Page 88 of All I Want For Christmas

Savannah was so quiet for so long, he had to look over.

“Oh my God, Theo, I didn’t know about any of that.” Her hand tightened on his. “I’m so sorry.”

He cleared his throat again. “Thanks. It was a long time ago, but it’s still hard sometimes. He’s a lot of the reason I don’t want to leave Autre. Every memory I have of him is here. This is where my family was whole and happy. Autre is woven into things like my love for the bayou, for football, for Christmas, for stargazing…all the things that make me thinkhome.I feel like none of that would feel right anywhere else. This place is so much a part of how I became who I am. And I’m—” He had to swallow as the words rushed up. “I’m hurt that my mom left so easily.”

He'd shared all of that with Kelsey too. He knew now that his love for Autre and her dislike for the little town would have always come between them and it was good she’d left before they’d done something more serious like get married, but at the time her distaste for his hometown had just hurt.

Savannah squeezed his hand again.

He coughed lightly, fighting down the lump of emotion. “But my friends here are like family. The Landrys were always like my family. This place just feels…right to me.”

Now he couldn’t look at her. She obviously felt differently about where she’d grown up. And that was fine. They didn’t have to agree on this.

But it bothered him that they didn’t. More than it should.

“Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Have you ever wanted to?”

“No.” He looked over but looked away quickly. “Never been on an airplane.”

“Oh.” Her voice was quiet.

And yep, he heard the disappointment.

“What do you love so much about the bayou?” she asked.

He took a moment to answer. “It’s not just the bayou itself,” he said. “I do love it. It’s got its own unique beauty and all. But it’s just that this is home. I want to protect it because it’s where I’m from and those of us who were put here should take care of this corner of the world. Just like those who were set down in the desert, or in the mountains, or along the lakes, or whatever, should take care of those. That just makes sense to me.” He looked over at her. “If the Universe had plopped me down and raised me up in the middle of Ohio with the Landrys, I’d love it just as much and be working to protect it.”

“So it’s about family and your roots and history here more than the actual place,” Savannah said.

“Yeah. Home is where the heart is,” he said. He looked at her again. “Right?”

She was staring out the windshield. She didn’t answer.

“Where’s your heart, Savannah?”

She glanced at him. “Maybe that’s the thing,” she said slowly with a small frown.

Theo felt his chest squeeze for some reason. “What?”

“Maybe that’s what I’m actually looking for. My heart.”

Well… damn. What was he supposed to say to that?

This woman was trouble.

She wasn’t what he’d expected. She wasn’t what he’d thought she’d be.

He’d put her in one of the little boxes where he could keep her neatly labeled and away from the other things he didn’t want her messing with, but she kept poking holes in that box.

In fact, she’d just ripped a big chunk out of one of the sides.

They didn’t talk the rest of the way back to the cabins. Theo pulled the truck in next to his and finally let go of her hand. He killed the engine. Then he turned to her and held out the keys.

She frowned. “What?”

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