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“I really didn’t do all that much,” said Chloe.

And it was true – it was amazing what a lick of fresh paint, some new blinds and chairs, and a few unicorn-tended plants could do to a place.

The building itself was already lovely, with its wooden beams and enormous windows facing out on to the tree-lined street.

“I see you kept Felix,” Mrs. Sugita went on, and it wasn’t until Chloe saw her gesturing to the cat-faced clock on the wall that she understood.

Chloe laughed. “How could I not keep Felix? He’s the heart and soul of this place.”

Really, as silly as it sounded, she hadn’t been able to bear the thought of throwing him out. His friendly kitschiness kept the place from feeling too fancy. And the kids who brought in their pets loved him.

“You know,” Mrs. Sugita said, pulling Chloe aside confidentially, “not that my stubborn husband will admit it, but we’ve both been missing the business a little bit. Not that we want to take it back over!” she added hurriedly.

Chloe looked at her quizzically. What did she mean?

“I just meant that if you or your handsome receptionist ever get sick or need a break, just give us a call,” Mrs. Sugita went on. “We’re always happy to come in and cover.”

“Thank you so much,” Chloe said gratefully. “Truly.”

She’d always assumed that she’d have to close down temporarily if she ever needed to take time off sick, given that vets weren’t exactly a dime a dozen around here. Maybe now she would even get to go on that overseas holiday one day without feeling guilty.

That wouldn’t be for some time, though! All she wanted right now was to run her business with Ethan.

The bell on the front door jangled, and Chloe opened her mouth to welcome Sylvie and Gale, but instead she saw…

Ethan?! No, wait…

Her brain glitched for a moment as it tried to work out why there was an older version of Ethan walking through the door – had he come back from the future to warn her about something? – but then Ethan’s stunned “ Dad?! ” and Eula’s enthused “ Amby! ” clued her in.

“What are you doing here?” Ethan hissed, looking as discomposed as Chloe had ever seen him.

“Oh, that was all me, darlin’,” said Eula, as Janie rolled her eyes. “Your dad’s not exactly difficult to track down, you know. I thought he’d like to come and see what you’re up to.”

“You’ve done a good job here, son,” Ambrose said awkwardly, as he looked around the clinic while Ethan’s eyes practically bulged out of his head. “I’m serious. You’ve done what I was always too scared to do myself.”

“Become a receptionist?” Janie exclaimed, her nose wrinkling.

Ambrose looked over at her as if noticing her existence for the first time, his confusion at being suddenly mocked by a tween evident.

“Follow my dreams,” he said pointedly. “Not do what was expected of me by my father.” He cleared his throat. “I’m – I’m proud of you, son.”

“I – Dad, I –” Ethan began, clearly at a loss for words, before he grabbed his father’s impeccably-dressed arm and hauled him out of the room before he could get another word out, presumably to say What the hell?! at him a lot.

Chloe smiled. She’d never actually met Ambrose, Ethan having smoothly changed the subject whenever she’d even so much as hinted at his existence. She’d been wondering if she would go to her grave without ever meeting the man who was basically her father-in-law.

Maybe Eula’s meddling was for the best. Ethan and his father needed to clear the air.

She hoped that was what they were doing right now, as she glanced at them through the round window of the exam room door – whatever the topic of conversation was, they certainly were talking very seriously about it.

The bell rang again, accompanied by a cold wind and a flurry of snowflakes, before the door was slammed shut again.

“Hi, everyone!” Gale exclaimed, stamping the snow off his boots.

“Hi!” Sylvie echoed, an impossibly tiny bundle cradled in her arms. “So sorry we’re late! Who would have thought that such a small creature could emit so many different, uh, fluids ?”

Everyone huddled around, trying to get close without crowding the new family too much. Chloe knew that some of the people here hadn’t met Lily yet – and even if they had met her before, they all wanted to see her again!

“Would you like me to take her off your hands, darlin’?” Eula asked, and Sylvie passed her off gratefully, without Lily so much as stirring in her blanket – maybe she was tired out after all those emissions Sylvie had mentioned.

