Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Brynn was extremely confused about what was happening. And, inconveniently, Hallie wasn’t being much help.
Instead, Hallie was focusing on wrestling off her boots, which looked like they were giving her a surprising amount of trouble.
Brynn looked down at her phone just to make sure she wasn’t going crazy. It was New Year’s Eve, and she knew Hallie wasn’t supposed to be back until two days from now. She’d set up a reminder in her calendar and everything.
But Hallie was here. Standing in, to be fair, her own apartment, which Brynn had moved into while her boss was away.
They’d gotten a last-minute request for a room, and Brynn’s had been the only one available. Wanting to be as accommodating as possible, she’d asked Hallie what she should do.
Four days ago, it had been Hallie’s suggestion that, if Brynn was comfortable with it, she could move into the guest room in the owner’s quarters, since no one was staying there.
It had all made perfect sense from a logistical perspective, which Brynn had appreciated.
Now, with Hallie home days early, it didn’t make any sense. Especially because she hadn’t told Brynn that she was coming.
Did Hallie not trust her? Was this some elaborate check-in to make sure that Brynn was keeping everything running smoothly? Oh, god. Had there been a serious guest complaint that required Hallie to fly home so quickly?
Brynn had never been yelled at by an authority figure before.
And even if Hallie didn’t look menacing right now, having moved on to wrestling with the zipper on her bulky jacket, it still made Brynn grow too warm too quickly.
She threw her blanket off as an act of self-preservation, hoping it would cool her down.
But Hallie was seemingly unconcerned by Brynn’s own internal woes. “I totally forgot that you were using the other bedroom,” she said, slapping her hand on her thigh like it was the funniest thing in the world before going back to wrestling with her jacket.
Brynn nodded slowly. Because… yeah. She was still confused. “You told me it was okay when I asked about the guests who needed the extra room. I thought you weren’t coming home for another couple of days?”
Finally unzipping her jacket, Hallie let out a sound of relief as it fell to the ground.
“You are so very right, Brynn. I came home early. This is where I wanted to spend New Year’s Eve.
Not in Colorado,” she said as she lugged her duffel bag into her bedroom, which Brynn hadn’t seen the inside of yet.
She took people’s privacy very seriously, and she wouldn’t betray Hallie’s trust like that.
There was a brief moment in which she wondered if Hallie was going to close the door behind her, but then she appeared back in the living room, putting her hair in a ponytail.
“I should have let you know, but I was on standby for a flight and wasn’t sure that I was going to make it back. ”
“Is everything okay?” Brynn asked, adjusting her position on the sofa. She’d been settled in for an evening of watching movies in her pajamas, and she was just realizing that, after having thrown her blanket off, she looked wildly unprofessional in a pair of pajama pants and a hoodie.
But it was difficult to push her uneasiness away, even as Hallie seemed to be preoccupied with something else.
That was quickly confirmed for Brynn, when Hallie looked at her intensely.
Brynn would have never thought that she could feel a look in her bones, but she absolutely did.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Brynn; it’s not.
I don’t have the emotional energy to lie right now. ”
Brynn’s fight-or-flight mode kicked into high gear, the alarm in her eyes apparent. Any words she wanted to say lodged in the back of her throat.
Hallie quelled them quickly—something she seemed to have a knack for doing—when she said, “Which has absolutely nothing to do with you. For the record.”
Brynn’s shoulders—her whole body, in fact—relaxed.
What a wild thirty-second rollercoaster that had been.
She knew very well that she didn’t do a great job existing in gray areas or feeling like she’d done something wrong.
But now that she knew Hallie hadn’t come back because of some misstep on her part, she could focus on figuring out why Hallie looked like she was cycling through bursting into tears or laughing, depending on the moment.
If it wasn’t about Brynn, it probably meant that it wasn’t about the inn. Which left something on Hallie’s trip as the culprit for her early return. “Did something happen in Colorado?”
Hallie let out an exasperated puff of air that blew the tendrils of hair framing her face around.
“Just family stuff. I decided that I didn’t need that negativity in my life.
And my back definitely didn’t need to sleep on a sofa again.
