Another nod. “We sure don’t. We pride ourselves on being good friends.”
She sighed when Brynn flexed her hand, the one that was toying with Hallie’s nipple. “Great friends, even,” Brynn said with a devilish smile.
Hallie managed to lift up on her elbows. “I hope that you don’t do this with all of your friends.”
Brynn scratched her nails lightly up Hallie’s stomach, who buckled at the touch. “I wouldn’t do this with anyone unless I wanted them to be my girlfriend. Unless I was serious about where things were going.”
“Your girlfriend?” Hallie panted out as her abs clenched, trying the word on for size. “You really have no idea what you’d be getting into. Me either, if I’m being honest.”
But hell, she was already in love. Why wouldn’t she want to make it official?
“Guys, seriously?” Sydney yelled from the living room. “Put some clothing on and get out here.”
“One second,” they yelled in unison. Sydney let out a disgruntled sound in response.
Slowly, Brynn leaned down, her lips only inches away from Hallie’s. Her gaze flicked between Hallie’s lips and eyes, back and forth, just taking her in. “I mean… I don’t want to be dating anyone else. And I’m serious about you. About us. If you think about it, the brewery was a lot like a first date,” Brynn mused.
Hallie couldn’t stop the grin that bloomed across her face. “A little revisionist history, huh? I don’t hate it.”
“Well, I wanted it to be a date,” Brynn admitted, looking down at her. “Clearly, if what happened after was any indication.”
Hallie blushed, desire snaking through her again. She loved that they could do this now. All the cards on the table. “I wanted it to be a date, too.”
“Then it was a date.” The way Brynn said it made it sound so simple. “The order of operations isn’t the important thing. Iwant you, Hallie. I want to know that you’re mine. And you can be mine with us moving as quickly or as slowly as makes sense, but…”
The words sent a shiver down Hallie’s spine.You can be mine.Brynn’s.Hallie wanted that, too.
“I want us tobetogether. I want us to figure out things together. Is that what you want, too?”
Hallie knew that Brynn wasn’t a casual person. Neither was she, if she was being honest. It was just how her romantic life had materialized thus far. Because feeling this way—that is, letting someone in—should have been the scariest thing that she’d ever done.
Which made it so crazy that, when she looked in Brynn’s eyes again, she didn’t feel afraid.
A different, far more pleasurably intense feeling welled up in Hallie’s chest, and she smiled as it threatened to burst out of her. “Brynn Fitzpatrick, I’d love to be your girlfriend.”
There was a brief, perfect moment in which they were the only people left on the planet. And then— “I swear to god if you two aren’t out here in five seconds, I’m eating your food.”
Brynn planted a quick kiss on Hallie’s lips and then dismounted before she could properly protest.
But she’d forgive Sydney. Hallie was feeling very magnanimous at the moment. Because, all at the doing of her incredible girlfriend, Hallie was in a very, very good mood.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“It’s so great to have you home, honey.” Brynn had heard these same words from her dad at least a dozen times over the last hour. When she’d walked in the door. As they’d made lunch. While he’d updated her on the day-to-day of their life in Boston. Even when she’d been on her way to the bathroom, and he’d looked up from where he was reading a newspaper.
Now, in the early afternoon, they were sitting in the den at her parents’ house, watching a movie. Even though they were nearing the end, Brynn couldn’t tell you half of what had happened so far. She’d been texting with Hallie almost nonstop, ahead of their date later that night.
Because Brynn had a girlfriend. A girlfriend she was missing very much right now. Especially with everything that Hallie had gone through yesterday. And even though she hadn’t wanted to leave her, Hallie’s conversation with her own mom had stirred something in Brynn.
Since going to Stoneport, she’d managed to get back to visit her parents almost weekly. She knew that, for them, it was Stoneport that she was visiting, and they looked at Boston as her coming home. Sure, in some ways, Boston would always be herhome, but over the last two months, Stoneport had become the place that she wanted to be.
The place where she wanted to build a life.
She knew it with every fiber of her being. There was no part of the world that would be as exciting to explore as her budding romance with Hallie. No monument or natural wonder that could elicit feelings stronger than what it felt like to be wrapped up in Hallie’s arms, doing something as mundane as cuddling on the sofa.
What she’d always wanted, more than anything else in this world, was to feel connected to it. And now, because of Hallie and Reese and Sydney, she did.
She hadn’t been expecting to ask Hallie to be her girlfriend last night. But she’d been looking down at beautiful lips and eyes and cheeks and that perfect dimple, and the words had just burst out of her. Even though she’d already told Hallie that she was serious about them, talk was cheap. She’d learned that from her ex-fiancé, of all people. And making it official was the first step in proving to Hallie that she was in this for the long haul. Selfishly, it was also something that she desperately wanted for herself.