“Thanks so much, Eula,” she said sincerely, as she took off her jacket and hung it over the back of a chair.

She turned to Chloe, letting Eula and the others fuss over Lily. She really was picture perfect, after all – Chloe could just make out her chubby, rosy cheeks where she was wrapped up in her blanket, her thick dark eyelashes, and her tiny pursed lips, twitching as if she was dreaming.

“So, what’s happening?” Sylvie said, looking like she was starving for information.

“Tell me all about your day, no matter how boring it was.” At Chloe’s evident surprised look, Sylvie laughed.

“Don’t get me wrong – I love my little girl more than anything!

But sometimes you just want to remember that you’re an adult who has conversations with other adults, you know? ”

“Here, Sylvs,” said Emily, bringing her over an enormous slice of honey cake, its moist, golden layers sandwiched between generous helpings of outrageously fluffy cream. “Just eat some cake and take a load off.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” said Sylvie gratefully, taking the plate and flopping down into a chair. Taking a big mouthful of cake, she sighed and closed her eyes happily.

“Mm. That’s the stuff.”

Opening her eyes again, she shook her head ruefully.

“I can’t be a control freak anymore, now that Little Miss Lily is ruling the roost,” she said. “I try to tell her what to do and when, but does she listen? No! She’s nowhere near as good an employee as you, Emily.”

“I should hope not,” Emily said with a laugh, taking her own bite of cake. “But I think it’s good for you to let go of control, just a little. You’ve got people around you who can pick up the slack, even if my cake will never be quite as good as yours.”

Sylvie grumbled and protested good-naturedly, and Chloe suddenly found herself with an armful of baby as Eula materialized seemingly from nowhere, pressing Lily’s bundled-up form into her arms.

“Here you go,” Eula said cheerfully, as Chloe blinked in surprise and just tried to concentrate on not dropping the baby.

She sank down carefully into a chair, clinging on to Lily for dear life. She didn’t have much experience with babies… but Sylvie’s laugh reassured her.

“I was the same when I first held her – I was sure I was going to drop her! But you’ll be fine. Just relax.”

Chloe wasn’t sure about that at all, but she forced herself to relax just a tiny bit.

She had to admit that Lily was extremely cute, with her little scrunched-up nose, her round pink cheeks, and her wispy dark hair.

Probably she had been somewhat less cute during the two hours that Sylvie had spent trying to get her out of the house… but still pretty darn cute, Chloe was sure.

And after all, Chloe spent her days dealing with all the… interesting … substances that animals could produce, and she still loved them and thought they were the best thing ever.

She looked down at Lily thoughtfully, and Lily finally stirred in her sleep, blinking before staring back with big, green eyes.

“Hey there, sweetie,” Chloe whispered, smiling down at the little girl.

As utterly adorable as Lily was, Chloe wasn’t sure that parenthood was for her… or not yet, anyway. Who knew what the future would hold?

But she had to admit, she was enjoying being an honorary auntie!

She reached down carefully to touch Lily’s face, marveling at how incredibly soft it was.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Sylvie said with a fond smile. “The best thing I ever made, and I didn’t even have to think about it! She just made herself that way. Why should I even bother trying to come up with new things, when the random luck of the universe can do a better job?”

“Well, I’d say that you had something to do with it,” Chloe said with a laugh, gently tickling Lily’s perfect pink cheek.

“Still,” Sylvie said. “Maybe it’s time to be a bit less…”

“Involved?” said Emily diplomatically.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Sylvie said, smiling. “Not that I’m going to stop completely, mind you… but I’ll try and be a bit more sane about it. The bakery is safe in your hands, Emily. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better.”

Emily grinned. “I already knew that.”

Shaking a finger jokingly, Sylvie added, “But you’d better believe that I’ll be coming back! You can’t keep me away from that place for too long.”

Chloe smiled, before looking up and seeing Kieran approaching.

“Your turn!” she said quickly, passing Lily off before he could protest. It had been fun to hold her, but she’d had enough of worrying about dropping her at any second!

Kieran blinked in confusion for a moment, the tiny baby almost disappearing in his enormous arms.

