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Sam, his brown eyes sparkling under the white lights, held out his hand. “May I have this dance, Mancini?”

“I thought you didn’t dance, Holt.” My heart pounded wildly as my fingers, humming with electricity, grazed his.

He smiled and led me out to the empty floor before placing his warm hand on my lower back, his fingers twirling around the ribbon of my corset. “Just had to wait for the right partner.”

As he gently spun me around, I laid my head against his chest, smiling as I felt the same racing heartbeat to that of my own. More couples joined us, but their movements were mere blurs in myriad colors. Sam was the only one who appeared clearly to me.

He always had.

“Gianna?” he murmured as the song finished.

I lifted my head, feeling a bit dizzy. “Hmm?”

He took off his mask and then slowly lifted mine over my head before he brushed his thumb over my cheek. “Would you come with me somewhere?”

The snow must’ve started minutes after my family arrived at the dance because by the time Sam and I arrived at his family’s farm, the rows upon rows of Christmas trees lining their property were already covered with beautiful, sparkly white powder.

He opened the first greenhouse door for me, and I gasped.

The benches of red and white poinsettias now glowed magically under the twinkle lights zigzagging back and forth under the arched roof. But it was the sparkling snow streaming down the clear film walls that left me completely speechless.

I was inside my very own snow globe.

And it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Sam cleared his throat, and I turned around.

In his hands was a stunning wooden globe with hand-painted countries on it.

“Sam, it’s…” My fingers trailed over the cool, delicate surface. “It’s incredible.”

“This was what I was working on in Shop for months. Your mom painted the countries for me, but…” He smiled and spun the globe around, revealing tiny red dots over Europe, South America, and Africa. “I added the extra details.”

The same dots I had on my maps in my room.

And yet, not the same.

One of them looked much bigger than the others.

I leaned in closer to find not a dot, but a heart painted just shy of Northern Virginia. “Is that—”

“Mullings Creek?” He nodded. “Yeah.”

Tears fell down my cheeks.

“You deserve the world, Gianna.” Sam’s voice had turned thick with emotion. “You should go everywhere your heart leads you. But I want you to remember that no matter where you go, I will always be right here…” He pointed to the heart over our town. “Waiting for you.”

I rushed forward just as he set the globe down on the closest bench and wrapped my arms tightly around him. “Thank you, Sam,” I whispered. “It’s perfect.”

And it truly was.

Because the boy who had always been my anchor, my home, had just given me the world, and more importantly, a promise that meant more to me than any gift I’d receive this year or in the years to come.

It didn’t matter where I went or how far I’d go or how long I’d be away.

I’d always come home to him.

And he would always be home to me.