In Chap­ter Forty-Three of *If These Wings Could Fly*, the nar­ra­tive unfolds on a snowy day as Leighton waits for Liam to arrive. As he parks awk­ward­ly in the snow-filled street, she greets him with excite­ment and anx­i­ety. The back­yard is bustling with Leighton’s younger sis­ters, Camp­bell and Juniper, who are play­ing joy­ful­ly in the snow. After a brief moment of hes­i­ta­tion between Leighton and Liam, they are quick­ly drawn into the play­ful chaos of a snow­ball fight, led by Liam’s enthu­si­asm and strat­e­gy.

Liam estab­lish­es him­self as cap­tain, play­ful­ly choos­ing Juniper as a team­mate, which leaves Leighton feel­ing slight­ly over­looked. How­ev­er, this moment of com­pe­ti­tion swift­ly turns into laugh­ter and fun as Juniper embraces her role as “the Beast,” charg­ing at their snow fort. The scene cap­tures an inno­cent joy, with the three of them con­struct­ing defens­es and hurl­ing snow­balls in a spir­it­ed bat­tle that ends with Juniper’s vic­to­ry.

After the play­ful chaos, a ten­der moment unfolds between Leighton and Liam, marked by a kiss that con­trasts the cold­ness of win­ter with warmth. Their inter­ac­tion is light­heart­ed yet inti­mate, show­cas­ing a bud­ding con­nec­tion amidst the back­drop of famil­ial inter­ac­tions. The unex­pect­ed encounter with Juniper’s let­ter to a crow named Joe adds a whim­si­cal ele­ment to the nar­ra­tive, high­light­ing the inno­cence and cre­ativ­i­ty of child­hood.

As the day pro­gress­es, ten­sion creeps in when Leighton’s father unex­pect­ed­ly returns home ear­ly. His pres­ence alters the dynam­ic, intro­duc­ing a sense of unease for Leighton, who is con­cerned about her father’s poten­tial reac­tion to Liam’s vis­it. Despite this, Liam inter­acts smooth­ly with her fam­i­ly, dis­cussing col­lege and sports, cre­at­ing a facade of a nor­mal fam­i­ly din­ner.

How­ev­er, Leighton’s inter­nal strug­gles ampli­fy, sens­ing that this calm moment may quick­ly shift. As Liam pre­pares to leave, they share a mix of play­ful ban­ter and under­ly­ing ten­sion, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing to Leighton urg­ing cau­tion about their affec­tion in front of her fam­i­ly.

The chap­ter con­cludes on a note of fore­bod­ing; although the day has been filled with laugh­ter and warmth, Leighton grap­ples with unset­tling instincts, aware that hap­pi­ness in her house­hold often coex­ists with a pre­car­i­ous bal­ance. The phrase “Not yet” encap­su­lates her anx­i­ety as she returns inside, already know­ing that the sense of nor­mal­cy may be tem­po­rary .