Page 91 of The Perks of Loving a Wallflower

“Butisnext door to it,” Elizabeth whispered.

With their usual noise and affection, the siblings managed to wish Chloe and Lawrence goodbye and then relocate to the large sitting room.

“There you are!” Philippa scooped Tiglet up from the floor and cradled the kitten to her chest. “He was tranquil as could be in the carriage, and then shot out through the open window as soon as your house came into sight. I keep waiting for him to stop running away from me.”

“He doesn’t run away,” Jacob reminded her. “He goes home.”

“I was taking him there,” Philippa said. “On my lap.”

“He gets excited,” Elizabeth said. “He wants to be a good kitty.”

“Heisa good kitty,” Jacob said firmly. “All animals are very good at being exactly what they are.”

Tommy wished it were just as easy for people like her. She didn’t want to play a role. She wanted to be exactly who she was. Especially today.

Philippa spending the night seemed so…official. Tommy wished it could be the start of many more just like this one.

In the sitting room, the siblings dispersed to their usual pursuits.

Graham flung himself onto a sofa between two end tables piled high with magazines and newspapers. Elizabeth leaned her sword stick against the pianoforte and began to play an aria from her favorite operetta. Jacob lay on his stomach, trying to coax what Tommy hoped was a sweet cuddly hamster and not a snake out from under a sofa.

Marjorie escaped upstairs, likely to nick Philippa’s manuscript and take it up to her attic studio to practice some light forgery.

“This would be a lovely room to read in,” Philippa said wistfully.

“We have an entire shelf of books.” Graham gestured toward the wall behind him. “You’re welcome to read them.”

Philippa cast him a sorrowful look, as though the idea of a single shelf for books was embarrassing, and moved to a bay window filled with cushions. “Chloe told me I was welcome to her nook.”

“Try it.” The words flew from Tommy’s mouth without hesitation, surprising her more than anyone.

It wasChloe’sspot. No one had sat in it since Chloe had left. But now, as Philippa settled on the yellow cushion and none of the other siblings took any particular notice, Tommy realized they had all adjusted to Chloe’s absence.

It wasn’t that the window seat was no longer important. It was that it could now be important for new people and new reasons.

“How is the reading nook?” she asked.

Philippa patted the cushion beside her. “Come and find out.”

Tommy sat next to Philippa in the bay window, hips and shoulders touching. It was dark outside, so the curtains were closed, making the nook seem even cozier. “Thisisnice.”

Not just the seating arrangements. The moment. Having Philippa fit in as though she were made to be part of Tommy’s life…it was splendid.

“Your siblings aren’t looking,” Philippa whispered. “You can kiss me.”

“Her siblings are listening,” Graham said without lowering his broadsheet. “But don’t let that stop you.”

At Philippa’s mortified expression, Tommy kissed both sides of Philippa’s mouth, then rubbed her nose against Philippa’s. “Ignore them.”

“Ha!” Jacob pulled something from beneath the sofa. “I’ve got you now, Apophis, my boy.”

“Whatever you do,” Tommy whispered to Philippa, “do not look to see what Jacob pulled out from under the furniture.”

Philippa immediately glanced over Tommy’s shoulder and her eyes widened.

“Whatever you do,” Tommy amended, “do not tellmewhat he found.”

Philippa grinned at Tommy. “I’d like to know whatyounormally do here in the sitting room.”