Chapter 18 #3
They were taken to the bar area, with two high-top chairs situated at the end.
“I hope this is okay,” Hallie said as the host was placing their menus down.
“I wanted us to be able to sit next to each other, but I didn’t actually know if you were a ‘sitting on the same side of the booth’ kinda girl. ”
“I’m a ‘want to be wherever you are’ kinda girl,” Brynn answered honestly, her body buzzy with excitement. Hallie’s whole face broke out into a beautiful smile.
Brynn would never get tired of that smile. Or Hallie’s genuine excitement about everything they were experiencing together. Because Brynn was feeling exactly the same way.
Going on a date like this was so much better because of the relationship they already had with one another. There was no anxiousness about what they’d talk about. Or finding out halfway through that her date was actually conservative.
Brynn couldn’t wait to update Hallie on her day, and vice versa.
“Very chivalrous,” she teased as Hallie waited for her to get seated before sliding into her own chair.
Hallie bit her lip and maneuvered her chair even closer. “It’s so I could do this,” she said, their knees able to slot between one another.
Brynn tapped her fingers against the menu that she hadn’t bothered looking at yet, her focus entirely trained on her date. “I feel like you’ve given this a lot of thought…”
This earned Brynn a lopsided smile and another blush, which she loved. “Maybe.”
“I missed you today.” She watched the way Hallie’s face changed with the admission, like it was the best news she’d ever gotten. It encouraged her to continue. “I mean, it would be pretty weird not to miss my girlfriend, wouldn’t it?”
On top of the bar, their hands had found their way to one another, their fingers interlaced.
Hallie looked at their clasped hands before shifting her attention back to Brynn.
“I missed you, too. A lot.” She groaned with laughter when she said, “Greg and Candace are in another spat, so I had to use the feelings wheel without you. And trust me, you make it look a lot easier than it actually is to corral those two when something’s wrong. ”
Brynn burst out laughing, imagining Hallie sitting the two of them down and trying to reason with them. “You didn’t tell me that.”
Hallie blushed. “Well… we were talking about other, more important things. I didn’t want to distract you.”
She couldn’t help it; her eyes dipped down to Hallie’s lips before meeting her stare again.
Because she definitely remembered what they’d been texting about earlier.
Namely, how much she liked Hallie’s lips.
She liked everything about her, really, but there was something so enticing about the perfect pout she had whenever she was thinking about something.
Or the way that they could take over her entire face in a vibrant smile.
And yeah, she was also desperately curious to know what those lips felt like on every single part of her body.
And soon, she would.
A thrill shot through her at the realization. Inconveniently, as it were, because at the very same time the bartender made his presence known. It took all of the willpower Brynn could muster to pull her eyes away from Hallie.
“Brynn? Do you want a drink?” Hallie asked, which made her realize that she hadn’t actually done a great job of adjusting her focus.
She blinked and turned her attention to the bartender before shifting her attention back to Hallie. “What are you having?”
Hallie glanced down at the menu, Brynn watching as she considered the options. “One of their non-alcoholic cocktails. The Phony Negroni,” she said, lifting her eyes back to the bartender.
Brynn nodded. “Me too.”
After the waiter filled their water glasses, he disappeared to the other end of the bar, presumably to make their drinks.
Refusing to let go of Hallie, Brynn picked up a drink menu with her free hand and flipped it over. “I’m happy to drive us home if you want to have anything to drink.”
Hallie leaned forward, her lips only a few inches away. Brynn loved how Hallie was in her space. Their space, really. She liked the sound of that even better.
She watched Hallie’s lashes flutter as her focus moved from Brynn’s lips to her eyes. When their stares met, Brynn’s heart started beating faster. “I want to keep my wits about me. Make sure that I’m soaking in every single moment.”
Brynn loved the look on Hallie’s face, looking at her, enraptured, like she was the most interesting thing in the restaurant. Anywhere they were, really. It was the same look Hallie had been giving her on the drive to dinner.
How could anything be better than this? That it was happening with Hallie just made it remarkably better. Because, Hallie’s own self-proclaimed fears aside, she was one of the bravest people Brynn had ever met.
Hallie had become the incredible woman that she was all without the unconditional support someone should get from their parents, and yet, she was still so gentle and loving.
Most importantly, she’d been willing to take a chance on Brynn.
To not run away from her feelings, even though, if Hallie’s were anything like Brynn’s, they were so overwhelming that, sometimes, it was hard to breathe.
It was sort of incredible that, in all the billions of decisions they’d made throughout their lives, their choices had led them here, to this moment.
Together.
A moment where Brynn admitted, unable to hold it in for a second longer, “I want to stay in Stoneport. I can’t imagine going back to Boston. Going anywhere else for that matter. And I want to be wherever you are, which just so happens to be in a place that I’ve grown to love.”
For the first time in her life, she hadn’t thought through the logistics or considered every single possibility. She’d just done what felt right. And the thing in her life that felt the most right was never leaving Hallie’s side for as long as she could help it. The rest, she could figure out.
Brynn bit her lip, waiting for Hallie to respond. She wondered belatedly if it was too much, when Hallie had professed that she wanted to take things slowly.
But Brynn hadn’t known what she’d been missing before she’d wandered into Hallie’s life. She couldn’t imagine going back there. And she definitely didn’t want to try to discover if it was possible to feel this way with someone else.
She wanted Hallie. The kind of want that made her heart knock around so hard in her chest that it was bone-bruising. Opening the door to them romantically had only solidified that surety all the more.
“You want to stay in Stoneport?” Hallie finally responded, like saying the words out loud was helping her to process them. “Will you be happy here?”
