Chap­ter 49 of If These Wings Could Fly opens with Leighton wak­ing up in Liam’s bed, a sit­u­a­tion that fills her with a sense of unease due to the inti­ma­cy and close­ness of the moment. The warmth of the morn­ing con­trasts with the dis­com­fort she feels, height­ened by the weight of their devel­op­ing rela­tion­ship. When she checks the win­dow, she finds odd gifts left by Joe, tying the present moment back to her past. These gifts, although small, hold a deep sig­nif­i­cance for her, and she decides to col­lect them for Juniper, believ­ing they may car­ry a deep­er mean­ing. This con­nec­tion between her past and present adds com­plex­i­ty to Leighton’s emo­tion­al state, as she is forced to con­front both her past with Joe and the bud­ding feel­ings she has for Liam. It is in this space of uncer­tain­ty that Leighton tries to nav­i­gate her feel­ings, uncer­tain about where this rela­tion­ship might lead and how it aligns with her own sense of self.

Leighton moves to the kitchen, where Liam eager­ly tells her of his plans for a morn­ing hike, his enthu­si­asm clear­ly evi­dent. Despite her ini­tial hes­i­ta­tion due to the cold weath­er, Liam’s infec­tious ener­gy and his sug­ges­tion of “crow research” as a rea­son to go on the hike shift her per­spec­tive. His play­ful teas­ing and thought­ful ges­tures, like offer­ing her cozy clothes and prepar­ing oat­meal, high­light the deep­en­ing con­nec­tion between them. The idea of using the hike to learn more about crows, an inter­est of Leighton’s, reveals Liam’s atten­tive­ness and effort to bond with her over shared inter­ests. As Leighton hes­i­tates but ulti­mate­ly agrees to join him, there’s a sense of mutu­al under­stand­ing begin­ning to form between them. Their shared moments of laugh­ter and cama­raderie empha­size the chem­istry that’s slow­ly devel­op­ing in their rela­tion­ship, even though Leighton still feels unsure about her emo­tion­al response to Liam’s ear­li­er con­fes­sion of love.

On their hike, Leighton meets up with her friends, Amelia and Sofia, who are both excit­ed about the upcom­ing art show. Sofia shares her artis­tic jour­ney, dis­cussing her pieces for the exhi­bi­tion, which gives Leighton a glimpse into her world and the cre­ative ener­gy that sur­rounds her. This con­ver­sa­tion serves as a con­trast to Leighton’s inter­nal con­flict, as her thoughts drift back to Liam’s dec­la­ra­tion of love and what it means for their con­nec­tion. As the hike con­tin­ues, there are moments of light­heart­ed­ness, such as dis­cus­sions about hot cocoa ver­sus cof­fee, but beneath these casu­al exchanges, Leighton is strug­gling with the com­plex­i­ty of her feel­ings for Liam. Sofia, ever per­cep­tive, press­es Leighton about her emo­tion­al state, encour­ag­ing her to con­front the depth of her feel­ings. It becomes evi­dent that Leighton has not ful­ly processed her emo­tions, and Sofia’s encour­age­ment sparks a deep­er reflec­tion on the sin­cer­i­ty of Liam’s affec­tion and her own fears about what it might mean to open her­self up to love.

At a scenic look­out point, the group stops to enjoy the view, while Amelia and Liam engage in a con­ver­sa­tion about stu­dent coun­cil busi­ness. Mean­while, Sofia push­es Leighton fur­ther, inquir­ing about the events from the pre­vi­ous evening with Liam. Leighton admits to feel­ing over­whelmed and pan­icked by his con­fes­sion of love, reveal­ing just how con­flict­ed she feels about the sit­u­a­tion. Sofia lis­tens intent­ly, offer­ing gen­tle encour­age­ment, which helps Leighton gain a clear­er per­spec­tive on her feel­ings. The con­ver­sa­tion sparks a real­iza­tion in Leighton about the con­sis­ten­cy of Liam’s affec­tion and the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that she needs to embrace in order to move for­ward. The chap­ter clos­es with an impor­tant metaphor, as the crows gath­er around the town, serv­ing as a pow­er­ful image of the chal­lenges and choic­es that lie ahead. Leighton reflects on the crows, sym­bol­iz­ing the need for patience and self-aware­ness, as she too must decide when to take con­trol of her own feel­ings and rela­tion­ships. The metaphor of the crows leav­ing when they choose mir­rors Leighton’s grow­ing under­stand­ing of love—something that can­not be forced or con­trolled but must unfold nat­u­ral­ly. Through this metaphor, the chap­ter explores the com­plex­i­ty of rela­tion­ships, self-iden­ti­ty, and the inter­nal jour­ney toward emo­tion­al growth.