“Your mom is staying here,” a voice said from the doorway.
We all turned.
Caroline stood there, Jasper beside her, both of them looking emotional.
“Mom?” Leigh’s voice was small, confused.
“I was going to tell you this week,” Caroline said, stepping into the room. “Jasper and I... we’re trying again. Really trying. And I’m staying in Willowbrook.”
Leigh stared at her. “You’re... what?”
“I’m staying. I’m moving here permanently.” Caroline came over, took Leigh’s free hand. “Baby, I’ve spent twenty-seven years running from this place, from Jasper, from the what-ifs. I’m not running anymore. I’m choosing love. I’m choosing a second chance.”
“But what about Blue Point Bay? What about your job?”
“I can find a new job. I can start over.” She smiled through tears. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You can start over too. You can build a new life. The question is whether you want to.”
“I...” Leigh looked at me, then at the brothers, then back at her mom. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t decide tonight,” Trace said gently. “Just... think about it. Think about what you want. Not what’s practical or what makes sense. What do you actually want?”
“I want him,” Leigh whispered, looking at me. “I want this. All of this.”
“Then fight for it,” Blake said fiercely. “Both of you. Stop making excuses and fight for each other.”
“You still have time,” Delaney added. “Use it to figure this out. To really talk about what you both want. What you’re both willing to do. Don’t just accept that it has to end.”
I looked at Leigh, and she looked at me, and in her eyes I saw everything I felt. Love. Fear. Hope. Possibility.
Maybe they were right.
Maybe we hadn’t actually tried to find a solution because we were both too scared to ask for what we wanted.
Maybe there was a way.
“Okay,” I said softly. “Let’s really talk about this. All of it. What we want. What we’re willing to do. What a future could look like if we actually tried.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Xander clapped me on the shoulder. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
“Group hug!” Billie announced, and suddenly we were surrounded by family. By people who loved us and wanted us to be happy and believed we could figure this out.
And for the first time since I’d met Leigh in that bar two months ago, I let myself believe it too.
Maybe we could have this.
Maybe love really was enough.
Maybe we’d find a way to make it work.
We just had to figure out our how.
Chapter 24
LEIGH
The morning after we told the brothers, I woke up to my phone buzzing with notifications.
