“Do you think this might make it worse?” She nodded toward our hands as her eyes nervously started to well up with tears.

I stopped walking to wipe them away before tilting her head up by the chin. “I would never do anything to hurt you. Now, don’t let go,” I said as I gave her a reassuring squeeze. I moved to open her front door without knocking. “Damn, this thing’s heavy.”

Her lips quirked upward but didn’t fully form a smile before her entire expression changed into a mixture of confusion and shock and surprise. “What …” she stumbled over her words as her eyes fixated on her kitchen table and all four of our parents sitting around it.

Instead of killing one another or shouting like usual, they were laughing and drinking our respective wines.

It was almost like they were old friends.

If old friends threatened each other on a daily basis and forbade their children from being friends.

“What’s going on?” she whispered to me. “Why aren’t they at each other’s throats?”

“You’ll see.” I kissed the side of her head in front of everyone because I wanted them all, Julia included, to know how serious I was about her and about us.

“Julia, sit,” her dad instructed, but his tone was softer than I’d ever heard before.

She looked around the table before reluctantly sitting down at the chair I’d pulled out for her. I moved to sit right next to her and reached for her hand under the table.

Her mom leaned toward her and whispered loud enough for me to hear, “I didn’t know he kicked you out, honey. I had no idea until I heard it from James.”

“Heard it from James?” Julia looked at me before shaking her head like she had no idea what on earth could have transpired in the last twenty-four hours to shake up our entire world. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Russo. It’s, uh,” she stumbled, “nice to see you in our home, I think.”

My parents laughed and greeted her back before sipping more of her latest award-winning wine.

“This is really good, sweetheart. You’re very talented.” My mom complimented her latest creation.

“Thank you so much. So, what is everyone doing here?” she asked, still nervous and completely unsettled.

“We were waiting for you,” her mom answered with a smile before pouring her and me a glass of wine.

“Why me? What for?” Julia nervously looked around. “Oh my God, is this an intervention or something? Are you sending me away?”

The table erupted with laughter.

“We were waiting for you, so we could all hear the story at the same time,” her dad announced over the chaos.

“What story?”

I looked her in the eyes before responding, “About our great-grandfathers and this stupid bet.”