“Very permanent,” he agrees softly.
Oh man…I still love him so much it feels overwhelming sometimes.
That evening, Briar Cove gathers near the frozen lake for the annual winter bonfire festival.
The whole town glows beneath string lights and snowfall.
Children skate on the rink while music drifts across the ice. Couples huddle beneath blankets near fire pits. Someone starts a snowball fight near the docks where Toby escalates it into an international incident within minutes.
Jamie quietly helps volunteers stack folding chairs after the fundraiser dinner while pretending not to notice half the town mothers who are trying to set him up with daughters and nieces.
Leader behavior.
Liam flirts shamelessly with Brooke while she films bonfire footage for the town tourism board.
Caleb still hasn’t asked out Brooke, the bookstore owner.
Coward.
Mrs. Bellamy snuggles with her hubby under a mountain of wool blankets.
And beside me, Colby sits near the fire with Jillie asleep against his shoulder wrapped in one of his oversized Blizzards hoodies.
The sight still wrecks me. Not dramatically anymore, just deeply. Steadily.
It’s like love has settled permanently into the foundation of my life.
I look at the diamond on my left finger as I curl deeper beneath Colby’s jacket while snow drifts softly across the frozen lake. A promise of what is to come – what has already come.
His arm tightens automatically around my shoulders as he tells me one more time how much he loves me.
Comfort. Home. Peace.
A year ago, all of this would’ve terrified me; now it feels inevitable somehow.
Colby stares out across the lake quietly while the bonfire crackles gold against the snow.
“What?” I ask softly.
He glances at me. And there it is again. That look. The one that still feels like being chosen.
“I used to think success looked different,” he admits quietly.
He watches teammates laughing near the fire. Jillie sleeping safely against him. The glowing lights across Briar Cove. “Headlines,” he says softly. “Contracts. Fame. Bigger cities.”
I rest my head against his shoulder. “And now?”
His gaze settles on us. On this. “I think it looks like small hockey skates by the front door,” he says quietly. “And bakery mornings. And you yelling at me for eating frosting directly from mixing bowls.”
“I was protecting public health.”
“Heroic.”
I laugh softly. Snow falls harder around us while the bonfire glows warm against the dark winter sky.
Jillie shifts sleepily against Colby’s chest but never fully wakes. Completely safe. Completely loved.
And watching them together beneath the lights of Briar Cove, I finally understand something I spent years afraid to believe.
