To neither Peyton nor Sofia’s surprise, there were no handsome princes or bachelors of any kind at the field yesterday.

Of course, there didn’t need to be. Just approaching the never-ending sea of gold from the car was enough to make Peyton’s heart beat fast. She felt a crescendo of adrenaline as she parked her Fiat, rushed out the door and burst like a rocket through the field with both arms stretched out wide.

“It’s so beautiful!” she squealed, grinning so hard her cheeks actually hurt. It was just so unreal. Every direction she turned, there was yellow – hundreds, probably thousands of brilliant flowers swaying peacefully in the breeze. Peyton could swear they had personalities, too. They were just so bright and happy. They looked like they were dancing with her.

Oh, Kensie.

In that moment, Peyton flashed back to when she and Kensie were kids. All those years ago, in that Tuscan field where her obsession had started, they had pretended to ballroom dance with the flowers. The stalks were so much taller than them back then – it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

“Peyton! Look!”

Thankfully, before Peyton could drown in too many Kensie-related sorrows, Sofia had called her over to where she stood – right next to a perfectly circular patch in the middle of the field. She pointed down at the breadcrumbs and bit of orange peel that lay at their feet.

“Someone was having a romantic picnic. Shall we do the same tomorrow?”

“Hell, yes,” Peyton said eagerly.

So this morning, she headed off to the market while Sofia stayed home to greet the new arrivals at the B&B. At noon, the girls agreed to convene at the bare patch in the field, where they would dine on fresh fruits and charcuterie, and sip from a carafe of wine that Sofia would bring from home.

“And I will bring my books, of course,” she had said. “So we can be joined by some handsome men.”

Peyton smiled at the memory as she weaved through the field in her white sundress, a tote bag full of goodies slung over her shoulder. When she got to the patch, the first thing she did was take out Sofia’s striped picnic blanket and lay it smooth on the ground. Then slipping out of her flats, she knelt down and started unpacking the food.

“You’re early, too,” she remarked with a smile when she heard the sound of rustling behind her. “Hey, I hope you brought utensils, because I just realized I forgot all about the – ”

Peyton’s mouth snapped shut when she turned around.

“Oh my God.”

The apple in her hand rolled across the blanket as she rose to her bare feet. Lips parted, heart pounding, Peyton tried not to pass out as she laid her unblinking eyes on the vision standing before her.

“Connor?” she breathed, unable to say anything more.

Is this real? Fluttering her lashes, Peyton tried to blink him away, but she couldn’t. He was real, he was there, and he was wearing a crisp white button-up with that gorgeous smile that could bring any girl to her knees. His dark blonde hair was gently slicked back, moving lightly in the wind, and he looked at her in a way that actually screamed the words I missed you.

“Peyton.”

She burst into tears when he said her name.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted straightaway, wishing she had the words to say how fucking happy she was to see him. She could barely breathe as she felt her cheek rest against that warm chest she had missed so fucking much.

But just as quickly as she melted into him, she pulled back.

“Wait.” Peyton squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. Pain seared through her chest as she forced herself to stand far away from him. “Wait. Just stop for a second. You can’t be here.”

Connor frowned deeply. “Why not?” he asked.

“My uncle,” Peyton whispered, looking up at him with shame and guilt, and every emotion in between. “He’s going to ruin you if you choose me.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do,” she argued in a panic. “If you so much as see me, Connor, I swear he’ll end your career. He can and he will. I’ve seen him do it to others, and I can’t be the reason you lose everything. I can’t play that role again – especially not with you.”

Connor’s face twisted with confusion. “The only way I lose everything is if I leave here without you.”

“You don’t mean that.” Her face in her hands, Peyton started crying again. “Please, Connor. I’d rather just be a good memory that you miss than the girl who destroyed everything you worked for.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me,” he said firmly. “I’m not just going to leave. I’m not giving up on you.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying right now,” Peyton argued stubbornly, her pink cheeks streaked with hot tears. “You’re in the heat of the moment, but think about five years down the line. What if you don’t have work? Assuming you’re even with me by then, you’ll hate me. You’ll resent me for everything I took from you – I know that you will!”

“I won’t,” Connor said heatedly, pulling her in close. He held her firmly when she tried to break free. “I mean it, Peyton,” he growled, grasping her arms. “You think you know what you’re talking about because you saw what resentment did to your uncle with you. But I’m not him. I’m sure the tabloids claim otherwise, but I’m not heartless like he is, and I can’t just forget about you – I love you.”

His blue eyes blazed into her, melting her as he uttered the words. They sounded too good to be real, but before she could tell herself she’d imagined it, he said them again.

“I love you, Peyton. I can’t stand when I’m not near you. I didn’t know I could be as happy as I am when I’m around you, and I can’t live without the way you make me feel,” Connor said. “And trust me,” he added sternly. “I’m not a person who prides himself on needing anyone but himself. But I need you. I know that I do.”

His speech stole the air from her lungs but Peyton shook her head, hell-bent on resisting.

“You’re saying all this because you’re already here,” she said weakly. “You don’t want to feel like you wasted the trip, so you’re saying whatever you can,” she spoke over his protests, “to get me on a plane back home, but I can’t. I can’t do it, Connor. Trust me, I’ve imagined a world where we’re back together – a million times. But I’ve also imagined you resenting me, despising me, and I can’t survive that, okay?”

