to Julien, and the next, his big hand was on her back. He swept a leg in front of her forcing her to trip and go tumbling to the ground. Nadine couldn't see a thing, but she clearly heard the sharp, booming sounds of gunfire ring out around her. She could feel Julien's strong hand on her back, holding her down. She heard frantic screaming and mayhem breaking loose around them, and even though the thought of being heroic crossed her mind, the only thing she could do was curl up in a ball and put her hands over her head.
The gunshots were over within seconds, but the screaming continued, and tears began falling from Nadine's eyes in uncontrollable streams. She still felt the pressure from Julien's hand on her back, and she took comfort in that fact.
She was scared to lift her head up, but knew she'd have to eventually. Wanting to make sure the dust settled, she counted to ten before peeking through her arms to see what was going on. She saw that other people in the room were doing the same thing she was doing—crouching down with their faces to the floor. There were a few people still standing, and they were huddled together studying something that was on the ground.
"Are you okay, baby?" She knew it was Juien's voice, but didn't look behind her to see his face.
"What happened?" she asked, tears still streaming down her face.
Julien put his pistol in its holster, and came around to look at
her face. "Are you hurt?" he asked. He was kneeling beside her, and he reached out and forced her to sit up, looking her over to make sure she hadn't been shot. She was wearing light colored clothes, and he didn't see any blood. "Are you okay?" he repeated, giving her shoulders a little shake.
"What happened, Julien?" she asked again.
"I'll tell you everything, but right now I just want to make sure you're not hurt." He was frantically pulling back pieces of her clothing here and there to make sure there was no blood.
"I
think I'm okay," she said. "Are you?"
"
I'm fine," he said, looking down. "I don't think he even got a shot off."
"Who?"
"Pierre."
"Pierre?" Nadine's voice came out in a dazed whisper.
After a few seconds, the sounds in the air around her began to register. She heard children crying, and her eyes darted around the room, looking for any signs of injury. The group of people huddled around the entrance sort of moved or shifted, and she saw a limp, lifeless form lying on the ground. She assumed it was one of her friends or family members, and wave of panic hit her. She sat up with the intention of going over there to see what she could do to help, but Julien put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"It's Pierre."
She shot him a baffled look.
"
It's your ex-boyfriend. He came here with the intention to hurt you. He took out a gun, but I shot him before he could fire."
"
You're
the one who fired shots?" she asked, still confused.
Just then, two armed officers came into the room yelling at everyone to show them their hands. The unsuspecting party guests were happy to comply, raising their hands in fearful surrender. The children went right on crying.
Julien helped Nadine to her feet, and stood beside her. He gave one of the officers a nod and waved him over.
"
I shot him," he said as the officer approached. The officer spouted off a bunch of words in French that Julien didn't understand. Nadine listened to everything the officer said with an intent expression.
"He says he's part of your family," she said, looking at Julien.
Julien smiled, and nodded at the officer, knowing this was the blue belt Tim had mentioned, and his coach had filled the affiliate gym in on what was going on. Nadine looked at the officer who continued speaking. She listened to everything he had to say before turning back to Julien to translate.
"
He says Tim knew the name of the guy, and that it would happen at an indoor garden, but they didn't know exactly where until they found the suicide note in his apartment about thirty minutes ago."
She listened to the officer again.
"He says they must have only missed him by a few minutes, and that he wishes they would have been able to apprehend him before he came in here and caused us all this trouble."
The ghost of a smile touched Julien's lips. That cop, God love him, knew good and well that Julien would
rather have the bastard dead than apprehended, but he acted really apologetic. People were starting to try to tune into their conversation since they all knew Julien had fired the shots.