Brynn shot Hallie a worried glance before she looked back at Jake, who’d covered the few feet of space and was now standing in front of her.
“Would you be able to catch up for a second?” he asked, looking appropriately embarrassed in front of the group. Served him right.
Only… Hallie didn’t know what he wanted from Brynn. Or wanted to say to her. Either way, she didn’t like it. Brynn deserved an apology at the very least.
It was clear from the look on Brynn’s face that she was uncertain what to say. “Sure?” It came out as more of a question than anything else as another furtive glance was thrown in Hallie’s direction.
His face broke out into a broad smile. “Cool. Great.”
There was no amount of willpower in the universe that could stop Hallie from rolling her eyes. And for all of her internallyviolent thoughts, she wasn’t going to go all caveman on Brynn and try to stop whatever was about to happen.
“I’m going to see if Eliza will let me pet one of the dogs,” she said, already walking over toward Reese and Sydney, where Eliza was looking between everyone, seemingly trying to figure out what exactly was going on.
Well, she could join the club.
Mercifully Eliza seemed to have decided it wasn’t something she was interested in doing. Hallie had barely joined the brides-to-be when Eliza declared, “I have a few things to wrap up before I head out for the evening. Take your time looking around. Why don’t you meet me back in the lobby when you’re ready?”
“Sounds good,” Sydney said as Eliza walked away. She immediately turned to Hallie and whispered, with a nod in Brynn’s direction, “Who’s that?”
“Jake. He’s one of Brynn’s suitors, and I’m not his biggest fan.” She hadn’t even liked thinking of his name, but saying it out loud was even worse. It was physically painful for her to do so.
“I can’t imagine you would be,” Sydney mused, her eyes way too bright and playful for the tumult that had started coursing through Hallie.
What if he asked her out again? His boneheaded self had probably realized his mistake almost immediately. He would have been the luckiest guy in the world to be organ-harvested by someone as incredible as Brynn.
Hallie scowled, a look that didn’t dissipate when she glanced over to see Jake talking animatedly to Brynn, a huge smile on his face.
And Brynn, well, Hallie couldn’t quite clock the look she wore. Which didn’t help the anxiety churning in her gut.
The truth was… she wanted Brynn to behers. Wanted it so badly that she could feel her molecules vibrating together at therealization. She didn’t want some idiot like Jake, who didn’t even know who he’d let get away, to think he had a chance.
More importantly—and the weight of the thought knocked her back a step—Hallie didn’t want to be one of those idiots who let Brynn get away either.
And this rush of awareness wasn’t happening because she was seeing Brynn with someone else, watching in real time as a new door opened that Brynn could walk through, away from what she and Hallie were building together.
No. It was happening because, slowly, at some point over the last couple of months, the possibility of losing Brynn had finally eclipsed her fear of rejection. Now, she couldn’t think of anything that would be worse than Brynn getting tired of waiting for her to get her shit together.
Brynn was so much better than some vague definition of their relationship status. She deserved to be wooed and adored and made to feel like the most special woman in the world.
Because, to Hallie, she was.
Hallie’s heart was thumping so loudly in her chest that she had to assume that was why Sydney was giving her a weird look. “Are you okay, Hal? You’re muttering to yourself like a crazy person.”
Blinking, Hallie brought herself back to the moment, where Sydney and Reese were both looking at her with concern. Reese managed to look more sympathetic while Sydney seemed half a second away from asking if she needed to pull the fire alarm for a quick exit.
Hallie was just considering taking Sydney up on that offer, imagined or not, when Brynnfinallywalked back over to their group, an embarrassed blush on her face.
Reese looked from Hallie to Brynn like she was realizing for the first time that there was something way bigger than she’d initially believed at play here.
She let out a loud, guffawing laugh that took everyone by surprise. “Does the extra bedroom in the owner’s quarters have a love spell on it or something?”
Hallie tried to level Reese with her best no-nonsense look. “I never realized you were such a jokester.”
Sydney clapped her hands together like this was the best thing that had ever happened to her. “We should put a plaque outside of it or something. I can see it now.” She fanned her hands out and said, “‘Love grows here.’ It has a nice ring to it.”
“It’s not a garden,” Hallie argued, even though she smiled. She wanted people to know that she and Brynn were more than friends. Wanted it a lot, in fact. Even though she knew it would come with a whole hell of a lot of explaining—and teasing—at her expense.
“Then is there a newsletter we can subscribe to for updates about whatever’s going on with you two?” Reese asked, looking at Brynn more than at anyone else.
