"Your jaw's doing that thing where it gets all tight." Hannah crossed the room and took Riley's hands. "Breathe. You've got this."
"What if I don't?"
"Then we'll figure it out. But you won't know unless you try." Hannah squeezed her hands. "Come on. Your mom's waiting."
Riley nodded, not trusting her voice.
Her mom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, car keys in hand, wearing the same soft smile she'd worn when Riley had left for her first day of kindergarten.
"Mom?"
Carol pulled her into a hug that smelled like her perfume and the gingerbread cookies she'd been baking all afternoon. The familiar scent made Riley's eyes sting.
"I'm your designated driver."
"What?"
"Honey, I've been watching you mope since yesterday. Of course I knew." Carol pulled back, framing Riley's face with her hands. Her palms were warm, slightly rough from years of gardening. "Go get your man."
Riley's throat tightened. "What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"
"Then you make him talk to you." Carol's smile was fierce. "You love him. He loves you. Everything else is just noise."
"How do you know he loves me?"
"Because I've seen the way he looks at you since you were sixteen years old. That boy has never stopped loving you, Riley. Not for a second. Now, let me take you to go get your man."
Riley nodded, not trusting her voice.
They piled into Carol's SUV—Riley, Hannah, Emily, and Jenna, all slightly buzzed on champagne and running on adrenaline and the unshakeable belief that this was going to work.
It had to work.
The drive to Ryan's property felt both endless and too short. Riley's heart pounded harder with every mile, her hands twisting in her lap. The champagne buzz had faded, leaving only nerves and determination.
Through the windshield, she watched the familiar roads pass by—the same streets she'd driven as a teenager, the same turns she knew by heart. Pine Valley at night in winter was quiet and beautiful, Christmas lights still twinkling in windows, snow dusting the sidewalks.
"What am I going to say?" she asked, her voice barely audible.
"The truth," Hannah said from the back seat. "That you quit your job. That you're moving home. That you love him."
"He won't want to hear it."
"He will," Emily said firmly. "Trust us."
Carol pulled up to the edge of the clearing where the bonfire blazed. Through the trees, Riley could see flames leaping into the dark sky, sparks spiraling upward. She could hear the low rumble of male voices, laughter, the crack of burning wood.
Her stomach dropped.
The cold hit her the moment she opened the car door—sharp and biting, smelling like woodsmoke and pine. Riley's breath fogged in front of her face. Her boots crunched in the snow as she stepped out, and she had to resist the urge to climb right back in.
"I can't do this."
"Yes, you can." Jenna appeared at her elbow, linking their arms. "We'll be right behind you."
"Literally right behind you," Hannah added from her other side. "Like, uncomfortably close. So you can't run."
Despite everything, Riley's lips twitched.