With all her might, she pushed away. Her chest heaved as she stood back from him. She could almost swear the sea of flowers around her had stilled – that they had stopped swaying out of respect for her fury.

“The fact of the matter is that this is a fling,” Peyton said, her stomach turning as she watched Connor’s features contort with hurt. But she forced herself to press on. “This was a whirlwind or whatever the press calls it when they write about you. It’s always the same. You meet the girl, you sweep her off her feet, and by the one-month mark you’re done. That’s the script. That’s how you roll,” she said harshly, pained by her own words. “So you and me, Connor? We’re only three weeks in. Give it another seven days, and you’ll be done. I can bet you on that,” Peyton said, trying to sound confident. “Just trust me, okay? A fling isn’t worth sacrificing your career for.”

“I know what flings are, and this isn’t one of them,” Connor countered. There was gravel in his voice as he took a step toward her. But she took a step back.

“What makes you so sure?”

“The fact that you’ve already changed me in ways I couldn’t do myself,” he fired back. “The fact that – in just the time that I’ve known you – you’ve turned me into a better man.” With his stare pinned on her, Connor drew closer again. “You’ve made me a better person, Peyton, and it’s made me want all the things I thought were impossible before. It’s made me think that maybe a family isn’t that far out of my reach.” He gave a bitter laugh to himself. “Trust me, I’d already accepted the reality that I might be sixty before I could find someone who made me want to be love and be selfless. But since I’ve met you, I’ve seen real selflessness. I’ve seen the way you care for people, the way you make their lives better, and it’s made me want to give that same love and care back to you. It’s made my fantasies go from money and women to planning weekend trips with you. To figuring out little things I can do to make you smile, because I fucking live for that smile.”

Connor’s heartbeat raced as he watched Peyton slowly break. He exhaled when he was close enough to touch her again, and this time, he refused to let her go.

“I want to see what it looks like five, ten years from now when I’ve made you happier than you knew you could be,” he said eagerly as his forehead rest against hers. “I want to see just how good a man I became at your side, so please, Peyton. Come back to me. I swear, we have so much more to see together. I know you think we had a good run, but we haven’t scratched the surface yet – I can promise you that. And in five years, I can’t wait to tell you that I won that bet,” he said, breaking into a grin. His heart swelled when he watched her wet eyes finally crinkle into the sweetest laugh. “So are you in?” he asked breathlessly, cupping her face and holding her smiling lips an inch away from his.

It was only two of them, but the words she said next were the best he’d ever heard in his life.

“I’m in,” Peyton laughed through a waterfall of tears. “Yes, Connor,” she whispered as he kissed her in the midst of the field. “I’m in.”

* * *

“Jesus Christ, what a view.”

Connor stared out the window as he walked into Peyton’s tiny bedroom at the B&B. It was legitimately smaller than his closet back home, marking the first time he’d ever been this happy to be in a room so tiny and cramped.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Peyton said dreamily, smiling as Connor set a tray of Prosecco and strawberries onto the nightstand. “From Sofia?” she guessed.

“Yeah. She keeps calling me ‘prince.’ What’s up with that?”

Peyton giggled. “Nothing, now get over here. You promised to tell me the story of how you even found me here.”

“Did I?” Connor smirked. “I was kind of enjoying the fact that you thought I was a wizard.”

“Seriously, though. How the heck did you find me? This isn’t even the place I went to as a kid. This is like, the tiniest village in all of Tuscany. The place I rented my car from in Siena hadn’t even heard of it before,” Peyton said, her brows pinched in an adorable mix of awe and confusion. “I mean it, Schaffer,” she said, pulling him by the shirt onto the bed. “Enough with the secrets. I need you to spill.”

“It was Kensie,” Connor laughed. At the sound of her name, Peyton’s face immediately crumpled. “Easy,” he said, laughing gently. “I would’ve never come here without going to her first and making sure she was fine. In every way.”

“She’s not mad at me?” Peyton asked, her voice tiny.

“Of course not. And in your heart, you had to have known she wouldn’t be. There’s no one in her life that she loves the way she loves you. You’re her everything,” Connor said softly. He cracked a little smile. “Including her Airbnb login.”

Peyton blinked. “Come again?”

"Apparently Kensie was permanently banned from Airbnb a few years ago?”

“Ugh, yes. She threw a birthday party at this super expensive rental a few years back, and Poppy Somerville wound up literally swinging from a chandelier,” Peyton groaned. “She did like, sixty thousand dollars worth of damage, so Kensie’s account got the hammer.”

“Well, that worked out just fine because she’s been logged into your account ever since,” Connor grinned, watching Peyton’s eyes slowly widen as she realized what that meant. When it all sunk in, she smacked him with her pillow and gasped.

“No wonder you figured it out down to where I was staying!” she laughed. “God. I guess Kensie and her crazy friends wound up doing me a favor for once.”

“Both of us, really,” Connor said, handing Peyton her flute of Prosecco. He cocked her head when he detected the crooked little grin on her lips. “What?”

“Nothing. I just like the sound of ‘us,’” she said shyly.

“So do I,” Connor said, pausing to let the word sink into his skin. “Cheers to us then,” he murmured, their glasses touching to make a delicate clink as he leaned in to give her a kiss.

Peyton grinned against his lips.

“To us.”