” Brynn was going to respond, not that she even knew the right thing to say, but Hallie kept talking.
“It was a nice sofa, I’ll give them that.
Some brand with a kind of wood or a wooden object in the name, I think.
Crate and Barrel? West Elm? Pottery Barn?
” Hallie laughed loudly. “Who has a barn filled with pots anyway?”
Brynn weighed explaining to Hallie that the founder of Pottery Barn had actually found a barn filled with pots—three, in fact—which had launched the company.
Only, she didn’t think that would be appreciated right now, given Hallie’s current state.
Instead, she cocked her head to the side.
“I didn’t realize that you and your family didn’t get along. I thought—”
“That since we all grew up living in seven hundred square feet together that we’d be closer? Yeah, me too.”
That wasn’t exactly how she was going to put it, but it also wasn’t extremely far off. “I just meant that you ran a family business together. Close quarters and all that,” she said, gesturing around the room.
Brynn’s own holiday season had been chock-full of phone calls and video calls and text messages with her parents, with the added experience of trying to cook a full Christmas meal in the kitchen at The Stone’s Throw last week. Knowing the fire protocol had helped ease her anxiety—a lot.
Instead of answering, Hallie walked over to the backpack she’d left near the door and unzipped it.
She pulled out a bottle of amber liquid that was wrapped in another plastic bag with some type of safety seal on it.
Then, with a combination of purposefulness mixed with a slightly unsteady gait, Hallie walked over to the kitchen counter running along the wall and pulled down two glasses.
“Do you want a glass? It’s bourbon,” Hallie asked, already working to get ice cubes out of the tray that she’d plucked from the freezer.
Brynn didn’t hate bourbon, but she also didn’t love any alcohol. Mostly because she was such a lightweight when it came to drinking. It was usually easier to stay sober instead of possibly doing embarrassing things.
There had been at least a few instances in college where that had happened, and she didn’t welcome the idea of a repeat experience.
Especially with someone she respected as much as Hallie.
Losing her debit card, which had caused a few thousand dollars’ worth of charges to be racked up at the bar where she’d lost it.
Spilling wine all over her roommate’s favorite dress and then needing to buy her a new one, something she didn’t even remember doing.
Then there was the time that she’d bought most of her dorm floor seats to a Celtics game, which was especially weird because she didn’t even like basketball.
She’d only discovered that one when she’d found the confirmation email in her inbox the next morning.
But the thing was… it was New Year’s Eve, and she’d suddenly found herself with better company than she’d expected. “Sure, I’d love one,” she said, feeling braver than her sweatpants with snowmen on them would lead a person to believe.
In seconds, Hallie was walking over to the sofa, where she unceremoniously threw herself down a few feet away from Brynn.
The most impressive part was that she didn’t spill a single drop of their drinks.
She deftly handed Brynn one of the glasses.
“I’m sorry if I’m ruining your New Year’s Eve plans. ”
Brynn laughed and looked around the room, wondering if Hallie was joking. “You’re a value add as far as I’m concerned. It was just going to be me, the inn’s intercom, and whatever was on television for the next few hours.”
Hallie was contemplative for a few seconds before speaking. “If you’d have asked me last New Year’s Eve where I would be this year, the answer is exactly where I am at this moment.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Brynn questioned. The words themselves didn’t seem problematic, but the strain in Hallie’s voice made her think maybe that wasn’t the case.
Hallie sank into the sofa and kicked her feet up before she schooled Brynn with a surprisingly intense look.
“I’m physically, literally, right where I thought I’d be, but everything else is different.
My family lives across the country in Colorado.
They don’t own The Stone’s Throw anymore. My best friend’s getting married—”
Brynn had been in the process of taking her first sip of her drink. Instead, she whipped her head up to meet Hallie’s stare again. “Sydney and Reese are getting married?”
Hallie threw her hand across her mouth, but she only lasted for a second before she started laughing.
“I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Sydney’s proposing tonight.
That’s why I didn’t call her and ask her for a ride back from the airport early.
” She pointed her finger at Brynn. “You’ve gotta keep that a secret. ”