Lily and Allysa are now best friends, and Ryle even meets Lily’s mother. The romance between Lily and Ryle appears perfect, their feelings only intensifying as they spend more time together and become embedded in each other’s lives. In the present day, Lily wonders if she isn’t also seeking closure with Atlas as well. As a teen, Lily was moved to help him when he was without a home and family, and they became close when he supported Lily through her witnessing her father abusing her mother. Those journals narrate her encounter with Atlas Corrigan, a homeless, 18-year-old boy.

To find it, she rereads old journals that she wrote when she was 15. Throughout this time, Lily finds herself revisiting her past and longing for closure with the death of her father, who was abusive towards her mother. Lily and Ryle’s attraction to each other only increases the more they happen upon each other, until Ryle decides to explore a relationship with Lily, despite his earlier reluctance. The two part ways but meet again six months later, when Lily hires Ryle’s sister, Allysa, to work at a flower shop she has recently opened. Ryle only wants a casual fling, while Lily is looking for a relationship. The couple has chemistry, but it becomes clear that both have different aims when it comes to relationships. There, she encounters Ryle Kincaid, a resident surgeon. The novel opens with Lily-a young college graduate living in Boston-on a rooftop, clearing her thoughts after her father’s funeral.

It ends with us about