Page 48 of Hers for the Weekend

She poured her heart out through Elsa’s words, hitting every note (apparently having a midlife crisis made you better at singing?) and finishing, breathless, to find the whole barn frozen (pun intended) and speechless.

“Wow,” Holly whispered, “you really can sing.”

“To lunch!” Cole hollered, and then wrapped an arm all the way around her body and basically carried her inside with him, which was good, because she found her knees a little weak.

He deposited her in a chair and handed her a sandwich. Apparently, though Hannah was coordinating people into vehicles to go eat lunch at Ernie’s, she was also feeding them pre-lunch to keep them occupied. The sandwich in Tara’s hand was pimento cheese, and as she chewed, she wondered how anyone in the northern wilds had learned how to make it well. Must be Miriam’s influence.

“This egg salad is amazing,” Holly said, her mouth half full, and then more quietly added, “That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Tara almost spit pimento cheese out of her nose. “That was embarrassing. It was way too many feelings to be having, way too publicly, with way too many strangers.”

Holly raised an eyebrow. Tara could raise just one eyebrow, because she’d spent hours staring in the mirror as a child willing herself to, but she had to concentrate to do it, and she had an irrational jealousy of people who made it look effortless. “You keep a very tight leash on the sheer power of your charisma, Tara. When you let your hair down… it’s mesmerizing.”

Tara shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She didn’t know how to deal with being watched with as much intensity as Holly was looking at her right now, how to handle being actually seen.

“I don’t have enough hair to let down,” she said, sounding prim to her own ears, “and the last time I was unleashed, a country club burned to the ground.”

Holly bent her knees so that she was sitting with her feet underneath Tara’s thigh, and pushed the curtain of Tara’s hair behind her ear. “You can hide your face, but I’ll still see you, Sloane,” she said. “There are a lot of ways to unleash yourself without burning everything down, and I trust you to find them, even if you don’t trust yourself.”

Her breathing sped up, and her body froze. She clamped her lips shut to stop herself from saying something Southern and cutting to distance herself from the moment. Looking over Holly’s shoulder to avoid her eyes, she focused on a little Charlie Brown tree (Why did they insist on bringing all the live trees into the inn? Wouldn’t a nice pink plastic tree have fit the aesthetic better and been more hygienic?) that someone had shoved into a corner and decorated entirely in Funko Pops from Flight of the Fordham, the space opera show that Levi and Noelle were obsessed with.

Just then, Jayla Green walked up to them, a Belle costume pulled over her hoodie and jeans, coordinating yellow plastic heart elastics bobbing on her Afro puffs. “You didn’t tell me you were Queen Elsa,” she accused.

Tara looked at her, their eyes almost level from her seat on the short couch. “You didn’t tell me you were Princess Belle,” she rejoined, holding out her hand for a shake. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Highness.”

Elijah, who had been across the room trying to keep Jeremiah from eating his weight in rugelach, winked at her. Oh, good. She’d gotten that one right. She was okay with her nieces, but she also understood the strict parameters of their upbringing. Tara had never been allowed to be much of a child, so she always felt a little at odds and ends when asked to interact with children who were allowed to be themselves.

Jayla was nodding solemnly over their clasped hands. “Your Majesty,” she said. “I’m so thrilled you could join us for this royal wedding.”

“Oh, is it royal?” Tara asked. “I didn’t know.”

“Obviously, Miriam is Aurora.” The little girl told her, as if this were a known fact to everyone. Tara searched her memory, and realized Aurora was Sleeping Beauty. “She told me that before she came here, she was asleep for a long time, and Noelle was the prince who woke her up.”

From behind her, her brother said, “That’s silly, girls can’t be princes.”

Without turning to look at him, Jayla sighed the exhausted sigh of siblings everywhere tired of their brothers. Tara liked this kid so much. “People say you can’t have two dads, Jeremiah, but look at us. Girls can be princes if they want to.”

Jeremiah scrunched up his face like he wanted to argue with this logic but could not.

Jayla turned to Holly. “Are you Queen Elsa’s prince?”

A sparkling laugh tumbled out of Holly. “I’d like to be,” she said, “but Queen Elsa doesn’t need a prince, does she? She has her family, and they all save each other.”

Jeremiah, who was obviously tired of being left out of this conversation, said (through his missing front teeth), “I think Elsa falls in love with the nice girl she meets in the magical forest.”

“Well,” Holly said, “we are in a magical forest. Maybe I’m the nice girl Tara falls in love with in between saving the world.”

“That makes sense,” Jayla concurred. “After all, Carrigan’s is a fairy-tale castle, and Aunt Hannah is Rapunzel, even though she cut her hair. The forest must be magic.” The twins seemed appeased by this and went back to their father.

“Those two almost make me want kids,” Holly observed, watching them go. “Not quite, but almost.”

In case she tried to go back to the conversation they’d been having, Tara decided they needed another distraction. She stood up, carefully brushing crumbs off her clothes. There weren’t any, because she’d learned from the time she could feed herself that a lady didn’t get food on her, but it was ingrained in her to check.

“I’m going to find Hannah to see if she and Gavi need help getting these people wrangled.” She bent down, intending to drop a kiss on Holly’s cheek, but Holly moved her head so their lips met.

“Come back to me soon?” Holly asked, reaching up and running her hand down Tara’s sleeve, then squeezing her fingers before letting go. It was the same thing she’d done the first night they got here, which was the only thing that reminded Tara that she was acting for the benefit of their friends, no matter how sincere her eyes looked.

Chapter 16

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