"Monday. Early Monday morning."
"Will you write to me? From Paris?"
"Of course. I'll send you postcards of all the bakeries I visit."
"And you'll come back?"
"I promise. Six months. Then I'll be back to open my restaurant."
"Coach Jake says you're going to be the best chef in Vermont."
Lucy glanced at Jake, who was suddenly very interested in his coffee cup. "He said that?"
"He says it all the time. He's always talking about how proud he is of you."
After Emma skated away, Lucy turned to Jake. "You talk about me to the kids?"
"Sometimes. When it's relevant."
"What else do you say?"
"That you're brave. That you're choosing to grow even though it's scary. That sometimes the right choice is the hard one." Jake met her eyes. "That I'm lucky to know you."
Lucy kissed him right there in the rink, with parents and kids and coaches all around.
"I'm the lucky one," she whispered.
Lucy's last weekend in Timber Falls was a whirlwind of final preparations and goodbyes.
Saturday, she spent the entire day at the bakery with Sarah, going through everything one final time. Every recipe, every supplier, every quirk of the equipment.
"Lucy," Sarah finally said around 4 PM. "You've taught me everything. Three times. I promise I won't let you down."
"I know. I just—"
"You're stalling because leaving means this is really happening."
Lucy laughed, caught. "Yeah. That."
"It's okay to be scared. It's okay to grieve this even though you're excited for what comes next." Sarah pulled Lucy into a hug. "Thank you. For trusting me with this. I'm going to honor what you and your grandmother built."
Lucy cried. Again. She'd cried more in the past month than she had in the past five years.
Saturday night, Uncle Walter took Lucy to dinner—just the two of them.
"I'm proud of you, Lulu," he said over dessert. "Your grandmother would be too."
"I hope so."
"I know so. She always wanted you to have choices. To build your own life. That's what you're doing."
"I'm terrified."
"Good. If you weren't terrified, it wouldn't be worth doing."
Sunday was for Jake.
They spent the entire day together, doing nothing special. Breakfast in bed. A walk through town in the snow. Lunch at Mac's Tavern. An afternoon watching old westerns on Jake's couch.
