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A giggle caught our attention and we looked down at Ivy and Pepperoni right as he was giving her a kiss on her nose.
‘He is friendly,’ I said to Beth, just in case she was worried about her daughter.
‘Oh, I can see that.’ She leaned down and gave Pepperoni a scratch beneath his chin that had him looking up at her with a lolling tongue. A new voice called Ivy’s name.
‘Come Pepperoni,’ Ivy ordered. ‘Come play with me.’ And then she ran away. Pepperoni looked up at me and rested the side of his head against my leg. Before I could do anything, William was at my side and he was kneeling down to take off Pepperoni’s leash.
‘William,’ I started, hesitating.
‘He wants to play too. Stop worrying, he is fine here,’ he said simply, but even though he had taken off his leash, Pepperoni was still staring at me while his tail was going a mile a minute.
‘Is it okay?’ I asked Beth to make sure. ‘He is a little big, but he is very gentle.’
Her smile softened. ‘Of course.’
I leaned down to give him a kiss on his head. ‘Go play, baby.’ He was off like a rocket, then we heard Ivy’s delightful squeals and a small bark from Pepperoni. Because it very much felt like my baby was making new friends, my heart melted a little.
I straightened and came eye to eye with a grinning Beth. I looked at William and then Beth again, thinking I had missed something.
‘What?’ I asked, but no answer came.
‘Nothing. I’m just glad William brought you. Mom is preparing dinner, come say hi when you’re ready,’ Beth said over her shoulder and left us alone.
I was about to take a step forward to follow her, but William touched my back and I almost jumped to the ceiling like a scared cat.
‘Jesus!’ I held my palm against my chest to try and contain it. When I looked at William he was smiling at me. ‘What?’ I demanded this time.
As an answer he shook his head at me. ‘Are you nervous or something?’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘You’re nervous.’
‘Says who?’
Infuriatingly, he just smiled at me. ‘Come on. Let’s say hello to my mom and the others before she comes to look for us.’
What the heck is going on here?
Before I could utter a single syllable, he had slipped his hand around mine and was pulling a shocked me further into the house. And what concerned me most wasn’t the fact that he was holding my hand, but the unsettling fact that it felt so good and natural.
‘We’re good?’ he asked, looking at me over his shoulder.
We’re not that good.
I nodded and he nodded back. It was clear he was enjoying this a little too much.
‘They’re going to love you,’ William said, and I looked down to our joined hands then back up again and got caught in his gaze. Got caught in him all over again.
Then before we could make it into the kitchen his mom’s voice reached us. ‘He brought his Charlie?’
* * *
‘Charlie, tell us more about yourself,’ Evelyn Carter, William’s mom said, and I looked up at her. We – all of William’s family and a few of their friends – were having dinner and it was the most lively and beautiful thing ever. It was nothing like the dinners at my house. We were maybe around ten, twelve people and everybody was chattering and laughing. Other than William’s sister Beth and her family, William’s brother and a few of his friends were there too. So far I had met Beth’s husband Nico, and his brother Damon and the younger sister Kay who was very much pregnant, and Kay’s friend Elijah.
My Pepperoni was lying right underneath my feet below the table. He was completely tuckered out after running around with Ivy and all the love he had gotten from everyone.
I put down my fork and knife and reached for my water glass. Apparently it was tradition to have a big family dinner before someone’s birthday in the Carter house because then the birthday girl or boy could focus on what they wanted to do on the big day. But the day before was for family.
‘What would you like to know?’ I asked Evelyn, genuinely happy to be there. I had smiled and laughed with them the entire day and was probably halfway into falling in love with every single one of them, but I was trying my best to hide it.
Especially from William.
William…
He was sitting to my right and in my opinion had somehow been messing with my mind. He had been killing me the entire day. Every time I’d laughed if he was in the room, he’d sent me these long looks I couldn’t for the life of me decipher, but which made something flutter in my chest. Whenever I made a face at him, he smiled and looked away from me. And then there was the touching. We were both helping his mom set the table and whenever I handed him a plate, our fingers touched and I swear to God, he lingered. His eyes lingered.
