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Savannah sighed. "Maybe. But I've never been to North Carolina. And hey, I'll be on a reindeer and Christmas tree farm. That’s so…Christmas-y.” She laughed. She knew Steve was never going to go for this place, but it sounded fun, and charming, and…different. “Why not stay there? It’s a new experience. You know that I like that."
"You're already getting bored of spending time in Autre?" Becca asked. She was smiling, and her tone was light, but Savannah noted the tiny hint of hurt in her friend's voice.
She shook her head. "Of course not. But you know that I'm always looking for new experiences. Autre’s adorable. Totally quaint and charming. I've had some awesome Christmases here. But I haven't had snow at Christmas in a few years. I just think it could be kind of fun in North Carolina for a change."
"Well, you know, Theo can give you all kinds of tips on that," Zander said.
Her stupid heart flipped over at hearing Theo’s stupid name said out loud.
She looked over with a frown. Zander was sitting at the end of the table closest to their table, but Savannah hadn't realized that he'd been eavesdropping. "Tips about what?" she asked.
Then she regretted it. It was really better not to encourage any conversation about Theo at all. Because she was actually curious. Because he fascinated her even though she was still kind of mad at him.
She immediately corrected that thought though.
She wasn’t mad at him.
She was scared of him.
And what he could do to her heart.
And because if she was ever going to speak to him again about anything she was probably going to have to lead with an apology.
She wasn’t very good at apologizing.
That’s why, even though she had actually picked up her phone and dialed all but one of the digits of his phone number at least a dozen times over the past two months, she’d always hung up before completing the call.
"Yeah,” Zander said. “His mom and dad live in North Carolina. He can give you all kinds of trip tips."
She knew his parents lived in North Carolina.
That had nothing to do with her decision to check this property out. She hadn’t wondered at all if his parents lived anywhere near this Christmas farm.
Okay, she hadn’t wondered about that more than three or four times.
Savannah worked on keeping her expression neutral. "You don't even know where I'm going. It might not be anywhere near where his parents live."
Zander nodded. "True.” He looked over at Theo.
Savannah had been stoically keeping her eyes from the big man sitting two seats down from Zander.
"Savannah is going to North Carolina for work. Right before Christmas,” Zander said to his friend.
Savannah could feel Theo’s eyes on her. "Is that right?" he asked, his deep voice rolling over her and making her feel like she’d taken a shot of bourbon.
Becca sat forward in her chair. "Oh my gosh, Theo, are you going to see your parents for Christmas? That would be amazing." She looked at Savannah. "Maybe Theo could go with you."
Savannah scowled at her. "Why would he do that? Why would Iwanthim to do that?"
"So you don’t have to be there alone with Mark and so you’re not alone for Christmas.” She reached out and grabbed Savannah’s hand. “Ihatethat idea.”
Okay, thatwouldbe nice. Escaping to a snowy, Christmas farm for the holiday sounded nice and shecoulddo that alone. But it did sound lonely. Being alone was fine. It wouldn’t kill her. She’d done it a lot and generally enjoyed it, honestly. But there was something different about being alone on Christmas.
And spending the first couple days of the trip with Mark didnotsound fun.
“Who’s Mark?” Zander asked.
Either he’d missed that part of their conversation, or he wanted them to repeat it for Theo’s sake. She suspected it was the latter. Savannah almost rolled her eyes.
