Epilogue #2
Jessica smiles at me like I’ve said exactly the right thing. “I love that. It’s like—the first time around, you fall in love with potential. The second time, you fall in love with reality.”
“Yes!” I lean forward, getting animated. “And there’s this beautiful sadness to them. This sense of ‘what if we’d gotten it right the first time?’ But also this hope that maybe the timing is finally right.”
“Speaking of timing,” Amber says with a mischievous look. “Delilah, are there any interesting men in your life? Or should we start matchmaking immediately?”
I laugh despite myself. “I’ve been divorced for six months. I’m definitely not ready for anything.”
“I didn’t think I deserved love,” Jessica says quietly, and Scott takes her hand. “But this town has a way of proving you wrong about what you deserve.”
“And what you’re capable of,” Scott adds. “I spent years hiding who I was. Jessica taught me that being seen completely is terrifying and necessary.”
Their love is so evident, so hard-won and treasured, that I feel tears threaten. This is what I want. What I thought I had once. What I’m terrified to risk again.
“So no one special?” Caroline presses, grinning. “No cute contractor helping with shop renovations? No mysterious stranger who keeps buying flowers?”
My chest tightens. Because there’s this man who’s been buying flowers from Mom’s shop for years, according to the order history I’ve been reviewing. Someone whose name makes my heart race and my stomach drop simultaneously.
The guy I loved desperately ten years ago before everything fell apart.
I came to Twin Waves fully expecting never to see him again, but I spotted his truck yesterday parked two blocks from my shop, making me realize Mom’s “retirement” might have been more calculated than I realized.
But I’m not ready to talk about that or admit that “fresh start” might actually be “second chance I’m too terrified to take.”
“No one special,” I say firmly. “Just me and a lot of flowers.”
Hazel looks like she doesn’t believe me, but she lets it drop. “Well, if that changes, you have a built-in support system now. This book club specializes in romance counseling.”
“And meddling,” Jo adds.
Michelle corrects, “We prefer to think of it as enthusiastic encouragement.”
The conversation shifts to the book we’re officially discussing—a second chance romance about a wedding planner and her ex-fiancé. I relax into the discussion, surprised by how natural it feels. How these women include me like I’ve always been part of their group.
How Jessica and Scott keep exchanging looks that speak of inside jokes and shared history and love that’s been tested and emerged stronger.
After the meeting winds down, Jessica walks me out.
“Thank you for inviting me,” I say sincerely. “That was...I needed that.”
“We all need it. Community, people who get it.” She pauses on the front porch, the intracoastal breeze carrying salt and possibility. “Delilah, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“That look you got when Caroline asked about men in your life—that was the expression of a girl with a complicated history.” Jessica’s smile is gentle. “I recognize it. I wore it for years.”
I swallow hard. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. And that’s okay. You don’t have to tell me.” She squeezes my arm. “But when you’re ready—when whatever second chance you’re running from or toward finds you—we’ll be here. All of us. Cheering you on and meddling enthusiastically.”
“What if I’m not brave enough?”
“You moved to a new town to start over. You walked into a book club full of strangers. You’re already brave.” Jessica’s expression is knowing. “And something tells me Twin Waves is about to make you even braver.”
As I walk back to my car, the warm summer air against my flushed face, I think about second chances. About love and timing and whether I’m brave enough to risk my heart again after everything that’s fallen apart.
When I arrive back in town, the boardwalk is quiet this late as I park near the shop, just the sound of waves. Instead of heading inside Petals & Promises, I decide to take a stroll on the beach.
I’m nearly on the sand when I hear it—a voice, rich and achingly familiar, drifting from the beach access point between buildings.
Someone is singing. Not performing, just...singing. Like they’re alone with the ocean and their thoughts.
I stop, transfixed. The voice is incredible—the kind that resurfaces old emotions you don’t want to feel. Makes you believe in romance novels and second chances and all the things I’ve been trying not to hope for.
The song ends, and I’ve been standing here like a fool, eavesdropping on someone’s private moment.
“Didn’t mean to have an audience.”
I jump, turning to find a man emerging from the shadows of the beach access. Tall, rugged in a way that shouldn’t work with the gentle sadness in his eyes. He wears a baseball cap pulled low, but I can see enough to know he’s handsome in that understated, lived-in way.
And there’s something strangely familiar about him I can’t quite pinpoint…
[THE END]
Coming Next in the Twin Waves Romance Series: “Sprouting Up My Second Chance” When Delilah Smart inherits her mother’s florist shop, she returns to Twin Waves to start over—and discovers the guy she left behind a decade ago is the man she can’t seem to avoid.
Second chances bloom in unexpected places, but first, they’ll have to forgive the past.