𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

11│ACTS OF LOVE

Deciding that she would enjoy her food more if she took one thing off her plate (pun fully intended), Juliet cleared her throat. "Um, I have some. . . news," she began. She had been about to add exciting, but she didn't know what information the letters contained. When her parents' attention returned to her, she continued: "as I told you awhile ago, I auditioned for orchestras in places that I'm considering living in when I'm ready to move."

"And you heard back from them," Daly guessed. Her eyes widened with excitement.

"Um, yeah. Two of the five." She shifted to pull out the mail from her pocket and placed the slightly-crumpled paper on the table top. "One's from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the other is from the London Symphony Orchestra. I haven't opened them yet, though," she finished rather unnecessarily.

"Well, go on," Barron encouraged her. He winced as the red-haired woman swatted him lightly. "I mean, take all the time you need. We'll be proud of you regardless of the outcome."

Juliet gave him a small smile and took a deep breath. "Well, here goes."

She was surprised at how nervous she actually was to reveal the responses she'd gotten; her hands were shaking slightly as she opened the seal and fumbled with the letter. While she didn't have much hope that she'd gotten in, she knew she'd still be disappointed with a rejection. She wasn't sure how she'd handle it, especially since she'd already done the work to get through several rounds of audition pools. The letter from the London Symphony Orchestra went over well and her parents congratulated her on the success of getting in. Her eyes scanned the words quickly in the Philadelphia letter and her smile faltered. "Oh. Um, I didn't get this one."

"That's alright," the dark-haired man reassured her. "You've proven that you can get into one."

"I know," she agreed softly, "but England's far away. If I had Philadelphia as a back up plan I'd feel better about. . ." she trailed off since she didn't want to bring up her second topic of discussion just yet.

Daly reached across the table and rested her hand on her arm. "Darling, we are still very proud of you. If you want to move to England so you can play in the orchestra, we'll fully support you."

"Thanks, mom," Juliet told her, though her apprehension must have showed on her face as her parents exchanged sympathetic looks. She'd hoped to get into an orchestra closer to home and while she hadn't heard back from all of her auditions, her options were narrowed now. She still remembered Shawn's uneasy non-answer when she'd asked him if he would join her overseas.

Their food arrived seconds later and spared her from needing to continue the conversation further. Feeling slightly anxious now about her decisions, Juliet decided to wait until they were done with lunch to broach the second topic. 

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They returned to Rainbow Falls for some downtime and as they settled down to do their respective activities, the redhead spoke up hesitantly: "um, there was something else that I wanted to talk to you about."

"So this visit wasn't just because you missed us, then?" Barron teased her.

Juliet huffed. "I did, but there was an underlying reason." She took a second deep breath and met her parent's eyes before she announced: "I want to marry Shawn."

She immediately clamped her hands over her ears at her mother's loud squeal. "Oh, yes! I knew it! I called it all the way back in kindergarten!"

The dark-haired man chuckled at the older woman as she stood to do a celebratory jig. "I suppose those wedding plans you have can finally be put to use then, huh?"