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“Yep. Awful. Especially the part where your parents are forcing you to live with them forever so you can continue to walk in on them in a state of partial undress after Saturday morning yoga.”

“Eww.”

“I know.”

“My parents don’t want me to stay forever.”

“I know.”

“Right.”

She presses on a smile. “It’s almost like we spent the past hour saying the same things over and over to each other.”

“Because we have.”

“So what’s really stopping you from ripping off the Band-Aid and telling Noah you want to move?”

“I’m scared.”

“Life is scary,” she says. “Love is terrifying. But I broke up with Bucky anyway because I didn't want to be stuck with someone who wasn’t even a fraction of what I dreamed of.”

“Noah is one hundred percent everything I've ever dreamed of.”

“You keep making my point for me.”

I chew my lip, eyes flitting to the baby ducks again, then their mama. A bigger duck—the drake, I think—waddles over to them. A complete family of ducks. I want that so much my insides ache.

“I want to be with him, Mare.”

She smiles. “I’m acutely aware of this, Jo. And also? I have no horse in this race. You and I haven’t lived together since college, and you’re still my bestie forever, so I’m pretty sure we’re the very best example of distance not being the thing that defines a relationship.”

I swallow. “Now you’re making me think Noah and I could still maintain a relationship, even if he goes to Mayville and I stay here.”

Maren shrugs. “If you both committed to that, sure you could.”

“Oh.”

“Does any part of you want to live a thousand miles away from Noah Stadler?”

“Not a single molecule in my body.”

She stares at me, frozen and not saying a word or making any facial expression at all. Very not Maren. Super unsettling. Tears gather in my eyes. “So?”

“I think you have your answer.”

I nod, choking down a lump. “I do.”

“Go tell your man,” she says.

“Okay.” I take a couple of deep breaths, in danger of hyperventilating. “I’m going to call you right after, no matter⁠—”

There’s a soft tap on my shoulder. I spin around.

My phone drops to my lap.

“Noah,” I gasp.

His eyes are the ones I want to see with all the molecules in my body.