Authors Note & Summary
This is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. I really hope y'all seen this coming
After spending Thanksgiving on Jade Taylor’s family farm, Estella Jeon returns home for Christmas believing she’ll only be gone a few weeks. Instead, the distance from her apartment—and from River Crew Taylor—makes her realize just how much her life has changed.
At home, she’s surrounded by everything she once thought she wanted: a beautiful house, successful parents, and a future already mapped out in law. But the more time she spends there, the more her eating disorder resurfaces, her writing disappears, and the house begins to feel painfully empty. When her parents leave town on an unexpected legal case, River notices her texts becoming shorter before stopping altogether. Trusting his instincts, he drives three hours to her doorstep carrying homemade soup and cinnamon rolls with one simple message: “Mom thought you forgot to eat.”
Together they return to the Taylor farm, where the warmth of River’s family slowly gives Estella permission to imagine a different future. Through snowy mornings, handmade Christmas gifts, tea readings from Auntie Iris, cozy nights by the fireplace, and ordinary moments that become unforgettable, the two quietly fall in love.
River never tells Estella who she should become. Instead, he asks one life-changing question:
“If nobody expected anything from you... where would you go?”
Her answer comes without hesitation.
“Here.”
For the first time, Estella chooses herself. She tells her parents she wants to rethink law school—not because of River, but because she’s finally ready to write the story she’s always wanted to live. Supported by parents who love her enough to let her find her own path, Estella embraces her identity as a writer while River stands beside her, never pushing, only believing in her.
As winter break comes to an end, they return to campus uncertain whether their relationship can survive outside the magic of the farm. River worries everything will change once they’re back in the real world.
Instead, Estella reaches for his hand in the middle of campus and introduces him with complete certainty:
“This is my boyfriend.”
The novel ends with Estella publishing the first blog post of the new year, realizing that home was never the beautiful house she grew up in—it was muddy boots by the back door, coffee before sunrise, too many voices in the kitchen, and the people who noticed when she stopped eating.
Estella Jeon has spent her whole life following a plan.
Top grades. Prestigious law school. A future carefully built by two parents who love her enough to dream big for her.
Then she spends Christmas on a family farm in Arkansas.
River Taylor isn’t trying to change her life. He’s too busy caring for animals, fixing fences, writing poetry in secret, and making sure everyone around him feels safe. But somewhere between snowy mornings, handwritten journals, shared coffee, and a house overflowing with laughter, Estella begins to wonder if the future she’s been chasing was ever really hers.
As winter draws to a close, she’ll have to decide whether to return to the life she always expected... or choose the one she never saw coming.
Sometimes the place you’re searching for isn’t a destination.
Sometimes it’s a person.
Sometimes it’s a farm
