Page 147 of All I Want For Christmas

His heart started pounding harder just at the sound of her voice. But hearing that she needed him for something made it start racing. "Anything, anytime."

"I need you to…come rescue me."

"I'm on my way." He was so relieved that she’d realized she wanted him at this party.

"Great.”

He could hear the smile in her voice and loved the fact that she’d clearly known he’d agree.

“So, I'm not exactly sure where I am,” she told him. “I think I'm about a mile away from your cabin. I might have made a wrong turn though. But I steered into a big bunch of grass, and I can’t get out.”

He stopped, thought about her words, frowned, then said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

She laughed lightly. "I decided I needed to make this big grand gesture to show you that I'm…” She trailed off, then said. “In love with you. And I decided it would be great if I came down to the bayou and brought an airboat to your cabin to declare my feelings."

His brain had stopped atin love with you. His thoughts were hung up on those words and playing them over and over again, enjoying them immensely.

“Theo?”

He forced his mind to move on to the rest of what she'd said.

"You're in Autre?"

"Yeah. Well kind of. I'm outside of Autre, obviously."

She was in an airboat. Grounded in some grass somewhere on the bayou.

Trying to get to him.

He closed his eyes. "Well…fuck."

She was quiet for a second. Then she said, “Or…maybe this was a mistake.”

His eyes snapped open and he sat up. “No. No, that’s not what I meant. I love that you’re there.”

“You do?” She sounded relieved. “So you can come get me?”

"You don't know how to drive an airboat, Savannah."

His thoughts and emotions were finally catching up now. And he realized this really was a grand gesture. A pretty great one. Also, a funny one.

Or, it would be, if he was in Autre and could go and immediately get her.

The love of his life, his City Girl, had taken an airboat out on his bayou, to go to his cabin, to tell him she loved him.

Yeah, that was pretty great.

It was too bad he was about two and a half hours away from her.

"Well, it's not totally true. I knowhow. I just haven't done it. But I understand the principle. And I figured I've seen it done enough that it couldn't be that hard."

"Who got you onto a boat?"

"Owen."

Of course. If Theo had let himself think for two more seconds, he would've guessed it was Owen. Owen loved a big grand gesture, and he hadn't been up at Ellie's to hear Theo’s plan to go to Alexandria.

He sighed. "Savannah," he said calmly.

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