Page 145 of All I Want For Christmas

She sighed. "Just that this will be what it will be like, Theo. My job will have me traveling. We’ll barely see each other. I mean, I’ll come to Autre. Sometimes. Like I always have. But just here and there.”

"Yeah. But youaregoing to quit, right? You don't want to keep working for Steve."

Dammit, fucking relax. You arenotgoing to insist she quit her job, jackass. That is definitely pushing too hard.

She frowned. "Right. But that will take some time. If I do the travel agent thing, I need to prepare. I need to get set up."

He nodded. Of course. That made sense. Dammit.

"Okay, well… I guess we'll talk,” he said, not knowing what else to say whenI’m in love with you, please tell me we can make that workwas all that was on his mind and tongue.

"Yeah.” She nodded and gave him a forced smile. “I'll…text you…and stuff."

Great. She'd text him and stuff.

He kissed her and then got in the car. And waved goodbye to the woman he was pretty sure was the only woman he’d ever want again.

Which was how Theo ended up sitting in Ellie's bar on December thirty-first at noon, wishing he was anywhere else.

No, that wasn't true.

He wanted to be somewhere elsewith Savannah.

He also wanted to beaway fromall the people who knew him very well, had realized that he'd fallen madly in love with Savannah, and were giving him all kinds of opinions about that.

Especially opinions about him being in Autre, and her being somewhere else.

“You have tons of vacation time. You never take time off. Plus this is a slow time of year,” Zander said. For the second time.

Theo’s co-worker, Bailey, nodded. “We didn’t even miss you while you were gone.”

“Thanks, Bailey,” Theo said dryly.

She just grinned at him.

“Savannah is never going tobegyou to stay with her. Or go somewhere with her,” Becca said.

She was the only one actually frowning at him. Everyone else seemed confused and a little exasperated with him—no one seemed to be on his side, he noted—but Becca was the one who seemed actually annoyed.

“She prides herself on being independent and doing things by herself andnotneeding people,” Becca said.

His chest felt tight. He knew that. But he didn’t want to tie her down, make her feel like shehadto include him in her plans. “Becca, Iknowthat. But I don’t want her to feel…stuck with me. I want her to know she can come and go, that I’ll be here when she’s ready, but that she can also leave me when she needs to or wants to. And then come back to me. She’s always felt like she was disappointing her family with the things she wants. I don’t want to be someone else she has to worry about.”

Becca’s frown deepened, but she didn’t argue with that.

Because he was doing a good job, dammit. He was right not to pressure her.

Theo scrubbed a spot on his chest that was aching. So why did he feel so shitty?

Zander leaned in. "Okay, so you're trying to be cool and not pressure her. Let her have her space, do her thing. But you did make it clear that you want her here, right?"

"I told her she was welcome here anytime and that she has an open reservation at my place."

Zander gave him a funny look. Theo scowled back at him.

Dammit, that moment had been sweet. When he'd given her the ornament, he'd seen the emotion in her face. It had been good. It was just hard to explain to a bunch of people sitting around a bar table.

"She knows how I feel," Theo insisted.

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