“Mom, Dad,” she said looking at each of them in turn. “I—we,” she quickly darted her eyes to Chance, “invited you out to brunch to tell you something.”

She immediately saw the wheels turning in their heads imagining every scenario: engagement, pregnancy, cancer….

That got her quickly to the point. “I’ve decided to make my sabbatical a bit more…permanent.”

Her dad was the first to react. “As in quitting? Juliet, this is a terrible idea!”

Juliet just shrugged. She supposed in a manner of speaking she was quitting. She looked at her mother who was observing her with keen eyes and a guarded expression that Juliet couldn’t read.

“And just what do you plan on doing during this permanent sabbatical?” her father asked.

“Travel. See the world. Do things I’ve never done before,” she shrugged again, knowing the answer wouldn’t satisfy him.

“And when you come back? What then? You’re just going to march right back to Rice and say ‘hey, I’m done flying off to wherever, being perfectly irresponsible, I’ll take my job back now, thanks’? Because your mother and I will be the first to tell you that’s not how it works. We worked hard to get our positions and maintain them. It’s not just something one gives up so easily.”

Juliet held strong. She had been prepared for this, especially from her father. Both her parents had a right to be skeptical of this plan of hers, and her dad was raising some legitimate issues. What would she do when she got back? How long could one million dollars last?

Chance reached out to take her hand and she saw him shifting in his seat to step in and help her out. She had told him that she’d do all the talking. So far he’d been tactful and smart enough to stay silent.

Just feeling his hand on hers let her know that, despite how crazy and reckless it was, she was making the right choice. This was her choice. This was what she wanted. She didn’t need him to step in and protect her. She needed him by her side to support her.

She squeezed his hand to let him know she was fine and met her father’s direct gaze with her own.

“That’s the point Dad,” she said firmly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back. In fact, that’s the beauty of it. I finally get to do something that’s what I want to do not just something I’m supposed to do.”

Her father hiccupped a sharp laugh throwing his hands up in the air as if he had heard it all now.

He suddenly shifted a narrow-eyed gaze to Chance. “This is all your doing isn’t it?”

Before Chance could answer, Juliet stepped in. “You know what Dad? It is all his doing. He’s the first man who has ever made me feel something, anything. With him I feel alive, excited, happy, terrified, just…” she looked off trying to think of the right thing to say, then she shrugged, “perfect, in the most imperfect and irrational way possible.”

“Well that says it all!” he replied, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Thomas, I don’t think…,” Monet finally sat up to address them. She gave her husband a look that was half reproachful and half amused. “…our daughter is asking our permission.”

The table went perfectly quiet. Monet had that effect on people. Even with the long pause that followed as she carefully eyed, first Juliet, then Chance, then Juliet again.

“I’m not going to say I don’t worry about this little plan of yours, sweetheart. Every mother wants to make sure her babies are safe and sound. But,” she paused in that dramatic way she often did, “you are a thirty-one year old woman. I think perhaps you’ve earned the right to find your own form of happiness. Heaven knows you’ve played it straight and narrow up until now.”

“Happiness? Happiness?” Thomas looked at his wife as though she had suggested their daughter start selling drugs. “The world doesn’t operate on happiness, Monet.”

“And why not?” Monet asked with profound seriousness.

Thomas’ mouth opened and closed like a fish. Juliet found it amusing, but she knew better than to laugh right now.

Without a retort for his wife, he turned it back on his daughter. “And just where do you two plan on going? Do we at least get to know that much?”

Juliet’s eyebrows went up in perfect innocence and she shrugged. “Maybe just throw a dart on a map and go.”

Now it was Chance squeezing her hand. She turned to give him a smile that was matched with one of his own.

“What if it lands in Syria or North Korea, or worse? What then?”

Juliet and Chance both turned their heads to Thomas, then broke out in laughter.

He frowned. “I fail to see the humor here.”’

“That’s because you aren’t looking closely, dear,” Monet said, reaching out to take his hand. Everyone at the table felt the immediate calming effect it had on him. The two were a perfect yin and yang.

Maybe there was something to that.

Thomas sighed and looked at his wife. Some silent communication developed over the course of their thirty-six-year marriage passed between them. He brought his gaze back to Juliet then to Chance.

“It’s obvious that my daughter is crazy about you,” Juliet didn’t miss the slight stress on the term “crazy.” Her dad leaned in and gave Chance a direct look. “But if she comes back and she’s not as happy and crazy about you as she is now, you’ll have me to deal with.”

Juliet’s mouth fell open. She knew her dad cared about her and loved her, as all dads did, but this is the first time she’d ever seen him so blatant about it.

“Don’t let the exterior fool you, son,” he went on. “I may not look like such a tough guy but I’m a chemist, I can think of at least ten different ways to do away with a man, in very unpleasant ways.”

“Dad!” Juliet exclaimed, half horrified and half impressed.

Chance just gave her father a grin that radiated respect. “Message received, loud and clear, sir.” He turned to her and squeezed her hand again. “I plan on making Juliet the happiest woman alive.”