Chapter Thirty-Four

· Thirty-Four ·

Will

“Who’s a good pup?” Juliet croons to Hector, crouched in front of him as he licks at her jaw.

He’s a puddle for her, butt wiggling in excitement, tail thumping against the pavers outside my house. Juliet squeals as he licks her ear and wraps her arms around him. “You’re the sweetest pupper, aren’t you?” She’s full-on baby-puppy-talking to him now, smile wide, nose wrinkled, eyes scrunched shut as he licks her face. “The sweetest, sweetest pupper.”

I stare down at them, my heart so damn full.

Juliet peers up at me, beaming. “I love him.”

I crouch, joining them, my hand drifting steadily down Hector’s back. “He loves you, too.”

Juliet smiles softly, her eyes holding mine. “Think so?”

I nod, my gaze fixed on her. “Know so. He never stood a chance.” Glancing back at a panting, happy Hector, I pat his flank, then stand. “Love at first sight.”

Offering Juliet my hand, I draw her up to stand, because I know crouching for long hurts her knees.

“Love at first sight,” she says quietly, her fingers lacing through mine. “I thought that was the stuff of fairy tales.”

“Me, too,” I tell her. “It seems…improbable. But Dad, he said something that made me think there’s some truth to those fairy tales, after all.”

“Oh?” Juliet smiles as I draw her inside my arms. Her hands settle on my chest. “And what was that?”

“He said…” My gaze dances over her face. “He said it’s not so much that you know you love someone at first sight, it’s just that…you feel its possibility, like you never have before.” I draw her closer. “Like you never will again. And one day, when that possibility’s blossomed into love, you’ll look back and understand that seed for what it was, even though it looked so different when that first sight planted it, when it began as something unrecognizable from what it is now.”

Juliet’s expression softens. Her hand circles over my heart. “That…is beautiful.”

I nod. “It is.”

Slowly, Juliet presses up on tiptoe toward me, desire and longing bright in her eyes. I know, if I kiss her, exactly how this will go. I’ll scoop her up and drag her upstairs to my bed.

And I want that, so much.

But not yet.

I duck her kiss, my lips landing gently at her neck, where I whisper, “Juliet.”

“Hmm?” she says faintly as I kiss behind her ear, along her jaw.

“Do me a favor?”

“Sure,” she breathes.

I pull back, holding her eyes. “Go upstairs? There’s a balcony. Just go there, and…wait for me.” Drifting my hand along her back, I tell her, “I won’t keep you waiting long.”

Juliet peers up at me, curiosity in her expression. She lifts her pinkie. “Promise?”

I hook my pinkie with hers and smile. “Promise.”