And that’s how we spend the night, holding each other as we giggle and dream and plan for our future. Messy and radiant and ours.

The day Opal chose to stay, it finally felt like life clicked into place. It didn’t take long for us to find a rhythm, the energy through the cabin like a heartbeat between us. The way Opal always knows which plot I’m at if I let her sleep in. The unique creak of the floorboards when she gets up from the bed to take a shower. The cadence of her

both screw things up, and that’s okay. My love for you exists because you exist. It isn’t based on whatever ridiculous standards you hold yourself to. Do you want more than what I have to give you?”

“You silly, silly woman. We will

“I love you so much it scares me,” I whisper, placing my hands on top of hers. “I’m scared I’m going to screw this up or I’ll be too much to deal with and you’ll get sick of me. Or that I won’t be enough and you’ll realize you deserve better.”

“My house, your house—the details of it don’t matter. I want our house. Our home. Next to you is my favorite place in the world, and that’s the only spot I care about holding on to.”

“Of course I want to stay,” I whisper, looking into her deep brown eyes. “I want to stay so long at the Thistle and Bloom that my veins turn to roots in the soil. I want to walk up and down the rows of flowers until I know the paths in the pitch black, my final destination always being your doorstep. But I’m a mess, Pepper. I came in and upended

“You,” Pepper says slowly, carefully, so I hang on every word, “are the most chaotic, wild, wonderful person I have ever met. You have upended my life and I don’t ever, ever want it righted again. If you don’t think you belong here, we can talk about that. But all I know is I belong with you. We can figure the rest out as it comes. But I love you,

“I want you to stay if you want to stay.”