Page 18 of I Choose You
The other brother, Luke, turned to his wife. “Jules, do you want me to grab you one too?”
“No.” She didn’t look up from her phone when he spoke.
One of the other guys, I think it was Seb, kicked Reid’s foot and shot him a glance, his eyes moving between Reid and me.
“What?” Reid asked. “Oh… Claire, you want some cider?”
I laughed at his complete lack of subtlety. “Well, yes, actually.” I turned to Wyatt. “Do you mind if I tag along with you?”
“Not at all. Follow me,” Wyatt said. He turned to look back at Reid with a mischievous grin on his face, to which Reidresponded by rolling his eyes.
Wyatt brought me over to the booth selling homemade apple cider, along with apple turnovers, apple muffins, apple bread, and candied apples.
“So, tell me about yourself,” Wyatt said while we waited in the line.
“Me?”
A smirk tugged on his lips. “Yeah, you.”
“Oh, um, I come from a political family in Connecticut. I’m an only child. And I have a degree in history with a concentration in design and art.”
His brow quirked up, like my rattled-off facts weren’t what he was looking for. “So, you got a boyfriend waiting for you back home or what?”
My eyes widened, and I snapped my gaze to him. “Don’t you have a wife and child right over there?” I said, pointing back the way we came.
“Not my wife yet. But that’s not what I was getting at. Just making conversation,” he said.
Silence lingered for a beat before I answered him. “No. No boyfriend back home.”
Wyatt nodded his head but otherwise let the subject drop.
When it was our turn to order, he bought eight hot ciders, one for each of us, including Juliet.
“If she doesn’t want it, tough shit. I’m not getting one for everyone else and not her,” he said as he lifted the lid off one of the cups and blew on it, cooling it down.
We made our way back to the group, making small talk along the way. I smiled to myself when Wyatt handed Maeve the slightly cooler cup of cider. I handed out cups to mountain man Wes and Reid. Wyatt had already passed his cups out toMaeve, Luke, and Seb. I tried to give the last cup to Juliet, but she looked at it with disgust.
“No, thank you.” I think she was trying to smile, but it was coming across as a grimace. “I did say I didn’t want one.”
Luke sighed. “Jules, she’s just trying to be nice. Take the cup.” They were both looking at each other with a hard stare.
“No worries. I’ll just double-fist it,” I said with a laugh.
Reid took the cup and passed it to Wyatt, a full conversation happening between their eyes.
We walked around the center of town, exploring the booths and supporting local businesses. Reid and I had broken off from the group at some point and were wandering on our own.
A display of twinkling lights flashed in time with Christmas songs. “This town is so beautiful. And lit up like this, it feels magical,” I told him.
Reid looked around, seemingly taking it in. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
“Seriously, I would have loved growing up here.” Just as I said that, a group of preteens walked by, girls and boys together, giggling at something they found amusing. I felt like I was in a Hallmark movie.
Reid pulled off at a booth selling glass crafts, immediately going to the snow globe display.
“I didn’t take you for a snow globe lover,” I teased.
“It’s for my mom. One of us gets her a snow globe every year, and this year is my turn,” he said.
