“I don’t love him,” she denied, then took a sip of her tea. “I mean, had I not known he was leaving from the beginning, I might’ve fallen in love with him. But I did know—so I refused to get attached.”

Much.

Her father looked empathetic. “If that’s what you need to believe, I won’t correct you.”

“It is what I believe,” she defended, annoyed that he’d implied otherwise. She did not love Bodie.

She missed him, longed for him to be at Hamilton House, because he’d been great company. She missed their conversations, his smile, the fluttery feeling she got when he laughed, his intelligence, and thoughtfulness. She missed Harry, too.

But that didn’t mean she loved Bodie. She didn’t.

I’m falling for you. His words echoed through her mind. If only, he really had fallen. If only he hadn’t left. If only…

She glanced at her father, saw that he was smiling.

“You ever consider going after him?”

“What? That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard you say.” She couldn’t believe her father even asked such a silly thing. Of course she hadn’t considered going after Bodie. Her life was in Pine Hill. Who knew where in the world he was?

His friend Lukas would know. She had his number from when Bodie gave it as a reference.

For that matter, she had Bodie’s cell number.

But she wouldn’t use it. He’d left. Even if she called, it would change nothing.

“Did you tell him what you told me, that if he’d stayed in Pine Hill that you could have fallen for him?”

“What would be the point in telling him that? He was always leaving.”

“I want to see you happy, Sarah. If he makes you happy, then you need to be with him.”

Had her father not been paying attention? Bodie had never meant to stay. He’d come to say thank you, had stayed to help her, and then he was gone.

“I am happy,” she assured her father. She was. She had her father and the Butterflies, her friends and church, and Hamilton House. “I don’t need Bodie to be happy or for anything else.”

She didn’t. Hamilton House would open tomorrow, on Christmas Day, and she’d begin a new adventure.

Just as Bodie had begun a new adventure.

But friends did wish each other Merry Christmas and later that night as she lay in her childhood bed, she sent a text.

She really did hope Bodie had a Merry Christmas.

“I shouldn’t be here. Not on Christmas Eve,” Bodie complained to his best friend as they chilled in Lukas’s living room. Kelly had gone to the nursery to feed Lucy and put her down to bed just a few minutes after Bodie had arrived.

He’d come straight from the airport and was exhausted.