She clicked her tongue thoughtfully. Flavors danced through her mind—orange and caramel, coffee and cherry—but none of them felt quite right.
“I need to get back in the kitchen before I open,” she said, eyes lighting up. “Start experimenting.”
“While you do that, I’m going back to the flower shop,” Zoe said, gathering her things. “Good luck with the chocolate. And the man.”
“Thanks, girl. And thanks for the flowers.”
That afternoon, Cassidy pulled out her phone and opened a new text.
Hey, want to come over for dinner tonight?
She hit send before she could overthink it.
No, she wasn’t going to confess her love. Not yet.
But the vow? It was officially off the table.
She was done hiding from her feelings. Done forcing herself to slow down. Done being afraid.
She was ready to fall. Fast and free. For real this time.
And if Liam was the one catching her… well, maybe she’d finally landed in the right place.
THIRTY-FOUR
LIAM
Sunday, December 14th
Liam hadn’t expected to hear from Cassidy that day—honestly, he hadn’t thought he’d hear from her much at all that week. She would be deep in prep for her Christmas light-up event on Friday.
So when her name lit up his phone with a new message as he was walking back inside his house from Sunday lunch with his family, he stopped mid-step. Shifting to balance his mom’s leftovers against his hip, he freed his thumb to read it.
Hey, want to come over for dinner tonight?
She didn’t say what she was making, but he figured she had it covered. Still, he wasn’t going to show up empty-handed.
He texted back:
Just tell me when. Want me to bring anything?
She replied:
Don’t worry about it. I’ve got everything taken care of.
That winking emoji should not have made his stomach do what it did. Liam gave himself a stern talking-to, reminding himself that tonight wasn’t about crossing any lines. He wasn’t going to tempt her with anything more than good conversation—maybe a goodnight kiss if the mood was right. He respected her vow, even if it was getting harder and harder to ignore the way she looked at him sometimes.
He still couldn’t believe she’d stayed with Jean-Paul as long as she had… and yet, in a way, he could. That’s how people ended up in toxic relationships, wasn’t it? They didn’t realize how far they’d drifted until they could no longer see the shoreline.
Guys like Jean-Paul were master gaslighters. They made you second-guess everything—what you heard, what you felt—until you were the one apologizing for their behavior. Liam had never even met the man, but he could see it in Cassidy. In the way she apologized for being “too much,” as if her brightness was something to tone down. But she wasn’t too much. She was perfect.
He decided to bring a bottle of wine—maybe a little cliché, but Cassidy would appreciate it.
The sun set early in December in Maple Falls. It wasn’t even six o’clock, and stores had already switched on their Christmas lights. Families were arriving, bundled in scarves and hats, heading toward the Santa House or snapping photos in front of the town’s giant Christmas tree.
Liam imagined standing there with Cassidy, his arms wrapped around her waist as someone took their picture—not for social media, not for the town’s Christmas Countdown page—just for them. She wasn’t ready for that, but maybe next year. Yeah, next year Liam could see that.
Maybe they’d even send out holiday cards.
