Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Do you want to put our coats down? I can grab us drinks and then we can look around?” Hallie was standing next to Brynn, pointing at an empty table.
Brynn appreciated that, like herself, Hallie liked to get to places early.
The winter arts market at Stoneport Brewery had only started a few minutes ago, but the limited tables for seating were already filling up, with more people milling in behind them.
It seemed like everyone had the same idea: to get there early and beat the snowstorm that was supposed to roll through later.
Though Brynn had never been here before, Hallie had explained to her how the large, industrial space had been reconfigured for the day, with about two dozen tables set up along three of the four building walls for local vendors.
Apparently, the dead of winter in Stoneport brought people out in droves for a warm building and a cold beer.
Brynn nodded. “I can do that. Um…” She looked toward the large menu hanging from the ceiling, at least a dozen different beers brewed in-house written across it. “What do you recommend here?”
Hallie squinted adorably up at the board, closing one of her eyes completely. “I recommend that I should get glasses, first and foremost.”
Brynn looked up at the board, too, smiling as she tried not to stare too intently at Hallie.
Brynn was a smitten kitten. Endeared beyond measure.
She’d been learning lots of new, descriptive words this week.
The hardest part had been keeping them to herself, given that she’d started to share almost everything with Hallie.
She clocked a seasonal winter beer that said there were notes of candied nuts and peanut brittle.
That sounded right up her alley, especially as she waited for the feeling in her fingers to return.
And if she wasn’t sold on the taste, the name alone pushed her over the edge. “I’ll take the Hoppy Hibernation.”
With a decisive nod and a matching smile, Hallie handed over her own bulky coat.
For some insane reason, they’d decided that it would be a good idea to make the ten-minute trek to the brewery on foot.
By the time they’d arrived from their short walk, Hallie’s face was flushed, and her cheeks had a rosy glow.
“One Hoppy Hibernation, coming right up.”
Hallie turned around and joined the line of people already a few deep, waiting to be served at the bar. Meandering through the family-style tables that were still situated in the middle of the brewery, Brynn grabbed the two seats at the end of one of the tables that Hallie had pointed to earlier.
Ten days ago, Brynn had experienced intense, profoundly life-altering attraction for the first time ever. The source of it was the woman she was staring at across the room, waiting patiently to get to the bar like she hadn’t upended Brynn’s whole world.
Brynn’s life since then had been far more interesting than she ever could have imagined. Because everything was different now.
The most different part of all was Brynn.
It was like a veil had been lifted, and she couldn’t unsee what was on the other side. Now, there was an ever-present awareness whenever Hallie was close.
The morning after she and Hallie had fallen asleep together, Brynn had gratuitously checked someone out for the first time. She’d always been able to appreciate beauty. Well-done makeup. A great fashion aesthetic that allowed someone to look put together.
But this had been so, so different.
She’d felt a prickle at the base of her spine, watching Hallie that day. She’d scanned her eyes up the contours of her tennis outfit, which showcased Hallie’s legs and her hips and her breasts.
Lust wasn’t just theoretical anymore, after that moment.
Brynn had wanted. Deeply. To touch Hallie.
To place her mouth against the hollow on Hallie’s neck again, where her lips had fit perfectly the night before.
Her stomach had tightened, and beneath her towel, she’d pressed her legs together, looking to find relief from the pressure that was mounting there.
Until that moment, Brynn had never thought of herself as a sexual person.
Raw desire and attraction and passion were things that she’d read about—had understood in the abstract—but she’d never experienced them for herself.
It was crazy, how, in a single moment, the pieces had clicked into place.
One emotion had toppled into the other, like a line of cascading dominos.
Suddenly, a longing that made an emptiness expand in her chest had overtaken her, and her hands had shook from the intensity of it.
Luckily, she didn’t think Hallie had noticed. That would be bad when Brynn herself hadn’t quite understood what was happening to her. Deep, emotional friendship? Pure sexual desire? Some intoxicating combination of the two, which had made it a little hard for her to breathe?
That night on the sofa was the catalyst, but the feelings it had stirred up hadn’t abated. So Brynn had done what she did best: started to research everything she could possibly find about understanding attraction.
Most interestingly, what she’d learned was that, even though Hallie had said practically the exact words to her before, everyone really did experience desire and attraction differently.
For her, as close as she could figure out, sexual attraction was inextricably linked with emotional connection. And there was no one with whom she had a stronger connection than Hallie.
So, in the understanding and acceptance of that, it had all started to make sense. And even if she still felt a little insane from the strength of the want coursing through her, she was comforted by how logical her feelings actually were.
And if she understood it, she could manage it, instead of letting the needy, out-of-control feeling that seemed to crop up whenever Hallie was close lead her around like a dog chasing a bone.
This was still something she was very much working on, as she clocked Hallie for about the dozenth time in the last few minutes. She’d finally reached the bartender to place their order.
Hallie had worn her hair down today, and it was soft and dark and lustrous, and, more than once, Brynn had already resisted the desire to run her hands through it.
Even from far away, Brynn could tell that Hallie’s cheeks were still flushed from the cold, and it made her whole body ache.
It was the good kind of aching, like she knew that finding relief would only be the start.
And god, did Brynn want to find that relief.
Gregory had laughed at her when she’d explained herself on a call a few days ago while Hallie had been working the front desk. “Welcome to the human condition,” he’d said dryly, like he’d been waiting years for her to get with the program.
But, in her defense, the scientific method couldn’t be rushed.
How could she have observed something that she hadn’t known existed?
But, upon becoming aware of these feelings, and after her research, she’d formulated a hypothesis that these feelings that Hallie elicited in her were related to their strong connection.
She was stalled out, though, on actually testing that hypothesis.
Because even though Brynn knew she liked to approach things with rigor, people weren’t science experiments.
Hallie wasn’t some experiment to her. Sexually, emotionally, scientifically, or otherwise.
She’d never be so careless with another person’s feelings, especially when they were Hallie’s.
So, where did that leave her?
She still wasn’t sure as Hallie headed back to her, a beer in each hand. “For you,” Hallie said, handing Brynn the glass filled with a darker liquid than Hallie’s own, which was filled with a foamy, golden-colored beer.
“Let me know how much I owe you,” Brynn said as she accepted the drink.
Hallie waved her off, a look of deep offense flashing across her face. “I invited you here. The least I can do is buy you a beer.”
No one would ever argue that Brynn was incredible at reading social cues. With that in mind, she was trying to make sure that she hadn’t misinterpreted anything.
The thing was—no matter how she sliced, diced, or minced it—this did very much feel like a date.
But maybe that was because Brynn wanted it to be, more than the reality of the situation.
“Do you want to check out the vendors?” she asked, tilting her head to where the growing crowd seemed to be forming a natural path around the room. All the while she tried to stave off the blush on her own cheeks at having Hallie’s undivided attention.
Hallie gave her a sweet smile that made her dimple pop. “Lead the way.”
Brynn did, conscious of Hallie right behind her, their bodies pressed close as they navigated the growing crowd. She felt Hallie’s hand gently brace on her back so that they didn’t get split up.
Brynn reviewed the facts in her head. Hallie had invited her to the annual event, which was a special occasion in Stoneport.
Sydney and Reese were manning the check-in desk at The Stone’s Throw today, which made the whole situation even more strange.
Brynn couldn’t imagine what Hallie would have had to offer them to pull that off.
And lastly, sometimes she’d catch Hallie looking at her.
It seemed very similar to the way that Brynn knew that she, too, looked at Hallie.
Like they were being drawn together by an invisible string.