Accidentally in Love

Approval

They had the same facial expression- wide eyes, mouth open slightly in surprise, and a bit of pink across their cheeks, from walking in on a clearly intimate moment. They looked so similar, that if it wasn't such an awkward situation, I probably would've burst out laughing. I have lost count of the amount of times they have walked in on us bickering, but this was new. To everyone.

My mom cleared her throat. "I, uh, we were just making sure you had everything under control, but I see you already had some help."

It was my turn to turn red.

"How long has this been going on? Is this something we need to talk about?" Debbie asked, shifting her gaze between me and Carter.

Carter shoved his hands into his pockets before we exchanged a nervous glance. I knew our body language just gave away the verdict, which was guilty as charged.

"Why don't we sit down and have a little chat," mom said as if it was a command more than a question.

We sat down at the table, Carter and I next to each other with our parents across the table from us.

"I have to say, I love these streamers," Carter said, giving my mom his perfected smile, as he tried to sweeten her up.

Debbie shook her head at her son, clearly aware of his tactics. "So, what is going on between you two?"

Carter reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a light squeeze. My eyes found his and I gave him a smile, before looking over at our parents, who were staring at us with that look again.

"We're together," Carter told them.

"As in… a committed relationship?" Debbie asked, staring at him with disbelief.

We nodded and to add some relief to the situation, Debbie slowly started to smile.

Now it was my mom was looking at us as if we were insane. "How in the world did that happen? I mean… I just… you two usually are trying to kill each other."

"Oh, she still wants to kill me, but now she wants to kiss me sometimes too," Carter said, grinning at me.

I lightly slapped his arm, causing both our moms to start laughing.

"Well, it's nice to know that something hasn't changed," my mom said to Debbie.

"Wait, wait," Debbie said, waving her hands excitedly. "So I was right, there was a girl! Harper was the one that had you cleaning your room and grinning over your phone."

Carter groaned. "Mom, you aren't supposed to tell her that!"

"You were grinning at my text messages?"

"Maybe… does it get me points if I was?" Carter asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

My mom cleared her throat, causing us to both look at her. "Yeah, hello, this is her mother sitting right here."

"Were you ever going to tell us?" Debbie asked.

I nodded. "We were going to do it tonight. Things have been kind of complicated and we just figured them out. I guess we were nervous about how you would react."

"Sweetie," Debbie said to me, in a tone of voice that told me if we were standing up, she'd be hugging me. "Do you know how happy I am that my son is taking someone seriously? And even more, that the person he is serious about is you."

I bite my lip, trying to stop my eyes from filling up with tears.

"And you know we love Carter, he is a part of this family," mom added in, smiling at him.