Page 34 of The Luck of Finding You
The neighborhood where Tally lives is older and reminds me a little of the neighborhood where I grew up. The house is white and bigger than I expected. There are two tall trees in front and some empty flower beds that I’m sure are full of bright flowers in the summertime.
My palms are sweating as I get out of the car. The cool breeze tonight feels good, and leaves crunch under my feet as I make my way up the front walk.
I take a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. A few seconds later a man in his fifties answers the door. Tally has his face, which means this must be her dad. Crap. How did I not realize that tonight I’m not just having dinner with her and her grandma but that I’m probably about to meet her parents?
“Noah?” the man asks, and then he grins at me. I nod. He reaches out and pulls me into a hug. If I weren’t so surprised or shaking with nerves, I might have cried. It’s been a long time since any type of dad gave me a hug.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” I say as we step onto the small landing. I note the pile of shoes and slip off my own. There’s music playing somewhere up the stairs and I hear women laughing.
“Call me Joe.” He holds out a hand, which makes me smile, considering the man just gave me a bear hug.
“All right, Joe.”
“Everybody’s upstairs.” Joe leads the way up the stairs to a family room with a dining room toward the back. Laughter comes from what I assume is the kitchen.
We walk in together and the laughter stops. There’s soup simmering on the stove, and a woman who I assume is Tally’s mother is pulling bread out of the oven.
“You know Tally,” her dad says, pointing to where she’s sitting at a barstool. She gives me a shy smile that makes my heart flip. “That’s my mom.”
“You can call me Gran, sweetheart.” The older woman who was talking to Tally steps closer to me. “Why didn’t you tell me he was so darling?” She looks back to Tally, whose face is now a deep red. I hold back a smile. Gran turns back to me. “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Chris Evans?”
I shake my head, laughing. “I haven’t heard that one much.”
“Well, you do.” She pats my cheek and goes back to cutting up tomatoes for a salad.
“And this is Beth.” Joe’s voice has gone soft. “My fiancée.” I shake her hand, my mind spinning. I’m going through all the conversations I’ve ever had with Tally and she’s never mentioned that her mom was out of the picture. She’s told me how her mom was the one who introduced her to romance novels and how she and her sister love watching romance movies because of their mom. It never occurred to me that she wasn’t going to be here tonight. I would like to meet her sometime. I notice Tally’s smile has gone from relaxed to stiff, and I wonder if I’m the reason.
“Hey,” I say, bumping her shoulder with mine. The small touch sends a jolt of energy through me. I need to figure out a way I can casually touch her more often. You know, in a friendly way, now that she’s agreed we can be friends.
“Hey yourself.” Tally smiles and seems to relax a little as I stand next to her, so maybe I’m not the reason for her being so on edge?
“Thanks for coming.” Gran smiles at me again. “You’re a growing boy, you need food. You have to come every Sunday.”
Gran doesn’t seem like a lady to be messed with, so I say, “All right.”
Tally’s cheeks are pink after that, and I don’t know what to think. I’m still wrestling with my own feelings. Sam texted me yesterday, telling me that I should tell Tally that I’m interested in her. It was only a few hours after I’d told Annie that Tally and I had decided to be friends. I love Sam and Annie, but I don’t like how much she talks to him.
Either way, I’m not telling her how I feel, not yet.
Soon we move to the dining table. Gran has me sitting right next to Tally, which I can’t say I mind at all.
“So, what were you doing before you started at the bookstore?” Gran asks and all eyes but Tally’s turn to me.
“I’m a coder,” I start, suddenly missing the work I used to do. I’ve been sort of working on the shop’s website, but it feels weird to be working on something that is sort of for me rather than for a client. Besides the app I made, I’ve always been doing projects for other people. “I sold an app when I was eighteen, and I’ve been doing a lot of freelance stuff since then.”
“And how old are you now?” Joe asks me.
“Twenty-six,” I say, and Tally looks at me in surprise.
“I thought you were my age.” I can see the wheels calculating that I was, in fact, twenty-one when I kissed her that day.
I shrug. “A lot of people think I’m younger than I am.”
“That’s how old Tally’s sister, Holly, is,” Joe tells me.
“Cool,” I say, because I’m not really sure what else to say. I knew that I was older than Tally, does it matter that I’m her sister’s age?
“Could you pass the butter?” Beth asks, and Gran is briefly distracted.
