He met her eyes.
“You’re not her. You’ve never been her. You’re chaos and sparks and too much emotion and magic that sets things on fire, and Ichooseyou. Every day. Not because of spells or binding or any of that. Just because you’re you.”
The tears came.
She didn’t try to stop them.
She kissed him instead—soft at first, then deeper, feeling the music box melody wrap around them like a blessing. The lights in the house flickered. The roses seemed to lean closer. And somewhere in the garden, she heard the distinct sound of ceramic hands clapping together.
She pulled back.
“Did the gnomes just applaud?”
Liam looked over her shoulder. All three gnomes had repositioned themselves to face the couple directly, their painted smiles somehow wider than before. The one with the fishing pole appeared to be giving a tiny thumbs-up.
“That’sunsettling.”
“That’s my life now.” But she was laughing, tears still wet on her cheeks, heart full to bursting with something that felt a lot like joy. “Get used to it.”
“Already am.”
They kissed again, and the garden glowed. Not from Cassie this time—from the flowers themselves, petals luminescent in the fading light, magic responding to happiness the way it always responded to her emotions.
Luna appeared on the porch, silhouetted against the warm light spilling from the house.
“If you two start glowing again, I’m leaving. I mean it this time. I’ll go live with Margaret. She has better treats.”
“You love us,” Cassie called back.
“I tolerate you. There’s a difference.” But the cat’s tail was curled in that pleased way it got when she was lying. “Now come inside before you scandalize the gnomes any further.”
Cassie looked at Liam. Liam looked at her. Both of them rumpled and emotional and probably glowing at least a little, standing in an impossible garden while ceramic lawn ornaments watched with unnerving approval.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“We shall.”
They walked back toward the house together, hand in hand, the music box melody still playingsoftly from where Liam had set it on the garden bench.
And Cassie—forty-seven years old, divorced, chaotic, magical,finally visible—let herself glow all the way there.
She was done dimming her light.
12
BONUS SCENE (LIAM’S POV)
The day it started.
Liam had just stepped out of the shower when the pull hit.
He’d been in his own bathroom, inhisown house—the small place he’d rented after the divorce, nothing fancy but his.
One minute he was reaching for his jeans, the next there was this sensation like someone had grabbed his soul by the bollocks andyanked.
Not a physical sensation, exactly. More like a hook behind his sternum, dragging him toward something he couldn’t see or name. The bathroom tiles blurred. The steam swirled. He barely had time to grab his work jeans and haul them on before?—
Then he was somewhere else entirely. Standing in a stranger’s kitchen with wet hair dripping downhis bare chest and a wrench materializing in his hand like the universe had a sick sense of humor.
