“Sure, you do. I’ve spent the last week with you two. If you’re not in love with him—and vice versa—then I know nothing about love. I’ve never seen any man look at you the way he does, as if you personally hung the moon.”

“He’s very special.”

“I hope you’ll give him an honest, genuine chance to make you happy. I haven’t seen you smile or laugh as much as you do with him in a very long time. Last night, Dad said you light up around him. I completely agree, and I’ve thought so since I first saw you with him last fall. I told Dad then that this guy was going to be something special to you.”

From the first night she met him, she’d had the same feeling.

“You know what the most beautiful thing is about being an adult?” Mary Beth asked.

“What’s that?”

“You can do anything you want—or not do anything you want. It’s entirely up to you.”

“That’s sort of the problem. I’m paralyzed with indecision. It would be different, I think, if he lived where I do and we could date like normal people, but for most of the year, he’s elsewhere. Being with him would require me to change my whole life, and I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that again. I’ve already done it too many times.”

Mary Beth leaned back against the wall. “That’s true, you have, and I can see why the thought of doing it again doesn’t appeal, especially when you’ve found a place that makes you so happy and have started to put down roots. But think of it this way—you’ve never had a better reason to turn your life upside down.”

Her mother made a good point.

They were interrupted by the hospital employee who was working with Mary Beth to get Tom a spot in a rehabilitation facility close to their home.

Erin listened to what they were saying and participated in the conversation, but she kept thinking about what her mother had said. She was thinking about it when Slim texted to let her know he was safely back on Gansett and already missing her. She thought about it during the afternoon she spent with her dad while her mom went home to shower and change. She thought about it on the ride back to her parents’ home later and when she took her own shower.

She was still thinking about it when she got into bed in the final minutes of the year, desperately wishing she was at the wedding with Slim and could kiss him at midnight.

And when her phone rang exactly at midnight, a smile stretched across her face because she knew it had to be him.