“What were you doing in my bedroom?” Hallie finally remembered to ask, through the haze of her exhaustion.
The hand on her back stilled. “I need to admit something to you.” Before Hallie even had the chance to worry, Brynn followed with, “I heard your conversation earlier. With your mom, I’m assuming.”
Leaning back to look her in the eye, Hallie tried to clock how Brynn had felt about what she’d heard. Hallie definitely wasn’t upset about the intrusion. She’d have wanted to tell Brynn, anyway, and this just cut out the middle man of her having to find some casual way to explain that she’d just cut off her entire family.
So, really, Brynn had done her a favor.
“Were you spying on me?” Hallie asked lightly, one of her hands coming up to draw a line along Brynn’s jaw.
She loved the slightly bashful look that crossed Brynn’s face. “In my defense, I’d missed your face and wanted to come say hi.But as I was walking down the hallway, I realized that you were on the phone. So maybe I did wait around the corner, listening.”
Hallie smiled and fanned her fingers along the blush on Brynn’s cheeks. “Maybe? We both know that you don’t have the best poker face.”
That was a verified fact. They’d played poker the other night, and it was so easy to tell what Brynn was thinking, especially if she had a good hand. Which was why it had felt a little wrong when Hallie had suggested they make it a game of strip poker instead.
Her pitter-pattering heart didn’t slow down when Brynn murmured, “I just wanted to be there for you, in case you needed anything. You are so, so…”
And even though the start of Brynn’s words echoed what her mom had said earlier today—difficult, a word she found odious, Hallie knew with every fiber of her being that Brynn would always hold Hallie’s feelings like they were something precious. The tone of Brynn’s voice, soft and reverent, told her as much. Still, she was desperately curious to hear the end of that sentence. “So what?”
“You’resoincredible,” Brynn whispered, looking at Hallie intently. “And I hate that you had to go through that today. I just wanted to give you a little time to process everything before springing a conversation on you.”
Even if Hallie wanted to bask in this moment, she wanted to hear Brynn’s thoughts. “Any commentary?” she asked, doubt creeping in again. Because even though Brynn had issues with her own family, they were very different from Hallie’s struggles. In spite of the peace that she was making with what had happened with her parents a few hours ago, it wasn’t a great feeling to have someone know that her own family didn’t think she was worth loving. Especially not someone she was falling in love with.
That thought hit her squarely in the chest. She was falling in love with Brynn. Which, on some level, she already knew. Had known for weeks, in fact. She just hadn’t let herself explore the thought yet or what it could mean.
Not with all of the fear and doubt and insecurity that she let creep into herself during her vulnerable moments.
And Hallie was trying to be real with herself—they hadn’t even gone on their first actual date yet. But taking things slowly hadn’t dampened the feeling that had been ballooning in her chest.
It didn’t matter that they weren’t having sex. If anything, it had forced her to focus on all of the other things. Like how gentle Brynn was with her. Or the way she’d catch Brynn looking at her sometimes, when she didn’t think Hallie could see. How, no matter what, Brynn always showed up for her. It was so freeing but also kept her emotionally tethered in a way that she’d always been searching for but had never been able to find.
So, really, maybe the better question would have been, how could she not fall in love with Brynn?
“Your parents are idiots,” Brynn said simply, tightening her arms around Hallie’s waist, holding her close. “And I can’t change what they think or do, but I’m going to be here for you, okay?”
Hallie let the words wash over her, trying to make herself believe them. Soaking in their truth, as Brynn continued to look at her like there actually wasn’t anywhere else in the world she’d rather be than in this small apartment in Stoneport, holding Hallie.
Brynn continued. “You can completely say no, but I assumed that you’d have some big feelings, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I drew you a bath to take some time and relax. I used the fancy bubble bath and everything.” And then she smiled at her,so sweetly that Hallie wondered if her own heart was going to thump right out of her chest.
She’d never felt so taken care of before. So… loved, even if they weren’t using that word. Even if it wasn’t where Brynn was yet, Halliefeltloved.
But Brynn wasn’t done. “And Reese and Sydney are going to come over later so that we can all watch a movie. I was thinking Thai for dinner, if that sounds good to you. And seriously, if you don’t want to hang out with anyone, we can cancel the whole thing. I just wanted to make sure that you know that there are people in your corner who will show up for you. Who care about you, just the way that you are.” As fast as Brynn had been talking, she stopped, taking in a gulp of air.
It was like she thought Hallie would somehow fight her on this, when she was trying not to melt into a puddle of goo right there on their living room floor. “You drew me a bath?”
“With the good bubbles,” Brynn repeated, before she questioned, “But you’re not mad? About the meddling and everything? I just want you to know that I’m always on your team. And even if I don’t handle something perfectly, you can talk to me about it. I just did what I thought was best in this situation, to support you. Which is something that I’m also working on, for the record.”
“What could you ever have to work on?” Hallie asked, genuinely baffled.
“I know that we said we’d take things slowly, and I’m okay with that. Really, I am. But I also wanted to show up for you. So maybe it was the wrong way to do it, but I followed my heart on this one. I trusted the voice inside of my head.”
Hallie tried to respond, but the sound died in her throat as the truth rushed through her.
She wasn’t falling; she wasin lovewith Brynn.
Brynn was looking at Hallie in a way that she didn’t know that she’d ever get used to, her bright eyes scanning Hallie’s face like she couldn’t stand to miss a single thing.
And maybe she wasn’t going to tell Brynn just yet, but she could listen to that voice inside of herself, too. It was so quiet but so confident that this wasn’t something that came along every day.
