Page 120 of Once Smitten, Twice Shy

“How did you…” I frown as she pats my shoulder.

“If your eyes had laser beams, you’d have burned right through them,” Sula tells me. “Plus, I watched you watching Jules walk down the aisle.” She winks. “I can put two and two together.”

Bianca, Juliet’s cousin, pops her head in, Nick right beside her. “Oh, are you going to do it? I can’t wait! When’s it going to be? Tonight? Tomorrow?”

“Do what?” Rowan asks.

Eleanor pops her head into our little circle, too. “I feel like we’re telling secrets.”

“Uh.” Bianca grimaces, realizing we’re in dangerous territory. Little kids cannot keep secrets. “We’re…planning to…play…Sorry!” she says to Rowan and Eleanor.

“Sorry!” Rowan yells, clapping her hands. “I want to play now!”

Eleanor’s already yanking Bianca toward the long table scattered with board games, glowing under the lights strung up between the trees overhead.

Nick gives me an encouraging nod and a wide smile as he walks backward, following Bianca and Eleanor. “You’ve got this, Will.”

“Good luck!” Margo says, a wide smile on her face.

“On what?” Rowan yells.

Sula tickles Rowan. “Come on, you. Let’s go grab some cake and play Sorry!”

As soon as they head off toward the game table, I take a deep breath and start toward Bill and Maureen.

“Will!”

I freeze, then slowly turn, my plan once again held at bay by the only person who could stop me now.

Juliet smiles as she walks toward me, then sets her hands on my chest, palms drifting up my dress shirt. “Hi.”

I swallow roughly, tight with nerves, as I wrap my arms around her waist. “Hi.”

She tips her head, her gaze searching mine. “Everything okay?”

I stare down at her, and all the stress and anxiety about finding her parents, asking them, taking this last step before I can ask her to marry me, melts away.

“Everything’s great,” I tell her honestly, “now that you’re here.”

She beams. “And you used to think you couldn’t flirt to save your life.”

“I couldn’t, and we both know it.”

A sigh leaves her as she wraps her arms around my neck. “Guess you’re a fast learner, then. You’ve been an excellent flirt for as long as I can remember.”

“I had an excellent teacher,” I remind her.

“I was your romance workout buddy.” She gives me a playful glare. “I wasn’t yourteacher. What you figured out with me, you could have figured out with anyone—you just had to believe in that possibility, Will.”

“No,” I tell her quietly, tucking her closer. “I wouldn’t have figured it out withanyone; I wouldn’t have wanted to with anyone else. Just you.”

Her eyes grow wet. She shakes her head. “I love you so much, Will Orsino.”

“I love you, Juliet Wilmot.” I kiss her tenderly. “With all my heart.”

Juliet leans in, her voice soft and low. “Will.” I know that voice, what it means, what she wants, when she says my name like that. My body hums with desire. “I kinda want to get out of here.”

“There you are, Will!” Bill’s voice shatters the moment, making Juliet jump in my arms.

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