Chap­ter 67 of If These Wings Could Fly delves into a pro­found­ly inti­mate and emo­tion­al moment as the pro­tag­o­nist, Leighton, requests that Liam take her home before the fire­works begin. The hol­i­day sea­son has always been dif­fi­cult for her, filled with dis­com­fort and lin­ger­ing emo­tions that have made her feel dis­con­nect­ed. In response to these chal­lenges, she and her sib­lings, Camp­bell and Juniper, cre­at­ed their own set of mean­ing­ful tra­di­tions, small but sig­nif­i­cant rit­u­als that help them nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ty of fam­i­ly dynam­ics. Every New Year’s Eve, they climb to the roof to watch the fire­works togeth­er, a rit­u­al that holds deep mean­ing for them despite the holiday’s bit­ter­sweet under­tones. This tra­di­tion serves as a qui­et rebel­lion against the usu­al chaos, offer­ing a sense of con­trol and con­nec­tion amidst a world that feels con­stant­ly uncer­tain. Despite the dis­com­fort of the hol­i­day sea­son, she is unwill­ing to aban­don this small but pow­er­ful rit­u­al that has become a cor­ner­stone of their bond.

As Leighton and Liam park near the end of her road, the mood shifts into some­thing more per­son­al. Liam steps out of the car to open her door with a warmth that con­trasts with the chill in the night air. His ges­ture is sim­ple, yet it car­ries a depth of affec­tion that makes the moment feel spe­cial. They share a brief but mean­ing­ful kiss, one that deep­ens their con­nec­tion even as they are sur­round­ed by the sounds of Auburn’s trees and the rest­less caw­ing of crows in the dis­tance. These crows, with their eerie, echo­ing cries, seem to add an extra lay­er of ten­sion to the oth­er­wise serene moment. But the night sky, vast and filled with stars, envelops them in a sense of inti­ma­cy that over­shad­ows every­thing else. The clar­i­ty of the heav­ens above feels like an exten­sion of their bond, some­thing eter­nal and unspo­ken, con­nect­ing them to both the present moment and a larg­er, more endur­ing love. It is a brief but sig­nif­i­cant pause in time, where the out­side world falls away, and they are the only two peo­ple who mat­ter.

Caught up in the tran­scen­dent beau­ty of the moment, Leighton sud­den­ly finds her­self over­come by an intense wave of emo­tion. With­out think­ing, she blurts out, “I love you,” the words com­ing out as if they’ve been wait­ing for just the right moment to be expressed. This heart­felt con­fes­sion is met with Liam’s imme­di­ate embrace, his arms wrap­ping around her as if to reas­sure her that the feel­ing is mutu­al. His response, though sim­ple, is enough to solid­i­fy the depth of their bond, and he teas­es her light­ly, ask­ing her to share some­thing new with him. Leighton, with a play­ful glint in her eye, teas­es back, mak­ing no promis­es, yet the con­nec­tion between them con­tin­ues to grow with each shared glance, smile, and kiss. Their love, while new, feels pro­found and all-encom­pass­ing, as if it has been build­ing for years in the qui­et moments they’ve shared. Their play­ful exchange adds an ele­ment of light­heart­ed­ness to an oth­er­wise emo­tion­al­ly charged scene, high­light­ing the bal­ance between joy and grav­i­ty in their rela­tion­ship.

As Liam holds her close, his warmth seems to wrap around her like a pro­tec­tive shield against the cold air that lingers around them. It’s a moment of raw sim­plic­i­ty, yet it feels loaded with mean­ing. The stars above seem to gaze down at them, silent wit­ness­es to the hap­pi­ness that fills the space between them. The trees around them, alive with the rest­less move­ment of crows, seem to fade into the back­ground as the cou­ple finds a kind of peace in each other’s arms. The qui­et soli­tude of this moment stands in stark con­trast to the noise of the world beyond them, mak­ing it feel even more sacred and pro­found. As they stand togeth­er, it becomes clear that their love, though still in its ear­ly stages, is already marked by a deep sense of under­stand­ing and trust. The chap­ter beau­ti­ful­ly encap­su­lates the raw, vul­ner­a­ble nature of their con­nec­tion, show­ing how small, inti­mate moments can hold the most sig­nif­i­cant mean­ing. The night sky, the fire­works, and the crows all fade into the back­ground, leav­ing only the two of them in a world that feels entire­ly their own. Their love, sim­ple yet pro­found, becomes a reminder that despite the chaos around them, moments of peace, con­nec­tion, and love can be found even in the most unex­pect­ed places.