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 donewhat 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 wantedHallie. 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 thatthiswas 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, intous, 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 theweight 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.