“Why, hello there,” he said to Lily. “Where did you come from?”

“I haven’t had the chance to say this until now, but thank you so much for putting together that changing table,” Sylvie said gratefully. “It had the two of us completely stumped. At least I could say that it was because of baby brain, but Gale had no excuse.”

“Oh, it was no problem,” Kieran said, making a face at Lily that had her gurgling in response. “And it wasn’t even me. I think about six of us came around in the end to wrestle it into submission.”

“Well, whoever it was, thank you.” Sylvie went to scoop up some more cake, looking disappointed to realize that it was now gone.

“Here,” Chloe said with a laugh, getting up and cutting off more slices for everyone. “You need it!”

“I miss baking,” Sylvie said despondently. “I’ve only made two cakes this week. And one of them was just a plain sponge cake that didn’t even have any frosting. And it was lopsided. And burned.”

“Only two cakes in a week, with a baby in the house?” Chloe mock-tutted. “Unacceptable.”

Chloe couldn’t remember the last time she’d made a cake, and she didn’t even have the excuse of having to look after a baby. She wasn’t sure if she even knew how to make a cake!

“I’m just so glad that I have Gale,” Sylvie said, watching him across the room with obvious love in her eyes. “He’s been an absolute godsend. Not just with helping to look after Lily and getting up at all hours of the night, but with doing the housework as well. And the foot rubs…”

“Sounds like a keeper,” said Chloe, impressed. She didn’t know Gale very well, but like everyone else in Girdwood Springs, he seemed to be friendly and helpful. She’d never been anywhere so community-minded.

“Brioche has been a bit slower to adjust,” Sylvie went on, referring to her enormous, somewhat standoffish orange cat.

Chloe had met him once when she’d come around to drop off some home-made meals, though she knew they were nowhere up to Sylvie’s standards.

It felt like half the town was on a roster to keep the new parents fed!

Sylvie grinned. “He likes having us to himself, and was most put out for the first few weeks. But I caught him standing guard over her the other day, and he made sure that I passed inspection before he’d let me pick her up, so I guess he’s come around.”

“She’s got a loyal guardian for life,” Chloe laughed. She was so glad that little Lily had an animal companion to grow up alongside.

Kieran asked Sylvie a question about why the souffle he’d attempted to make had ended up as flat as a pancake, and Sylvie answered with great enthusiasm, clearly happy to be having a conversation that didn’t revolve around feeding babies, or getting babies to sleep, or changing babies’ diapers.

Chloe sat back in her chair, eating the sinfully good honey cake and listening to the flow of conversation as it washed around her.

She felt more contented than she had even known was possible.

The hours passed, the drinks flowed, good company was shared, and obscene amounts of cake were eaten.

Diana offered some tips to Sylvie and Gale about how to deal with baby-induced sleep deprivation, which they gratefully accepted, while Ash introduced Bella to Lily with great solemnity.

Chloe even met Ethan’s dad – who seemed to have loosened up a bit by that point, though he was still fairly out of place.

They didn’t get much time to talk, though, what with Eula chattering in his ear in an attempt to catch him up on over forty years’ worth of her life, but Chloe was sure that she would get to know him better later on.

As the night darkened and the room grew stuffy, Chloe slipped out the front door for a bit of fresh air, wine glass in hand. She wrapped her coat tightly against the cold night air, the clouds having given way to a dark, crisp night that seemed to extend out into eternity.

The stars shone above her in the heavens, the Milky Way gazing down on the people of Girdwood Springs – and she gazed back, raising her glass in a small toast.

Here’s to you, Curtis. I hope you and your family are having a nice time, wherever you are.

If the stars twinkled a little brighter for a moment, well, surely it was just her imagination.

“Looking for a shooting star to wish upon?” Ethan asked, materializing at her side, and she almost jumped out of her skin. How had he managed to get out here without setting the bell ringing?!

But then she sighed and leaned against his side, enjoying his warmth as he wrapped his arm around her.

“I don’t need to wish for anything,” she murmured. “I already have everything that I could ever want.”

And she knew that it was true.

She was home.

Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this book, you may also enjoy the first two books in the series!