Hallie leaned into her again. “Just you try and stop us.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied, holding Hallie’s gaze until the rest of the world felt like it had disappeared, shrinking down to just the two of them and anything they wanted to do with all the days of forever.
Luca laughed lightly. “Okay. Breakfast?”
Hallie smiled and nodded, keeping hold of Audrey’s hand as they headed for the table with the rest of her family.
The place was filled with the scents of Christmas—cinnamon, orange, fresh dough, sugar. Exactly as it should be on the morning they got their tree.
Originally, they’d been planning to go on Monday, after Hallie returned from the Sinclair thing, but today was the day the Sinclairs were getting their trees, and Hallie knew how hard it all was for Audrey. So, she’d taken to her family group chat to see if everyone could switch their schedules up and do it today, and, Christmas miracle, it had worked.
So, while Audrey’s mother screamed at her in message after message about how she couldn’t leave them on tree day, how she was being selfish and not considering what it looked like for Michele, the Fullers were giving Audrey the very best tree day of her life.
???
“I, uh, left my phone at your mom’s,” Audrey said quietly, as they clambered out of the car at the tree farm.
Hallie smiled, her hand finding Audrey’s with ease. “Great choice.”
“You think so?”
“I really do. You deserve some peace.”
She winced like part of her didn’t really agree with that but she was trying to reach the place where she could. Hallie could be patient. These things took time.
“You should ask the professional,” Luca called over in their direction, drawing both of their attention to where he was in conversation with Wes.
Wes grinned widely at Audrey and gestured to an elaborate spider web that had frosted over in the freezing temperatures. “Want to tell us which spiders are still knocking around at this time of year, Prof?”
Audrey laughed as she looked at the glistening web like it was a precious gem. “I’m not an arachnids specialist, but, if you want to talk to one, I have a colleague I can connect you with. She works at the University of Michigan, actually.”
“Oh, nice,” Wes said, like he’d love nothing more than to discuss spiders with an arachnologist. “What’s she like? Friendly? A little weird?” He sounded hopeful.
“I think you’d like her. We’re all a little weird, but she loves anyone who’sthisexcited to talk about spiders.”
“Then you can definitely pass my number along.” He shot Hallie a look. “See, we’re all making professor friends.”
She laughed and glared at him. It wasn’t quite the same thing and they both knew it.
“Okay,” Luca said, clapping his hands together. “Mom and Wes, me and Isaac, and Hallie and Audrey. These are our tree teams. We fan out, find some likely targets, and reconvene in an hour to whittle down our options.”
“As if any team other than Mom and Wes is going to win,” Isaac laughed.
Hallie was inclined to agree. The tree was going in their mom’s house and Wes was a tree surgeon. This was, quite literally, his whole thing. However, Hallie had nothing invested in winning by picking the best tree. She loved coming here but, this year, she simply wanted to walk through the rows of trees, sipping hot chocolate, and listening to Audrey talk. That was winning.
The group split up and Hallie led Audrey directly to the furthest row of trees. She knew it would be the least populated area and she wanted a little more time for just the two of them.
Audrey smiled knowingly at her and kept one of her gloves off to twine her fingers through Hallie’s.
Every atom in Hallie’s body ached with wanting her, with not wanting to lose her. “How are you doing?” she asked, trying not to focus on the suffocating wave of emotions.
“Good. Thanks for doing this. You didn’t have to—any of you.”
Hallie stopped, her boots deep in the snow, and looked up at Audrey. Her brown eyes were gorgeous in every light but there was something particularly stunning about them surrounded by snow and trees, nothing but warmth shining in them. “We wanted to. You have no idea how excited they were to have you join us.”
Audrey ducked her head. “I don’t really know what I did to deserve any of this. You’re all so…good.”
“You don’t have todoanything to deserve people who care for you. I know that’s something you’ve been taught you have to earn, to work for every single second, but that’s not how love works, Audrey. People can just love and enjoy you because you exist.”