Now, it was Brynn’s turn to be exasperated.
It was crazy that Hallie would think for even a second that anywhere else could be better for her.
That anywhere else could make her happier to wake up every single morning, excited about what the day would bring.
“I’m already happy here,” she said simply.
Hallie stared at her intently, like she wanted to fall into believing Brynn, but she wasn’t quite there yet.
But Brynn wasn’t going to let that deter her.
She was a woman on a mission, and she’d be here, with Hallie, for as long as it took her to accept how serious Brynn was about moving to Stoneport.
The waiter dropped off their drinks, and Hallie broke the moment happening between them. Lifting her glass, she looked around the restaurant. Then, she took a generous sip of her Phony Negroni. “What about teaching? Or volunteering?” she asked quietly, her eyes landing back on Brynn.
Brynn gently twisted a tendril of Hallie’s hair between her fingers. “What about how you make me feel? What about me loving Stoneport? What about the fact that meeting you is the most interesting, exhilarating thing that’s ever happened to me? Why would I give any of that up?”
Hallie inhaled but didn’t speak. That was fine because Brynn could do this all night.
Laying out all the reasons that this was exactly what she wanted for her life.
And not because it was expected of her or because she thought it would make other people happy, but because it felt so right, in a way that she hadn’t known was possible until meeting Hallie.
“You, Hallie Thatcher, are the first person in my life who’s never made me feel like I need to change.
That who I am is exactly the person I should be. ”
“Because you don’t need to change. You’re perfect,” Hallie said reverently, then let out a punctuated exhale.
Brynn smiled, soaking up her words. Even if she felt their truth, it still made her heart thump a little faster whenever Hallie said them.
“And that’s exactly what I’m talking about.
You think that I’m perfect, and I think that you’re perfect.
Why wouldn’t I want us to be perfect together?
Why wouldn’t I want to lean into this, into us, when I have the ability to do so? ”
Hallie was contemplative for a beat, her eyes scanning Brynn’s face.
“What I’m trying to say is that it was unfair of me to expect you to have the rest of your life mapped out because of my own fear.
I want you to know that even if things change for you, whether it’s a new career or a desire to be somewhere else, I won’t hold it against you.
I never want to be the thing that holds you back from being whoever you want to be, regardless of whether it changes things between us. ”
“I don’t feel that way…” Brynn tilted her head to the side, her fingers stilling in Hallie’s hair.
“But what I’m saying is that if you do, I want us to figure it out. Together,” Hallie said, and Brynn felt a little dizzy with the weight of Hallie’s words. That was what she wanted, too. For them to be a team.
“I will never, ever look at meeting you with any type of regret,” Hallie insisted.
“You’ve changed everything for me. Being afraid of what could possibly happen in the future is no reason for me to try and box you into committing to something now.
To force you to make promises that aren’t fair to either one of us.
You are so brilliant and loving and incredible, Brynn.
I want you to be here, and I am always going to try my best to not be afraid of losing you. ”
Brynn shifted the hand playing with Hallie’s hair so that it cupped her jaw.
“You aren’t going to lose me. I can promise you that.
” It was something she was absolutely certain of regardless of Hallie’s own apprehension.
Time was the only variable missing from what they were building.
Time to trust and grow together and help Hallie settle into the truth that Brynn saw so clearly.
Hallie smiled shyly. Brynn loved that look, like she was afraid but was going to do something brave anyway.
“You’ve opened up my whole world. And you did it so effortlessly that I didn’t even realize it was happening at first. From the moment you stepped foot inside the inn, I was so drawn to you.
I wanted to know every single thing about you even though I was intimidated by you.
I love listening to you ramble about ideas.
I love the way you scrunch your face up when you’re thinking about something.
I love…” Hallie’s eyes went big, and Brynn’s heart threatened to burst out of her chest when she said with conviction, “I love you. And no matter what happens, I won’t be afraid of that anymore. ”
Everything stopped. Brynn couldn’t hear the sounds of the restaurant, the clattering of silverware or the guests in conversation or the bartenders shaking cocktails.
All she could see, could hear, could feel… was Hallie. With a flush that wrapped around her neck and ghosted across her cheeks. Eyes that were bright and intent, refusing to look away from Brynn, even after putting her heart so clearly on display.
“And it’s okay if you aren’t there just yet.
I know that things are moving quickly, regardless of our best intentions to take things slowly,” Hallie said wryly.
“But I want to be honest with you. To hopefully explain why it is so important to me that we do things responsibly. Because I’m in love with you, Brynn. ”
“I’m in love with you, too.” For someone who struggled with finding the right words a lot, they were the easiest ones she’d ever uttered. And when she said them out loud, warmth flooded through her.
She was so, so insanely in love with Hallie, and she had absolutely no qualms about building a life around it. Honestly, she couldn’t think of anything more fulfilling.
Her hand was still on Hallie’s jaw, and she pulled her forward. When their lips met, the din of the restaurant roared back to life. Like time had been slowed down and had finally started moving at a normal speed again, even though they were still lost in their own world.
“So, you love me?” Hallie asked when they pulled apart. She sounded a little awestruck, like she was coming to terms with the idea that her feelings were reciprocated.
Brynn would be with her every step of the way, always happy to reaffirm the intensity of her love. “I do, yes. I love you.”
Hallie smiled at her words, rubbing her cheek against Brynn’s before connecting their foreheads. “From girlfriends to I-love-you’s in a day. That’s got to be some kind of record.”
Brynn breathed in the same air as Hallie, keeping their faces close. “Can you imagine where we’ll be a few months from now?”
Wherever it was, as long as Hallie was with her, Brynn truly couldn’t wait.