“And I’m going to stay,” she replied quietly. “I’m going to stay, and I’m going to love you, and I’m going to try. You taught me how much that matters.”

Those words burned in Jacob like a forest fire, but they left the opposite of destruction in their wake. Because Eve’s love didn’t hurt. If his current feelings were anything to go by, it healed.

“Just to be clear,” he said gruffly, after taking a moment to collect himself, “by accepting these flowers, you have formally agreed to coupledom and commitment, et cetera—”

“Oh, is that what the flowers mean?” she laughed.

“Absolutely.” He hesitated, then pushed through, because she loved him. “Do you have any complaints?”

“Nope.”

Jacob grinned.

Then Eve dropped the daisies, grabbed his arse, and kissed him so hard she almost knocked his glasses off. Tessa turned up the music to obnoxious heights. A few more cars beeped, possibly in outrage, but Jacob liked to interpret the noise as support. Either way, he wasn’t about to stop kissing this woman for anything. He wrapped an arm around the softness of her waist, hauled her closer, and sank into the familiar sweetness of her lips.

He was still grinning when they came up for air.

Epilogue

One Year Later

I can’t believe you got Mother in a hairnet.”

Eve raised a hand to shield her eyes from the late-afternoon sun, squinting in Joy’s direction. “Hardly.” The net sat on top of Joy’s immaculate bob at a jaunty angle, more like a beret than a food safety aid.

“You’d better do something about that,” Danika said dryly, “before Jacob spots her and has stern words.”

“I think Dad’s got it under control, actually,” Chloe murmured. The three sisters watched as their father abandoned his place beside Montrose and Aunt Lucy at the grill to come up behind his wife, saying something that made her laugh as he gently tugged the hairnet into place.

Joy rolled her eyes at him, but she didn’t protest. Instead, she turned a flawless smile onto the next Gingerbread Festival attendee in the queue and set about taking their order. Above her hung a burgundy-and-gold banner that read BREAKFAST FOR DINNER WITH CASTELL COTTAGE.

It was Jacob’s second year securing a place at the festival—and this time, they had a bigger stall, since they’d been such a success last year. Eve had looked into hiring temporary help, but Mum and Dad had—rather shockingly—volunteered their assistance instead.

And Jacob—equally shockingly—had accepted that assistance, despite what he privately termed their grave lack of appropriate qualifications or experience. And despite the fact they’d once accused him of running a sex cult, et cetera.

“What are you smiling about, Evie-Bean?” Chloe demanded.

“Probably something Jacob related,” Dani supplied dryly.

Eve didn’t bother to defend herself. She was too busy rolling her shoulders after hours of serving scrambled eggs, tipping back her head to feel the sunshine on her cheeks, and generally enjoying this moment. Her sisters were beside her, her parents were properly supervised, and Jacob was somewhere in the vicinity hunting down strawberry lemonade. Breakfast for dinner was going fabulously well, with a queue that had barely shrunk all day. And half an hour ago she’d watched a toddler take one bite of her black forest gâteau, grin, then put his face—his whole face—into the cake. Which she certainly deemed a success.