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Addie’s eyes glistened as a quiet understanding passed between them. “I’d wait as long as it took for you. You’re worth it.”
Giselle let out a small breath, the final wall inside her crumbling. She leaned forward, capturing Addie’s lips in a slow, lingering kiss, a promise sealed in that quiet moment, in that room that now felt as much hers as it did Addie’s. When they pulled apart, Addie rested her head back on Giselle’s shoulder and they settled into the silence once more, finally at peace.
For the first time, Giselle knew she was home.
EPILOGUE
5 YEARS LATER
The sun spilled across the Phoenix Ridge coastline like melted gold, the soft hiss of waves brushing the shore below their deck. The beach house—a two-story, glass-and-wood dream nestled on a quiet stretch of sand—had become their sanctuary. Morning light filtered through gauzy curtains, catching on the framed photos that lined the mantle: Sophie’s first piano recital, a windswept selfie from their Grand Canyon trip, and one taken just a week ago, the three of them grinning with ice cream-stained faces and windswept hair.
Giselle Carlisle stood barefoot in the kitchen, coffee mug in hand, watching herfamily from the wide windows. Addie was on the deck, kneeling in the sand with Sophie and their golden retriever, Clover, who was half-buried under a pile of shells and giggles. Giselle smiled, the expression easy now—natural in a way it hadn’t been five years ago.
She had once thought she’d lost the capacity for this: joy, ease, the soft rhythm of daily life without fear or grief crouching in the corners. But Addie had changed all that. Addie, with her sunshine soul and stubborn insistence that Giselle deserved more than just survival.
"You’re staring again," came Addie’s voice behind her, teasing and warm.
Giselle turned to see her wife stepping inside, windblown and glowing. She wrapped her arms around Addie without hesitation, burying her face into the familiar curve of her neck.
"You say that like it’s a problem," Giselle murmured.
Addie chuckled. "Only if you don’t share the view."
Outside, Sophie was constructing a sand mermaid with Clover dutifully playing the part of sea monster. Her laughter floated inthrough the open doors, and Giselle felt her heart squeeze in that way it always did when she looked at her daughter.
Yes,herdaughter. Sophie had started calling her Mom without hesitation two years ago, after a particularly bad flu week when Giselle had stayed up three nights straight with her. It had slipped out in a half-asleep whisper: "Thanks, Mom."
Giselle had cried in the hallway after, clutching the doorframe like it was the only thing holding her up.
Now, it was routine. Normal. Beautifully mundane.
Addie leaned back in her arms. "Did you hear? She wants to do the junior surf camp this summer."
"Does that mean we have to start waking up even earlier?" Giselle groaned, feigning agony.
"You’re the one who wakes up at five on purpose, you weirdo," Addie said, poking her in the ribs.
"Surgeon habit," Giselle muttered.
It was true. She was still the head of cardiothoracic surgery at Phoenix Ridge Medical. The hours were intense, butmanageable. Balanced. Addie’s pediatric surgery schedule gave them pockets of time together they hadn’t dared dream about before. And the hospital—once a minefield of buried feelings and professional tension—was now a space they had made their own. Respectful. Supportive. Even kind.
Sophie burst through the door, cheeks flushed and curls wild. "Mom! Mama! Come look! Clover made a sand angel. Or... I made it, but Clover helped."
Giselle reached out instinctively, brushing sand from her daughter’s elbow. "Let me guess, he helped by rolling in it?"
Sophie grinned. "Exactly!"
Addie dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Go wash up. We’ve got brunch in twenty."
"With Auntie Josephine and Auntie Ember? And Natalie?”
"And yes," Giselle added, smiling. "Try not to talk Natalie into jumping in the tide pools again."
"No promises!" Sophie called over her shoulder as she bounded toward the outdoor shower, Clover happily trailing behind.
Addie leaned against the counter and watched her go. "She’s grown so much."
Giselle nodded, her chest full to bursting. "She really has."