He took a breath. “Okay, yes, I hear you. Maybe I need to listen to myself. But what if we let God take over? Let him be angry for us, protect us. Then we don’t have to choose who to love, and why. My father used to say that love doesn’t come from us—it’s born in us, a birthright from God. We can’t manufacture it, we can only release what he’s given us. That nudge to forgive? I told you—I think that’s love trying to break free.”

“I don’t even know what that looks like.”

“Yes, you do.”

She met his eyes, so piercingly blue, fixed on her.

“When you get on your sled, and yell hike, what happens?”

“The dogs start to run?”

“They explode with so much power, you just have to hold on. Love is like that. You don’t have to create it, you just have to open your heart to it and then let it pour out. Let God take care of protecting you.”

Even as he spoke it, the pulse lit in her heart.

Forgiving might be the first step to tomorrow.

“Oh, and Echo? I heard what you said in there.” He cupped her cheek. “God doesn’t hate you. He loves you—even more than I do, if that’s possible. Maybe it’s time to let yourself believe that.”

She looked at him. In his smile she saw a fourteen-year-old boy who took her in his arms and held her as she wept, terrified and hurt. And saw the brokenhearted teenager who’d fought his own brother for her. And the wounded hero who had come home angry, but longing to find the woman he loved.

Yes, God loved her.

“Forgiveness isn’t for the person you’re forgiving, Echo. It’s for yourself. It’s what you do to be set free.”

She closed her eyes.

Free.

Free to heal.

To love.

To live the life she saw beyond the horizon. The one that included Dodge.

She didn’t need to know the end of the story to know that she would never ever stop loving Dodge. Never stop needing Dodge. Never stop hoping he’d show up.

Never stop believing that he was the only man for her. “I love you, Dodge.”

He blinked at her, then smiled. “That’s a good start.”

“No, that’s the happy ending too. See, I know you’re going to Anchorage to work for Moose. I overheard you when you told him to hold your spot.”

“What?”