"I missed it too. I'm glad you're coming on this journey with me."
That evening, Lucy had dinner with Jake at Giuseppe's. He'd insisted, saying they needed to "maintain their presence" in the community restaurant scene.
Giuseppe, of course, made a huge deal about them being there together.
"Amore! True love! I knew you would come back to each other!" He refused to let them order, just brought course after course of his best dishes.
"This is too much," Lucy protested.
"Nonsense! You are opening a restaurant! You must study the competition!"
"Giuseppe, you're not my competition. You're Italian. I'm French-American fusion."
"All restaurants are competition! But I am not worried. There is room for both of us in Timber Falls." He leaned in conspiratorially. "Between you and me—I am tired. Thirty years running this place. Maybe I retire soon. But not yet. First, I see your restaurant succeed."
After Giuseppe left, Jake reached across the table and took Lucy's hand.
"You okay? You've been quiet."
"Just thinking. About how much has changed in the past year. Last December, I was running the bakery, feeling trapped, dreaming about Paris. And now—"
"Now you're opening your own restaurant, building the life you actually want."
"With you. Don't forget the with you part."
"How could I forget? You tell me every day."
"Because I need you to know. That you're not an afterthought. You're a central part of why I came back."
"Lucy, I know. I believe you. You can stop proving it."
"I don't think I can. Not yet. Not until you look at me without that tiny bit of fear in your eyes."
Jake was quiet. "Is it that obvious?"
"Only to me. Because I know you. Jake, I understand. I hurt you. I left. That doesn't just go away because I came back and said sorry."
"I'm working on it. The fear. Every day you're here, every day you show up and choose this life—it gets a little easier to believe you're staying."
"I am staying. I promise you, Jake Morrison. I am staying."
They finished dinner, and Giuseppe sent them home with enough leftovers for a week ("For when you are too busy cooking for restaurant to cook for yourselves!").
Walking back to Jake's apartment through the December snow, Lucy felt something shift. They were going to make it. She and Jake were really going to make it.
It wouldn't be perfect. There would be hard days, moments of doubt, old fears resurfacing. But they were committed. To each other, to this relationship, to building something real.
"What are you smiling about?" Jake asked.
"Us. How far we've come. How we're actually doing this."
"Did you doubt we would?"
"A little. When I first came back, I was so scared you wouldn't give me a second chance. That I'd burned that bridge."
"I was scared too. Scared of getting hurt again."
"Are you still scared?"
