dear.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re not packing up your cabin just yet, are you?” Eleanor asked. “I’d like you to stay through the holiday.”
“I’d love to,” Lila replied, more tears rising up when she considered how grateful she was to have this holiday in the company of her friend.
Twenty-Eight
Lila stirred, her consciousness pushing through when she didn’t feel Theo’s warm body around her anymore. She opened her eyes and yawned, assessing her surroundings. Theo smiled over at her from the kitchen, holding a coffee mug, his hair disheveled and his shadow of stubble giving her a flutter.
“Where’s your dad?” she asked, sitting up on the sofa, and noticing that she had a blanket over her.
Smash had slept in Charlotte’s old room and Theo had stayed on the sofa. Lila had offered him Piper’s room, but they’d gotten to talking about how he and his father had begun to understand each other a little more, and ended up getting so sleepy that they’d just stayed there. She’d been so comfortable tangled up with him on the sofa that she’d never gotten up to go to her own room.
“He ran out to get something to eat for breakfast, and then he’s stopping over at Eleanor’s to get him set up in one of the other cabins. Want some coffee?” His words were casual but he was focusing intently on her, making her forget all about the anxiety of last night for a moment.
“Yes,” she said, wrapping the blanket around her and padding over to him.
He pulled out a chair for her at the kitchen table. “I’ll get it,” he said, pouring her a cup.
“It’s not every day I get to have an actual barista in my kitchen to make my coffee,” she teased. But his half-smile suggested his musings, and it occurred to her that he wasn’t a barista anymore. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do with the coffee shop?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” He placed her mug on the table in front of her.
“You won’t reopen?”
He sat down. “We’ve had an offer already.”
“Oh…” She looked into her coffee, the milky brown liquid circling slowly from the movement of the mug, her future completely unclear. One thing that was certain was that this town was not a part of it. And as she considered this, the thought occurred to her… “What’s today’s date?” She checked her phone and slid it back into her pocket. “I have to move out of my apartment.” Everything was crashing down on her at once, and she had no idea what to do next.
“Where will you go?”
“I’m not sure. But I need to box up my stuff.”
“I’ll come with you,” Theo offered.
Perhaps she could put everything she had into a U-Haul, ask Theo to come with her, and then see where the road took them. But she knew that was rushing things. She’d been so busy trying to “save the world,” as Edie had said, that she needed the solitude to really think about her own next move, and she couldn’t be one hundred percent there for Theo until she’d had some time. When she was packing up her apartment, she’d be back in her reality, the spell of hope and happy endings that Christmas brings pushed out of her sight for a little while. That was the only way she’d know for sure what she really felt in her heart.
The car was running outside, as Lila held a small bag of her toiletries.
“Sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Theo asked.
“It’s okay,” she said, drinking in his face and praying he’d still be there when she got back. “I want to do this alone. I need time to be in my head for a little while. It’s the only way I’ll sort out my thoughts. I’ll be back soon, all right?”
“Okay,” Theo said, taking her hands. He leaned down and kissed her.
“Will you be all right with Smash?” she asked in a whisper.
“We’ll be fine. You positive you’ll be fine?”
“Yeah,” she assured him, although in truth she didn’t really know. She wanted to get back into her old life, standing in the middle of her apartment, to see what she felt once all this was out of her grasp. Where would she go from here? The only way to know was to get there.
Lila headed outside and climbed into Eleanor’s car. With one last wave to Theo, she pulled out of the drive and left Fireside Cabins, feeling uncertain. Her future was as