“You found the Christmas pickle,” Charlie said.

She dangled the ornament for all to see. “The yodeling pickle. That’s awesome.”

“It means you get a prize,” Charlie reminded her.

“Sounds like my lucky day.”

“You’re going to have to excuse us,” Logan told everyone, standing up. “We’ll be back.”

Darcy’s breath caught. She thought about the past year. She and Logan had grown closer and closer, and she hoped with all her heart that they were about to take the next step together. At the moment, his face was unreadable.

They put on parkas and snowshoes and walked out into the woods together. It was a quiet, snowy morning, the air still, the birch trees and evergreens motionless. To Darcy it felt as if the world was holding its breath. They went to the clearing where they’d decorated the tall evergreen tree, both last year and this.

Logan took a flat, oblong package from his pocket. “I actually bought this last year, on Christmas Eve. I knew then, Darcy. I knew I wanted to be with you forever, but we were so new. I wanted you to feel ready. You were still hurting. I didn’t want to scare you.”

“I don’t hurt anymore and I’m not scared,” she said. “How’s that for a big change?”

He placed the box in her hands. It wasn’t a ring box.

She hated the fact that it wasn’t a ring box. It was covered in thick, glossy gold paper and tied with a bright golden bow.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Open it.”

She took off her mittens and removed the paper, then peeked into the slender black box. “A charm bracelet.” She smiled, but it felt bittersweet, because her expectations had painted a different scenario. “You got me a charm bracelet.” She lifted the silver chain from the box. It was pretty, catching glints of light.

“Check it out,” he said. “The first charm is the Camp Kioga flag, because that’s where I met you for the first time. Got it from the gift shop there.”

“I yelled at India for trying to fix us up.”

“I think I did, too,” he admitted. “Now I can’t thank her enough. Okay, the next two. A surfboard and a dolphin.”

“Our Florida Thanksgiving.”

“Our first kiss. I was so hot for you I couldn’t see straight.”

“Yeah?” she teased, liking the bracelet more and more, even though it wasn’t what she expected. “I guess you couldn’t see the screen on your phone, because you never called. You never wrote...”

“Hey. I made up for it. Here’s the snowshoe charm for last Christmas. The heart—that’s Valentine’s Day, of course.”

“We were in New York, taking Maya to lunch to celebrate her release. I loved that day, Logan.”