“I can’t either,” Bram says, cresting the hill and sinking into the grass beside me. “How could you be so clueless?”

“It’s impolite to eavesdrop.” My voice is stern, though I have a hard time keeping a straight face when he’s smiling at me like he can’t decide whether to tease me or kiss me.

“I wasn’t eavesdropping. I made as much noise as possible on my approach.”

“Oh, was that you clomping through the forest? I thought it was a moose.”

He laughs. “So you’d share your secrets with a moose but not with me?”

“Only a moose I trust implicitly.” I brush a lock of hair from his forehead. “And I don’t have any secrets from you.”

He leans back on his elbows. “None?”

“Do you have secrets from me?”

“No.” He tilts his head thoughtfully. “Well, maybe one.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“We’re matched on this path,” he says. “It’s almost time to declare if we accept or not.”

“And your secret is that you plan to break my heart?”

“Of course not. But sometimes I worry …” He plucks a blade of grass and spins it between his fingers. “Would you still have chosen me if we weren’t fated to be together?” The vulnerability in his voice tugs at my heart.

I thread my fingers through his. “Do you know why they call it the joining ceremony?”

“Well, I always assumed it was because two lives were being joined together. But I’m guessing this is either a trick question or you’re trying to boost my confidence with the easiest exam ever.”

“My mother once told me the ceremony is the moment fate and freedom join hands. Being matched is about discovering the person who’s right for you. The joining ceremony is when you choose to love them.”

I lean over him, my hair cascading around his face like a curtain that cocoons us in our own private world. “I choose to love you, Bram Wilberg. Today and always. In this reality and every other.”

“Can we just stay on this path from now on?” he asks, his fingers tracing my jawline. “I’ve grown quite attached to it.”

“I’d love nothing more.”

His lips meet mine and the whole world falls away.

I feel at once like I’m drowning, and like I’m breathing for the first time.

Like fate and freedom just joined hands.

Acknowledgments

This book has been so much fun to write, and I have so many people to thank for helping bring it into the world.

First, to my amazingly talented editor, Ashley Hearn: Thank you for pushing me to be better, dig deeper, and do more. This book is so much stronger with you than it ever would have been otherwise.

I’m so grateful to Kathleen Rushall, who is supportive, wise, and kind—everything an agent should be. Thank you for everything!