“One of my many winning qualities.”

We share a smile.

“The thing is…I don’t know if I can go back to my old life,” I say. “I know you said there was a possibility I could when we were talking in the woods, but I’ve been over it a thousand times in my head and I just don’t see how it’s possible. Even if I pull off a visit once a year, that’s not the same thing as living there. I never considered a life without Pembrook. But spending time there means putting people I love at risk. How can I ever go back, knowing that?”

“My question is, would you truly want to live there?” Ash says. “And not as a nostalgic idea, but in actuality. Would that be fulfilling for you?”

I grip my cup of peppermint hot chocolate, soaking up the heat through my gloved hands as Emily and I leave Lucille’s diner.

I wave it under my nose. “Mmmm.”

“You act like that drink is your boyfriend,” Emily says as we cross the street toward the green in the middle of the town square.

“I don’t know what Lucille does to make it so good, but I’m completely addicted,” I say.

We take up our usual perch on the bench in the gazebo, which has a clear view of the decorated tree.

“Em, what do you think we’re gonna be like as old people?” I ask.

Emily sips her cider and leans back. “Pretty much like this. Only I’ll have taken over Lucille’s and transformed it into a hip bookstore that serves coffee and champagne. Oh, and dogs.”

I laugh. “A bookstore that serves dogs? That sounds like a winner.”

“No, idiot. A bookstore where you can bring your dog.”

“Okay, and I’ll be—”

“A gym teacher,” Emily says, cutting me off.

“Um, no. You get to run some hip bookstore and I’m a gym teacher? I didn’t know you thought so much of me,” I say.

“Wellll,” Emily says, grinning. “You’ll try to do some extreme-sports-type job, but the only place you’ll be able to do it is in Hartford. And inevitably you’ll miss me too much and have to move back here, where the only logical job opening will be gym teacher. Of course after a few years of penance for moving away from me, I’ll let you work at the bookstore.”

I smile. “And eventually we’ll be just as cranky as Lucille. Only difference is that we’ll be able to blame our farts on the dogs.”

She leans her head on my shoulder. “And all will be exactly as it should be.”