"Now I know that's not true. You're not convenient. You're—" Lucy's voice broke. "You're the best thing that's happened to me in five years and I'm terrified I'm going to mess it up."
Jake was quiet for a long moment. Then: "Derek called this morning. Nashville wants me to reconsider. Someone got injured and they have a spot open. They need an answer by tomorrow."
Lucy felt her stomach drop. "Are you going to take it?"
"I don't know. I turned it down because I wanted to stay here. To build a life in Timber Falls. To be with you." Jake looked at her. "But if you're leaving for culinary school in a few months, if you're not sure about us, if you think we moved too fast—maybe staying here was a mistake."
"Jake, no—"
"I'm not saying this to hurt you. I'm saying this because I need to know if I made the right choice. If we made the right choices." He ran his hand through his hair. "I chose you, Lucy. I chose this. But I need to know if you're choosing it too."
Lucy felt like she couldn't breathe. This was it. The moment where she either admitted what she wanted or pushed it all away.
"I don't know," she whispered. "I want to choose this. I want to choose you. But Shayna called today and gave me an out—I can back out of the bakery sale. I have until Wednesday to decide. And I don't know what to do. I don't know if I'm brave enough to sell the bakery and leave Timber Falls and risk everything. But I also don't know if I can stay and keep everything the same and watch you leave for Nashville wondering what might have been."
"So we're both stuck," Jake said quietly.
"Yeah."
They sat in silence for a moment—two people who'd been so certain a week ago and were now drowning in doubt.
"I can't tell you what to do about the bakery," Jake finally said. "That's your choice. But Lucy—I need you to be honest with me. Do you want this? Us? Not because it's convenient or comfortable or because you're scared of being alone. But because you actually want it."
Lucy looked at him—really looked. At the exhaustion in his eyes, the careful way he was holding himself, the vulnerability of asking her to choose him.
"I want it," she said. "I want you. But I'm so scared of messing it up. Of choosing wrong. Of destroying everything—"
"You can't destroy everything by choosing what you want. You can only destroy things by being too scared to try."
"What if I try and it doesn't work? What if I sell the bakery and we stay together and then you resent me for keeping you from Nashville? Or I resent you for not encouraging me to go to culinary school? What if—"
"Lucy. Stop." Jake moved closer, closing some of the distance between them. "We could spend forever imagining worst-case scenarios. Or we could just be brave. Together."
"I don't know how to be brave."
"Yes you do. You've been brave your entire life. You took over your grandmother's bakery at twenty-two when you didn't know what you were doing. You've kept it running for five years. You've made decisions every single day about what to bake, how to run the business, how to honor your grandmother while making it your own. That's brave."
"That's just surviving."
"It's both. And now you're being brave again—you're choosing to grow instead of just survive. You're choosing possibility over safety." Jake took her hand. "I'm choosing the same thing. I turned down Nashville because I want to build a life here. I want to coach. I want to be present instead of always chasing the next thing. And I want to see where this goes with you—not becauseyou're convenient, but because you make me want to show up to my own life."
Lucy felt tears slide down her cheeks. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then it doesn't work. But at least we'll have tried."
They sat there, holding hands, both scared but trying to be brave.
"I need to decide about the bakery by Wednesday," Lucy said. "Shayna needs an answer."
"What do you want to do?"
"I want to sell it. I think. I want to travel and go to culinary school and figure out who I am beyond this building. But I'm terrified of what happens after. Of coming back to Timber Falls and finding that everyone still hates me. That you've moved on."
"I'm not moving to Nashville," Jake said firmly. "Even if you leave for culinary school. Even if we have to do long distance for a while. I'm staying here. Building my life. And when you come back, I'll be here."
"You can't promise that. What if—"
"Lucy. I'm choosing you. Not just today, not just this week. I'm choosing you. The question is—are you choosing me?"
