“You treat her right,” Wade says.
Cyrus snorts. “I’m trying.”
“That’s good enough for now,” Wade replies.
Heidi leans against Seth, her head resting on his shoulder. “I knew you were one of us,” she says to me. “Give a woman a holiday deadline and a rugged man and romance will happen.”
Seth kisses the top of her head. “It really does keep happening.”
Molly loops an arm around me, her fatigue softened by pure joy, her other hand resting over the place she’s still keeping a secret.
“I’m really glad you came home,” she whispers.
I swallow. “Me too.”
Bradley nudges Cyrus. “Welcome to the family, man.”
Cyrus mutters something that sounds like a threat but is absolutely a thank-you.
Someone hands out mugs of hot chocolate—Bradley, by the look of it—and suddenly the whole room seems warmer. Fuller. Like a moment we’ll remember years from now.
The four couples—six friends, one new love, one secret early pregnancy—settle around the fireplace. The tree lights glow softly. Snow taps the windows.
It feels like a movie ending, except better, because I’m in it.
Cyrus leans close, his voice quiet so only I hear. “You don’t look lost anymore.”
“I’m not,” I say. “Not when I’m here.”
His thumb brushes my knuckles. “Good.”
Across the room, Molly catches my eye and mouths,I told you.
I laugh under my breath.
Cyrus asks, “What?”
“Nothing,” I say, resting my head lightly on his shoulder. “Everything.”
He shifts just enough to kiss the top of my hair.
And even with all the noise—Wade teasing Seth, Heidi recounting a mishap from their camping trip, Angela passing cookies around, Molly glowing beside Bradley—I feel centered. Like something inside me finally clicked.
This isn’t just Molly’s home. Or our parents’ home. Or the town I ran from because I didn’t know how to fit.
It’s mine now. It’s ours.
Cyrus squeezes my hand again, grounding and reassuring all at once.
“Merry Kiss-mas, baby,” he murmurs one more time.
And surrounded by every story that led me here, I know it in my bones.
This is exactly where I’m meant to be.
EPILOGUE
CYRUS
