Coop and Jake say their goodbyes and Coop gives Brooke a hug and a quick kiss goodbye. “I have your number,” he says. “And you have mine if you ever get to Washington.”

Brooke waves like crazy until the Jeep is up over the dunes.

“You like her?” Jake says.

“Perfectly nice woman,” Coop says. “And attractive. But we had exactly nothing in common and I’m not unhappy to be leaving.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jake says. “You two were gone so long I was afraid you’d proposed.”

As they head down the no-name road, Coop wonders if he should be concerned. Fray and Leland both seemed giddy about their reunion—but all Coop can think now is that they had an argument (this would be par for the course with them) and Fray lost his temper and is threatening to leave. It would be sort of like what happened thirty years ago.

But when they pull up to the cottage, Coop hears laughter and conversation coming from inside. He hears a woman who is not Leland. It sounds like…

Coop throws open the screen door and steps inside. Fray and Leland are sitting at the narrow harvest table with Stacey.

Stacey?

She stands up and smiles at him. She’s wearing a flowing white strapless dress and a pair of barely-there sandals. She’s every bit as captivating to Cooper as she was the first time he saw her in the basement of the Phi Gamma Delta house.

“Stace?” he says. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve had a change of heart,” she says. “So if your offer still stands…?”

Coop sweeps her off the ground. He grins at his friends. “I’m getting married!” he says.

“For the last time,” Stacey says.

Jake

On Monday, Fray generously offers to fly Jake back to South Bend on his private jet.

“It’s on my way home,” he says. “It’s no problem to make a stop. I’ll have my pilot add it to the flight plan.”

Fray and Jake part ways with the others outside the terminal. Leland is heading to New York, Cooper and Stacey back to DC. Jake gives Coop and Stacey each a hug as Fray and Leland share a very long kiss goodbye.

“Wow,” Stacey says, elbowing Coop. “Why don’t you ever kiss me that way?”

“I do!” Coop says and he pulls Stacey closer.

“Time for me to get out of here,” Jake says. He feels a lump rising in his throat as he recalls all the Labor Days that he kissed Mallory goodbye. No offense, but they put Fray and Leland to shame.

Jake has never flown private before. It isn’t something he’s ever aspired to, and even when Ursula was an arm’s length from the presidency, he never pictured himself aboard Air Force One.

Good thing.