I think about Chase in that kitchen this morning, flour everywhere, his hands warm on my face, his voice low and serious when he said he’d do anything for me.
If you want me to move home with you, I will.
The idea should make me happy. It does. But it also scares the hell out of me. Because… do I even want to go back? Back to my “lame job” where my boss calls me kiddo. Back to a town where the biggest excitement is a new Starbucks and everyone knows your business before you do. Back to that apartment with the lock that never worked. Back to a life that suddenly feels like a pair of shoes one size too small—technically wearable, but why would you do that to yourself?
I stare out at the mountain ridge, the compound tucked into it like a secret. Gavin’s here. My brother. My blood. The person I thought I’d lost to distance and duty, and yet he’s right here—running this place, building this life.
And Chase… Chase is here too. And my heart is—annoyingly, inconveniently—here.
I swallow hard. “Chase said something this morning.”
Kayley’s brows lift. “Oh?”
Harper’s smile turns knowing. “Ohhh.”
I glare at both of them. “Don’t ‘oh’ me. I’m fragile.”
Kayley grins. “We’re listening.”
I hesitate, then take a breath. “He said… after this, if I want to go home, he’d move with me.”
Harper’s eyes widen. “Clearly he’s obsessed. I love that for you.”
Kayley’s expression softens in that way that feels like a hug. “How did that make you feel?”
“Like I couldn’t breathe,” I admit. “In a good way. And a scary way.”
I chew on my bottom lip. “But I don’t know if I want to go back. And then I feel guilty because… that’s my life. I built it. I worked for it. And I’m supposed to want it.”
Harper smiles. “Supposed to is a lie people tell themselves when they’re afraid to want something better.”
I blink at her.
Kayley nods. “You’re allowed to change your mind.”
“Am I?” I ask quietly. “Because it feels like if I choose this—Timber Creek, Haven 7, Chase—I’m choosing a whole different version of me. A version that… doesn’t make sense on paper.”
Harper laughs. “Love never makes sense on paper. If it did, romance novels would be spreadsheets.”
I snort despite myself.
Kayley’s voice turns gentle. “You don’t have to decide today. You’re still in the middle of the storm.”
“But what if I want to stay?” I whisper. “What if I want the life I’m starting to imagine here?”
Harper’s gaze holds mine, steady and kind. “Then you stay.”
Kayley squeezes my hand again. “And if you want to try it, you try it. You don’t have to know the ending to choose the next step.”
I look down at the babies again, at the quiet warmth of this place, at the women beside me who feel like something I didn’t know I needed.
Found family. A phrase that always sounded cheesy—until you’re standing inside it.
My throat tightens. “I love him.” The confession falls out of me like it’s been waiting behind my teeth.
Harper’s eyes brighten. “Yep. There it is.”
Kayley’s smile turns soft. “I can tell.”