“It really did,” she agreed, wishing she could say more. Wishing she could say that she wasn’t ready for Alix to leave. But she couldn’t find a way to say it without making things weird.
“Christmas in Colorado could never compete with this,” Alix whined in a tone that was entirely too endearing.
Grace chuckled. “Oh, yeah. Being unwittingly dosed with drugs and force-fed meat while being accosted by half my family is a real thrill.”
“When you say it like that”—Alix laughed—“you make it soundsobadass.”
Grace rolled her eyes playfully. “Any time you want me to remind you how many times I had to take Baby for a walk while you?—”
“Okay, Gator. Allow a girl to leave with her dignity.”
Grace’s chest buzzed when she laughed. She’d laughed more since meeting Alix than she had in her entire life. She couldn’t even blame the damn weed brownies. God, she was so pathetic.
Grace’s mind conjured Julie and imagined her stoic expression. Julie wouldn’t outright call her a hyena. No. Julie was so good at just remaining quiet if Grace spoke negatively of herself. Never dispelling the assertion. Rarely countering it with something positive.
“Not that I’ve decided on going or not. I don’t know. If anything, this has made me dread the idea of going home for Christmas even more,” Alix said before mumbling something about Venus being in retrograde.
“Well, I more than owe you one,” Grace replied before giving herself time to dwell on it. “One good turn deserves another.” She stopped before unleashing a tirade of idiotic idioms.
Leaning back in the cheap white plastic patio chair, Alix cocked her head to the side when she looked at Grace. “I’m not following your adage-ing.”
“If you want, I’ll come to Colorado with you. Help you through it the way you helped me through Thanksgiving.”
Alix watched her carefully for a moment, her voice low as she asked, “Are you serious?”
There was something in Alix’s expression that nearly winded Grace. A genuine, heartbreaking surprise. Alix looked at her like Grace had offered to give her a kidney rather than repay a favor in kind. Years of studying people for jury selection made her tread carefully. It took moments of reading Alix’s discomfort before deciding that light and breezy was the way to go.
“I’ve never seen a real-life snowy American Christmas.” Grace picked up the toy duck Baby dropped at her feet and flung it across the patio.
Alix laughed with both dimples, indirect sunlight dancing in her eyes. “My dad will spend the entire holiday tucked away in his office building ships in a bottle while my mom makes pointed comments about every life choice I’ve ever made. My brother, meanwhile, will only peel himself away from his video games for food and presents… It’s nothing like how warm this has been.”
“It would be fun to compare it to the Hallmark of it all. I mean, will there be a cookie competition? An eggnog showdown? A head-to-head gingerbread house battle royale?”Grace tried to look conspiratorial.
“We do have this gingerbread competition thing… but hang on. Are you a secret holiday romance fan?”Alix grinned.
“Who is keeping anything a secret?” Grace didn’t want to lose the glee emanating from Alix like a solar flare. She wouldn’t tellher that she’d never watched one but gleaned all she needed to know from pop culture.
“You’d go with me to Colorado for a whole week? Just like that? What about your job? The partners?—”
“The partners owe me about a thousand hours of leave,” Grace said. “And there are never any trials set for that week because of all the traveling for judges, lawyers, jurors, court staff. I can work when I’m there. If the pandemic gave us a single positive thing, it’s that now so many things can be done over Zoom. If I have a hearing, I can?—”
“Grace, are you messing with me?” Alix’s furrowed brow joined the renewed disbelief marring her beautiful face.
“If you don’t want me to go?—”
“No.” Alix leaned forward. “No. That’s not it at all. If you want?—”
“I want,” Grace promised and kept her gaze from dropping to Alix’s devastating smile. Kept from revealing that going with her to Colorado wasn’t the only thing she wanted.
Chapter Fourteen
ALIX
Miami International smelledlike jet fuel, Lysol, and the kind of espresso that could raise the dead. Alix tried not to stare at Grace like a creep in a departure terminal rom-com. She kept her hands in her pockets so they wouldn’t do something stupid, like reach for Grace’s sleeve and tug her closer for one more hug, one more second, one more anything.
“Text me when you land,” Grace said. She had that lawyer voice on, the tranquil one she probably used for skittish witnesses and dogs in pools who did not, in fact, require saving.
“I will,” Alix promised. “Thank you for inviting me this weekend. Tell Connie she almost won me over into being a carnivore.”
