“So what happened?”

“I had to go after her.” Lucas leaned forward, grabbed his wife’s arm, and tugged her onto his lap. “She forced me to. And I was a guy who didn’t believe in marriage, didn’t want kids, never thought the whole traditional family thing was for me. But she’d made me look at myself differently, and I knew I couldn’t let her get away.”

“And you can’t let Sylvia get away either, not if you love her.” Mia put her arms around Lucas’s shoulders. “It doesn’t matter that you haven’t been together for very long. What matters is the way you feel.”

“I love her,” I said adamantly. “And I know I can make her happy.”

“Then go get her.” Mia smiled at me. “If you know her well enough to love her, then you know what she needs to hear. It’s in there, Henry.” She put a hand over her heart. “Trust me. Trust you.”

Twenty-Four

Sylvia

I was helping April prepare for the inn’s big Valentine’s dinner when Whitney found me in the restaurant.

“Hey, Whit.” I placed one of the centerpieces that had just been delivered from the florist on a table for four near the bar. “Where have you been?”

“I went to see Henry,” she announced.

I looked at her, startled. “You what?”

“I went to see Henry in his office at the winery.”

My mouth fell open. “Why?”

“Because I needed to talk to him.” She pulled out a chair and sat down. “And now I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” I said, pulling out the chair adjacent to hers. My head was spinning. “But since when do you call him Henry?”

“Since he told me to today. So here’s the thing.” Whitney placed her clasped hands on the table. “He’s really in love with you. It’s true.”

My face burned. “Whitney, what on earth—”

“Listen to me. You said, that night he came to the house, that you didn’t know whether he loved you or not. You said that was the problem.”

“I said that was part of the problem.”

“Well, it’s not anymore. He loves you for real.”

“And how do you know this?”

“Because I asked him how he knows he’s in love with you, and he gave me this very long speech that I can’t exactly remember, but he looked sort of intense and sad like Augustus Waters when he says that he knows that oblivion is inevitable but he is in love with you and all your efforts to keep him from you are going to fail.”

“Who?” I asked, feeling like I had whiplash.

She rolled her eyes. “Augustus Waters! From The Fault in Our Stars?”

I shook my head. “Okay, but Whitney, you said you weren’t ready for me to date anyone. You said you were scared of what might happen.”

“I know what I said on New Year’s Eve, and I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair. If you and Henry love each other, you should be together. Keaton and I just talked about it, and we agree.”

I placed two palms on the tablecloth, wishing the world would just slow down for a moment. I couldn’t keep up. “Wait a minute. You spoke to Keaton about this already?”

“Yes, right after I talked to Henry. We want you to be happy, Mom. I know you say you don’t need anyone but us, but that’s a lot of pressure—and it’s not working. We can hear you crying at night. We think you need something of your own.”

I stared at her, openmouthed with shock. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll give him another chance. Say you forgive me for standing in the way before. I was scared—I’m still kind of scared—but the therapist says you can’t let fear get the best of you. She says I’m stronger than I think.”

“Oh, baby, of course I forgive you.” I sniffed as I rose from my chair and reached for her. “Come here.”

She stood up and we hugged for a long time.

“Your therapist is right. You are strong. And I’m so lucky to have a daughter like you,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Are you going to call him?”

“I’m going to think about it, I promise.”

“Okay,” she said, trying to detach herself from me. “But can I go now? Millie said she was going to be here around four, and I think it’s after that.”

“Oh. Sure.” I released her, and she gladly hightailed it out of the restaurant, leaving me to sink back into the chair and sit there in a stupor.

I couldn’t believe it. Whitney had gone to see Henry. Whitney was taking what she learned at therapy and helping me. Whitney and Keaton wanted me to give Henry another chance. They wanted me to have something of my own.

Was I strong enough to go after it? Was I brave enough to let myself love and be loved? Was I ready to talk down that voice of doubt in my head and offer my heart to Henry—whole, unguarded, and open?

I was sitting there struggling with it all when he suddenly burst into the empty restaurant. He seemed out of breath, like he’d been running, and when he spotted me sitting alone at the table, he moved toward me with long, purposeful strides.

He reached my side and stood above, his chest rising and falling fast, his eyes pinned on mine. “No,” he announced.

“No?” I blinked at him.

“No. I changed my mind. I’m not walking away. Fear doesn’t get to win.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. My legs were so weak and rubbery that he practically had to hold me up. “I love you, Sylvia. But more than that, I love us together. I love that you listen to me ramble on about volatile acidity like it’s the most fascinating subject in the world. I love that you don’t care if my shirts have holes. I love hearing you tell stories about growing up here. I love the way you smile at me across a room. I love the way I can guess what you’re thinking by the blush in your cheeks. I love the way you put family first, because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do too.”

I’d started to cry, and he brushed his thumbs beneath my eyes.

“I know you’re scared, and that’s okay. I know you’re not used to someone keeping his promises. And I know it’s going to take time for me to break down all those walls, but damn it, Sylvia, you’re going to let me try. You’re going to let me stick around. And you’re going to let me love you, and prove to you that we can build something so real and so strong, it’s unbreakable.”

“Henry,” I whispered, shaking my head. “What did I do to deserve you?”

He smiled gently. “You came looking for me. That very first night you were home, you came looking for me. I’ll never forget that.”

“I must have known.” I couldn’t help smiling.

“You must have known.” He briefly pressed his lips to mine. “And I knew it too, that very same night. When I walked you back home through the snow and stood there with you on the porch, I never wanted to kiss someone so badly in all my life.”

I gasped, laughing a little. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “You don’t recall how fast I took off?”