one minute || h.s

forty-three

Hallie's dad is played by Scott Foley, just FYI. Also...Stand Here With Me is the sequel and @theboldandthebritish and I are very, very excited to put it up! Everyone should be super jealous of her right now though. She's living it up in Hawai'i UGH. Um oh and go check out Jade written by her (co-authored by me) it's a beautiful, wonderful thing.

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Hallie.

The traffic was forgiving on the 5 Freeway, but my emotions were not. The seven and a half hour drive to my parent's—my dad's vineyard home in Napa was spent listening to Norah Jones, while pitifully fluctuating between dangerously dramatic sobs and angered self loathing. How had I let this happen? How had it happened? I couldn't understand why the man I was so grotesquely in love with, could do what he did. 

As I turned onto our mile long pebbled drive, I inhaled the fresh scent of the air. Clear and refreshing and entirely different from Los Angeles's smog. Every bit of the hundreds of acres that we owned was covered by green, green and more green...a stark opposite from the brown and beiges that I was used to living amongst. The dogs could sense that we were at home number two because they began to rowdily hop around and I just hoped to the gods that the red leather stayed untarnished. Our ranch style home came into view when I turned around the bend and I let out a relieved breath. Once the car was parked, the dogs hopped out one by one and then the front door opened. His six foot one frame came sauntering out with his hands on his hips before I thrusted the two massive dog beds into his arms. "Hi to you too..."

"Hi, sorry, I just don't want them to get dirty." He carried them into the house while I followed with my luggage. When both of our hands were empty, I hugged him. "Hi." When we let go he crossed his arms, looking down at me with one of those looks, as if to say spit it out, but instead he treaded lightly.

"Are we going to talk about?" I quickly shook my head.

"No." I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "I can't right now." His facial expression read absolutely concerned dad but he accepted my decline. I knew I'd get pushed later, but I appreciated his holding back for now. "How are you?"

"I'm great."

"You're lying." I said, calling him out, unlike he had with me.

"Maybe."

"I'm not spending any time with her, dad. Not for the holiday. Not at all."

"I know. I'm not asking you to. You can do whatever you feel comfortable with. I just don't want you choosing sides in this."

"I can't not choose a side. She cheated and he knocked her up. You're my dad so I'm going to stand by you. " He smiled at me, throwing an arm around my shoulder while changing the subject.

"How long do I have you for?" We walked back out to the porch and the dry, warm air felt nice.

"Indefinitely."

"You know I can't let that one slide, Hallie. What's going on?"

"I just...I'm in between places right now, the movie is going well, it's in the pre-production stage so I'm really not going to be needed until after the holidays and I figured I'd just stay home for a bit."

"What happened with Harry?"

"He made a mistake but I just...I can't forgive him. I can't let him do what I've seen too many people do..."

"You know I don't live under a rock, yes?" I groaned. "All it took was a Google search of your name."

"I really don't wanna talk about it, dad." He nodded as we sat down on the porch swing.