This Summer Will Be Different
by Carley Fortune
Contents
Chapter 40
Overview
Lucy and Felix spend alternating months together, meet each other’s families, and envision a shared future. After visiting Bridget, Miles, and newborn Rowan in Sydney, Lucy proposes moving to PEI for good. Felix reveals he’s already drafted plans for their house and farm, and they commit to building a life together.
Summary
Lucy and Felix alternate visits between Toronto and Prince Edward Island through spring and summer, integrating into each other’s daily lives. In Toronto, Felix explores Lucy’s world, meets her parents, and supports her flower-farm plans. Lucy seeks—and pointedly declines needing—her mother’s blessing, but they share a tender moment remembering Aunt Stacy.
Lucy and Felix deepen their intimacy and routines, from cooking to reading, and he meets her coworkers and spaces. In June, Lucy visits PEI, where they stay with Felix’s parents at Summer Wind, walk the future home site, and dream through practical details like gardens and a vegetable patch.
In August, they fly together to Sydney to meet Bridget and Miles’s newborn, Rowan. Time with family cements Lucy’s desire for permanence with Felix. On the beach, Lucy proposes ending their seasonal separations to spend autumn and the holidays together on PEI and to start building their house and her flower farm.
Felix reveals he has already been sketching preliminary plans—a house, barn, and greenhouse—based on Lucy’s notebook. They agree to move forward together on PEI, committing to a shared home and life.
Who Appears
- LucyProtagonist; balances long-distance visits, introduces Felix to her life, seeks permanence, and proposes moving to PEI to build their home and flower farm.
- FelixLucy's partner; embraces her world, meets her family, reads to her, hosts her on PEI, and reveals house and farm sketches, committing to a shared future.
- BridgetLucy’s best friend and Felix’s sister; in Sydney with newborn Rowan, shares emotional reunion and family time with Lucy and Felix.
- MilesBridget’s partner; hosts Lucy and Felix in Sydney and joins family outings with baby Rowan.
- RowanBridget and Miles’s newborn; her arrival anchors Lucy and Felix’s sense of family and future.
- Lucy’s motherMeets Felix; shares a candid, tender kitchen conversation with Lucy about happiness and Aunt Stacy.
- Lucy’s fatherMeets Felix during the family visit in St. Catharines; supportive background presence.
- ChristineFelix’s mother; prepared the guest room for Lucy at Summer Wind and hosts their dinner.