"I can't believe we pulled it off," Savvy says, kicking her feet up onto a crate of fairy lights that still need to be sorted and stored.
"I can," I say, leaning my head against Mason's shoulder. "I need about a year of sleep to recover."
Henry, looking more relaxed than I've ever seen him despite the early hour, grins. "Well, I have news that might help. I got the final donation numbers this morning."
"The community support was incredible," he begins, "but what put us over the top was a final, very large donation that was made quietly this morning. It was from my father. He called me himself. Said it was a 'gesture of goodwill.'"
"Are you serious?" Savvy asks, her voice sharp with disbelief. "After everything he's done … can we really trust him?"
"Trust him?" Henry replies without hesitation. "Absolutely not. But he taught me a long time ago to keep your friends close and your enemies closer." He pauses, his expression softening, becoming more thoughtful. "That said … I also think he's lonely. I think for the first time, he wants to belong to something bigger than himself. This is our chance to show him that doing good is more rewarding than winning alone."
Savvy nods slowly, processing this. "Speaking of gestures, Mrs. Russell even brought him a rhubarb pie."
I laugh, picturing the scene. "A whole pie? She must be serious."
"She brought it to the barn for him this morning," Henry clarified. "Gave it to me to pass along. Said any man who can admit he's wrong, deserves a second slice of dessert."
It's the perfect, messy, and hopeful resolution. A future that isn't erased but rewritten.
Later, after Savvy and Henry leave, Mason and I are standing by the massive barn doors, watching the afternoon light paint the gravel drive gold.
"You know," he says, turning to me, "all this talk about building a future here … I called my landlord in Manhattan this morning. I'm letting the apartment go."
I stop, my heart giving a hard thump against my ribs. "Are you serious? Mason, that's huge."
He nods, his gaze steady and full of a promise that steals my breath. "This is my home now. With you."
"Think of it!" I say, my mind exploding with possibilities. "A whole house to decorate! We can finally get some color into your life. I'm thinking a deep emerald-green velvet couch."
He feigns a look of horror. "Velvet? I was envisioning a more minimalist aesthetic. Clean lines, a monochromatic color palette…"
"Minimalism is a cry for help, Mason."
His phone rings, the screen flashing a name that makes him groan playfully. He answers, putting the call on speaker. "Gloria, good afternoon."
"Mason, dear, I'm calling with an ultimatum," my mother's voice rings out. "I'm officially taking back my offer of three goats and the dumpling recipe if you don't get my daughter to move out of her childhood bedroom sometime this decade. I refuse to spend another year looking at that deeply unsettling homage to the Backstreet Boys."
She hangs up before I can protest.
Mason turns to me, a slow, wicked grin spreading across his face. "Wait, you have a shrine to a boy band?"
"It's not a shrine!" I say, my face flaming.
He quiets me with a gentle finger to my lips, his own smile fading as he looks at me, his gaze full of everything he feels.
"Forget the room," he whispers, pulling me into an embrace so complete it feels like the rest of the world has disappeared. He rests his cheek against my hair, and I can feel the steady beat of his heart against mine.
"I gave up my apartment," he says softly into my ear, "but I already found my home. It's wherever you are."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MADDY
Six months later, I'm standing in the bridal suite of the Ashford Estate, watching Ivy work her magic on what can best be described as a bridesmaid crisis of epic proportions.
"Breathe, Jennifer," Ivy says, her voice calm, steady, like someone who's talked more than one wedding party off the ledge. "The dress isn't ruined. It's merely, temporarily enhanced by coffee."
The bride's sister, who thought Irish coffee was an appropriate breakfast choice, stands dripping with what used to be her bridesmaid dress and is now an abstract art piece in beige and brown.
