Page 69 of Keepsakes and Kismet

Peyton pulls away and grabs her hands. “I’m really grateful you stopped by at all with the travel you have going on.”

“I meant what I said about Waterton. You look good here. But, if you and Callum ever want to escape back to New York to see me and the pigeons, Daniel and Grace are visiting on New Year’s Eve, and we’d love to have you, too. Wouldn’t we, Gio?” She asks the question over her shoulder, where Giovanni and Daniel walk our way—Daniel wanted one last bag of donuts for the trip home.

When the two of them reach us, Tessa frowns. “Although, there’s only so many giants we can fit in our apartment at once.”

“We’ll make it work,” Giovanni replies.

Daniel nods. “Looking forward to it.”

“Me, too,” I add. “It was great meeting all of you.”

“You, too,” Daniel says loudly, pulling me in for a hug.

I clap him on the back. “Thanks for everything.”

“Take this,” he whispers near my ear, discreetly placing a business card in the palm of my hand. “I want you to call me if you ever need to talk.”

I pull back and look at the card. “So, I should call your office and…”

Daniel slowly tilts his head. “No, this is my personal number.”

“Holy shit—sorry. I mean, thanks. I’ll, um, definitely only use this if I need to talk. About… my stuff?”

A pinch of confusion forms between his brows. “Right. That’s, uh, what I said.”

Not only am I still slightly rattled from the panic attack and the weight of my omission from Peyton, but now Daniel Fucking Thompson gave me his personal number.

Carter’s gonna lose his shit.

After the Thompson siblings head out, Peyton and I wander the festival grounds. We bet on the plastic duck race (her duck wins), we do the strength test (I get it all the way to the top on the first try), and we debate whether kettle corn is better than regular popcorn (scenario-dependent).

As the night comes to a close, Peyton leans closer to my side, and I curl my arm around her shoulders. These casual, impromptu touches mean everything to me, knowing how far she’s come, how much trust she’s placing in me.

“Thanks for introducing me to your friends,” I say quietly.

“Everyone loved you,” she replies.

“Did Daniel say that?” My question is genuine, but Peyton laughs.

“Daniel, huh? If I knew I’d be competing with Daniel for your attention, I’d have never introduced you to him.”

I shake my head. “There’s no competition. Only you.”

“There you kids are. We were looking for ya,” Dad says, jogging to catch up with us near the entrance.

“Actually,” Ma adds, closely following him, “we’re looking for the twins. We’ve lost them.”

“Which set?” I ask dryly.

“Your sisters. Lila and Logan are with Cait.”

“Oh. Clementine will be fine.”

“That’s not nice, Cal,” Ma chides.

I shrug. “What? Clover has the survival instincts of a paper bag in a rainstorm. Better to cut your losses now.”

Dad snickers. Ma shakes her head and wraps me up in a hug, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I’m so happy to see you here again. You should be really proud of yourself, Cal.”