Over the next ten months, Daphne and Eddie settle into a warm routine while Eddie’s leukemia remains stable. Daphne visits his apartment after school, brings him meals, and enjoys the books he recommends, but eventually Eddie’s energy fades, his breathing worsens, and he announces that he has retired from publishing. Daphne fears the retirement signals decline, yet Eddie treats it wryly and explains that, with Jonathan’s help, he has found a new oncologist, Dr. Ocean, and is returning to chemotherapy.

As other parts of life shift, Jonathan and his sister finish clearing out their family home in Fond du Lac and discover valuables hidden in a wall, then use some of the proceeds for a trip to Norway. Back home, Jonathan grows restless until a nearby hospital recruits him as interim head, giving him a new role. On Thursday, Daphne takes a personal day, picks Eddie up despite his resistance, and escorts him to the chemotherapy suite, where she signs him in, sits with him through the infusion, and notices that every other patient also has someone beside them.

During the treatment, Eddie asks what it was like when Daphne took her father, Buddy Zabriskie, to chemotherapy years earlier. Daphne explains that Buddy’s illness unexpectedly deepened their relationship: although she had long felt guilty about neglecting him, she discovered that he was beloved by family, friends, and even nurses, and that going with him to treatment became a joyful time together. She recalls Buddy’s metastatic melanoma, his theories about the healthful life of fishermen, and the painful realization that those stories had really been meant to keep her from worrying about the dangers he faced.

Daphne then tells Eddie how, after Buddy developed pneumonia and worsened in the hospital, she learned that Buddy regretted never flying and never seeing the Pacific Ocean. Acting on Jonathan Fuller’s advice that the trip might still be possible, Daphne bought first-class tickets and took Buddy to Big Sur. The journey exhausted Buddy but made him happy, and in California he talked openly about his life, his marriage to Daphne’s mother, and his gratitude that Daphne had come through for him. On the return flight, however, Buddy died in his sleep beside Daphne. Terrified that the plane would be diverted and determined to get him home, Daphne waited until landing to tell the crew, then relied on her uncle Jay and Jonathan, who immediately came to the airport and handled the aftermath.

Remembering Buddy’s death leads Daphne to recognize how much gratitude and relief shaped her love for Jonathan, who became indispensable in her moment of crisis. Eddie agrees that people underestimate those forces in love. The conversation ends with a further revelation about the past: when Daphne describes telling Abigail that Buddy had died, Eddie says Abigail had never truly gotten over Buddy, even after marrying Lucas, and that Lucas had always been a lesser substitute for her first love.