Chap­ter 43 begins on a snowy day as Leighton eager­ly awaits Liam’s arrival, her excite­ment mixed with a touch of anx­i­ety. When he parks his car awk­ward­ly in the snow-cov­ered street, she greets him with both antic­i­pa­tion and ner­vous­ness. The back­yard is alive with the laugh­ter and ener­gy of her younger sis­ters, Camp­bell and Juniper, who are joy­ful­ly play­ing in the snow. The moment is filled with play­ful ten­sion as Leighton and Liam hes­i­tate for a brief sec­ond, unsure of how to act, but Liam’s enthu­si­asm quick­ly draws them into the fun. He takes charge, sug­gest­ing a snow­ball fight, and with his infec­tious ener­gy, they all rush into the bat­tle with excite­ment and aban­don. The spon­tane­ity of the sit­u­a­tion brings them clos­er, break­ing the ini­tial awk­ward­ness and set­ting the tone for a day filled with laugh­ter and light­heart­ed fun.

In the midst of the snow­ball fight, Liam steps up as the cap­tain of their team, choos­ing Juniper as his team­mate, which leaves Leighton feel­ing slight­ly over­looked but not dis­cour­aged. How­ev­er, this fleet­ing feel­ing of exclu­sion quick­ly fades as the game esca­lates and Juniper enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly embraces her role as “the Beast.” She charges at their snow fort with deter­mi­na­tion, and the entire scene shifts from friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion to pure joy, with all three of them work­ing togeth­er to build defens­es and hurl snow­balls at each oth­er. The play­ful chaos of the bat­tle ends with Juniper’s vic­to­ry, but the moment lingers as a per­fect rep­re­sen­ta­tion of child­hood inno­cence and joy. This sim­ple yet delight­ful scene under­scores the beau­ty of care­free moments, remind­ing Leighton of the joy that can be found even in the small­est, most spon­ta­neous inter­ac­tions.

As the snow­ball fight winds down, a ten­der moment unfolds between Leighton and Liam, set­ting the stage for a qui­eter, more inti­mate inter­ac­tion. In con­trast to the cold win­ter air, the warmth of their kiss stands as a sym­bol of their bud­ding con­nec­tion, bring­ing a soft­ness to the oth­er­wise frosty day. Their shared kiss, light­heart­ed yet mean­ing­ful, marks a sig­nif­i­cant moment in their rela­tion­ship, a qui­et affir­ma­tion of their grow­ing bond amidst the play­ful chaos of the day. Just as this ten­der exchange takes place, the unex­pect­ed dis­cov­ery of a let­ter from Juniper to a crow named Joe adds a whim­si­cal ele­ment to the scene. The let­ter, filled with inno­cence and cre­ativ­i­ty, serves as a reminder of the pure and imag­i­na­tive world through the eyes of a child, adding a lay­er of charm to the nar­ra­tive and high­light­ing the dif­fer­ences between the sim­ple joys of youth and the more com­plex emo­tions that Leighton is begin­ning to expe­ri­ence.

How­ev­er, the warmth of the day is quick­ly over­shad­owed when Leighton’s father unex­pect­ed­ly returns home ear­li­er than antic­i­pat­ed. His arrival brings an imme­di­ate shift in the atmos­phere, as Leighton is struck with a sense of unease. She becomes con­cerned about how her father will react to Liam’s vis­it, know­ing that his pres­ence might upset the del­i­cate bal­ance in their home. Despite her wor­ries, Liam inter­acts effort­less­ly with the fam­i­ly, dis­cussing col­lege and sports in a way that sug­gests nor­mal­cy, pro­vid­ing a sense of calm in the ten­sion-filled house­hold. The din­ner con­ver­sa­tion flows smooth­ly, but beneath the sur­face, Leighton’s inter­nal anx­i­eties grow, sens­ing that this moment of peace could quick­ly unrav­el.

As the evening pro­gress­es and Liam pre­pares to leave, the ten­sion between Leighton and him becomes pal­pa­ble, though still wrapped in play­ful ban­ter. Their part­ing words car­ry a mix of light­heart­ed­ness and under­ly­ing con­cern, as Leighton urges cau­tion about their affec­tion in front of her fam­i­ly. This warn­ing reflects the com­plex­i­ty of her feel­ings, as she nav­i­gates the del­i­cate bal­ance between her grow­ing feel­ings for Liam and the unpre­dictable dynam­ics of her house­hold. The chap­ter ends with a sense of fore­bod­ing, as Leighton grap­ples with the unset­tling feel­ing that the peace they’ve expe­ri­enced is fleet­ing. Despite the laugh­ter and warmth of the day, her instincts tell her that the sense of nor­mal­cy in her home is pre­car­i­ous at best. The phrase “Not yet” echoes in her mind, encap­su­lat­ing her anx­i­ety as she returns inside, know­ing that the equi­lib­ri­um she has come to rely on could shift at any moment.