“Lorna needs triple the amount of outdoor seating now. We went ahead and ordered new tables. Chairs. None of them matched this one, though. Nothing could ever match it.” He leaned over and rested his lips on the crown of her head. “Maybe it’s time to give it a new home.”
“I knew my plans were missing something.” Through her tears, she smiled down at the familiar dips and plumes of the wrought-iron pattern. “It needed that piece of her. You brought me the heart.”
His arms encircled her, wrapping her in warmth. “I’d have brought you mine, but I already gave you the whole damn thing, Hallie.”
After the day he’d planned at the winery, she’d assumed her own heart was fully healed. But there must have been one missing component, because a final stitch threaded into place now and it beat like a lion’s. Who could have anything less than a fiercely functioning heart when there was someone in the world who would do this for her?
Julian held out his hand, and they walked into the library courtyard together.
And they stayed late into the evening getting messy in the dirt, planting flowers and smiling at each other in the moonlight. Because their journey was only getting started.
THE END