Page 41 of Once Smitten, Twice Shy

Her smile widens as I take her hand and shake it. “Same to you, Juliet.”

Our gazes hold for a moment before we let go. Juliet tries to wedge her Guess Who board in the box, but it’s not fitting, the other games having fallen in a haphazard heap in the box after we took out Guess Who. I circle the table so I’m beside her, able tohelp. Lifting out some games, I start to stack them neatly. Juliet reaches for my Guess Who board, latching it onto hers with the little clips that hold the two boards together. I steady the games in their stacked tower within the box, so there’s room, and just as Juliet’s about to set Guess Who into the space I’ve created, she freezes.

I frown, confused, and follow her gaze, which is pinned at the bottom of the box.

At first I think it’s just a speck of dirt on the cardboard.

But then it moves.

That’s when we both scream, “Spider!”

Guess Who clatters to the table as Juliet leaps back, inadvertently knocking the game box sideways onto the floor. I wrench backward, crashing into the wall behind us.

An inhumanly high shriek leaves Juliet as she spots the spider crawling across the floor from the box. She leaps onto the table, dragging me with her. I stumble onto the chair, crouched low, frantically searching for the spider so I can track its path. In sheer panic, our arms wrap around each other, Juliet’s around my neck, mine around her waist. Our eyes dart around wildly, searching the floor.

“Where did it go?” Juliet whispers.

“I don’t know,” I hiss back.

“Right there,” Kate says, stepping our way.

As she points toward the floor, I see it—we both do—a burst of small, dark movement scuttling toward us. Juliet and I scream again.

I used to have a soft spot for spiders. They were a reality on the farm that made them feel safe and familiar; I’d read and lovedCharlotte’s Web. I felt spiders were misunderstood creatures. But then I got a brown recluse bite. They’ve been on my shit list ever since.

I’m trying to summon up the courage to move past my fear of them, to stop this spider in its tracks, when Kate drops a plasticcontainer right over the spider and crouches, slipping a paper beneath it.

“It’s just a harmless little spider.” Kate stands with the container and its makeshift paper lid.

Juliet and I rear back, clutching each other tight.

“Harmless,” Juliet mutters, turning toward me as I turn toward her. Suddenly, we’re nearly nose to nose, our mouths a scant inch apart. We spring away from each other, Juliet landing with a plop of her butt on the table, me tumbling back onto the floor.

I brush myself off, trying to recover my dignity. Juliet seems to be doing the same, easing slowly off the table and standing beside me. Both our eyes are fixed on the container as Kate walks with it.

“Kill it!” Juliet yells.

Kate glances over her shoulder and rolls her eyes. “Absolutely not. This is a good spider.”

“The only good spider,” Juliet mutters darkly, “is adeadspider.”

I snort a laugh and offer her a high five, which she meets with a resolutesmack.

“It’s harmless—not killing it!” Kate calls over her shoulder. She opens the small window in the kitchen, lifts the screen, then dumps the spider from the container into the window box of flowers. “Off you go, little guy.”

Kate shuts the screen and dusts off her hands.

“I’m never opening that window again,” Juliet whispers.

“I support that decision.”

“You guys going to make it?” Petruchio asks from where he and everyone else has been standing a few feet away, clearly entertained by this, judging by how every one of them is trying and failing not to laugh.

I glare at him.

Bea steps beside Juliet and pats her sister’s back. “At least nowyou’re not the only one freaked out by spiders. Strength in numbers, and all.”

“No one else here hates spiders?” I ask the room.

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