Chapter 34
Tate
“You look great, Sis.Also, since when do you care how you look?”my sister Callie mumbles into her pillow.I look at her through the stand-up mirror, her sleep mask raised just enough for her eyes to peer through, hair woven in long, staticky braids.
“It’s not that I don’t care, but today I just care more than normal.”I look back at my reflection.I didn’t bring much, and I definitely didn’t plan to see Levi.Gabriella would be horrified.The thought hits like a bullet to the chest.A reminder of the friendship I had with her.Also, I’m waiting to be picked up by her fake boyfriend.It’s all messed up and Jan’s to blame.
“It’s not colorful enough.That’s why you don’t like it.Change the top to that floral one I brought.”I look back at her, but she’s rolled away from me onto her other side.I love that she knows me that well.I walk over to the closet where Callie has hung and organized everything by color, one of my favorite ticks of hers.Once I pull the shirt out, I know this is it.This is what’s missing.
“I could squeeze you right now, you little genius you.”
“Mm” is all she gives me.I swap out my yellow cotton shirt for her punchy jewel-tone floral and immediately get butterflies.This with my high-waisted patchwork jeans and matching bucket hat is everything.I throw on my paint-splattered Converse and an oversized quilted coat that hits me at the knees and...done!Ready for whatever Levi has planned today.
My phone vibrates.I pull it out and the banner just says, “here.”
“Alright, Cal, text me when you wake up.”She lifts her arm in a lazy thumbs-up as I creep past her out of the room.Levi’s black F150 is idling next to the curb in front of the house.He’s distracted by something in the distance, but he must feel me looking because all of a sudden he turns and my favorite lazy smile rolls out across his face.I walk down the steps into the world that is already very much awake.Levi called this area The Gulch, which in his words is “the perfect spot to go anywhere while also being far enough away.”The Airbnb is tucked right across the street from the iconic Station Inn and a stone’s throw from Honky Tonk Row, which Callie and I walked to on our first day here.He gets out of his truck as I take the last step.
“Morning,” he says, leaning against his door.“You ready?”
“You going to tell me where we’re going?”I ask from the passenger seat once we start driving.Outside, the barely familiar transforms into a place completely foreign to me the farther and farther we get from the Airbnb.
“Nope!It’s a surprise.But I will tell you, coffee will be involved.We’re about thirty-ish minutes out.”
“Alright.”I smile over at him.It’s crazy how we just fall into this like it’s all routine.Like taking a drive on Saturday is just the most normal thing for us.“Am I at least dressed right?We’re not, like, hiking or wrestling a bear, right?”
He laughs, and it’s got an early-morning rasp, but otherwise, it’s still the best sound I’ve ever heard.
He glances over, giving me an appreciative up-down.“You look great, and I’ll keep those suggestions in mind for next time, but there is no bear wrestling on the agenda today.”
The rest of the drive is spent in comfortable silence as the landscape collapses from city into scenic country.The thought I could totally live here weasels its way into my mind.With him, I could.
A little over a half hour later, we roll into the most charming town.My face is pressed to the glass as I take everything in.Tree-lined streets, brick storefronts, antique-looking lampposts, and the houses surrounding it all unique fingerprints from the time they were built.
And traffic?We come to a dead stop at the end of a seven-car line snaking into a parking garage.Levi’s head drops and then his eyes swing in my direction.
“Pray for parking,” he says before grabbing my hand and pressing my knuckles to his lips.The warmth of his breath travels through me, heating my heart to something gooey and liquid.
***
It’s like steppingback in time.Horse-drawn carriages.Women in petticoats and bonnets.Santa, Tiny Tim, Oliver Twist, and the Ghost of Christmas Past are speckled along the crowded street.Everywhere I look, a new fantastical sight.Levi strolls beside me, hands in his pockets.There’s such an easy way about him today.Maybe it’s being home, or maybe something else?
I look ahead just in time to collide with a Victorian bloke.“Oh my gosh!I’m so sorry...”
“Bah!Humbug!”
Levi pulls me in under his arm.“Sorry, Mr.Scrooge,” he calls out, but the man carries on down the street, mumbling absurdities, not breaking character for even a second.We reach the town center where a Christmas tree reaches up to the sky.I tip my head back against Levi’s shoulders, taking the magnitude of it in.It has to be at least thirty...maybe even forty feet tall.
“Amazing, isn’t it?The historical society works day and night leading up to this weekend.”
I twist in his arms till we’re belly to belly.I wrap my arms around his midsection and prop my chin up to look at him.“I had no idea there was such a place.Callie is a huge Charles Dickens fan and will probably demand we come back every year from here on out.”I lay my head against the denim.
“What do you want to do first?There’s candle making, bookbinding, and stuff with yarn.There’s even a booth that shows you how to make your own broom.”
