The week fell into a rhythm.
Every morning, Ivy opened The Briar Patch. She made coffee, baked pastries, helped customers, and felt herself settling into this new life. The townspeople continued to notice the change in her—the way she smiled more easily, laughed more freely, moved through the world with a confidence she didn't have when she first arrived in their little town.
Every evening, Boone picked her up after closing. They drove to the compound for dinner with the family, spending hours surrounded by warmth and laughter and belonging. Sometimes they played cards with his cousins. Sometimes they sat around the fire pit telling stories. Sometimes they just sat together in comfortable silence.
And every night, he drove her back to town and kissed her goodbye like it physically hurt
