Chapter 17 Summary, Themes, and Key Moments
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens at the Rose and Crown, Mont's pub, where Eve arrives arm in arm with the Montrose twins, Tessa and Alex. The pub's dark wood and green velvet interior feels perfectly suited to the Lake District and to Mont himself, who is behind the bar pouring gin while chatting with a grizzled customer. Tessa immediately tries a trick question about whether Eve finds Mont cute, hoping to catch her off guard, but Alex shuts down the man-talk in favor of bonding.
Eve orders lemonade—firmly, and only lemonade—because she has decided she cannot get drunk or even tipsy tonight. She has plans when she gets home, and she wants to ensure that if Jacob decides to go along with those plans, there can be no question about consent.
The conversation shifts to Tessa's DIY YouTube channel, DIYTessa, which Eve scrolls through on Alex's phone. She sees videos on upscaling IKEA furniture, creating feature walls, and DIY macramé planters. Instead of feeling envious of Tessa's success, Eve feels inspired—she wants something to show for herself, evidence of a passion committed to. She realizes, abruptly, that the passion she's imagining is Castell Cottage: years of high tea and recipes. This is a problem, since she plans to leave by the end of the month.
Alex, meanwhile, reveals she's a mechanic who runs the only local autoshop and rebuilds classic cars as a hobby. Tessa gently pushes Alex to be more confident about turning the hobby into a business. Eve tries not to feel too at home with these wonderful people in this wonderful place, but she fails spectacularly. When Alex asks Eve what her thing is, Eve replies, without hesitation, that she takes care of people. Nothing has ever sounded so right.
Meanwhile, Jacob is in his office at 1:15 A.M., staring at the clock and updating accounts he doesn't technically need to touch. He's trying to distract himself from wondering whether Eve is having fun. He resists the urge to call Mont to check on her, remembering how his first girlfriend dumped him after finding a spreadsheet he'd kept tracking their relationship. He's also made a private vow: no being alone with Eve at night, because he can't trust himself.
When Eve arrives, she knocks on his office door. She's wearing a tiny white dress with flecks of color, and she's smiling. She tells him she knows what he did—organizing the night out for her—and calls him the sweetest man alive. She admits she's been trying hard not to jump his bones, but tonight made it clear she can't hold out anymore. She tells him she didn't drink a drop of alcohol all night, that she drank only lemonade because she knew she was coming back to be with him.
Jacob reminds her she told him she didn't want to do this. Eve says she changed her mind. He asks if she thinks he's bad for her personal growth, and she tells him she doesn't think he could be bad for her if he tried. Jacob then lays his truth bare: he doesn't just want to sleep with her. He wants everything. He needs this to be real, and he can't start something that will end with her getting bored and disappearing. Eve tells him to stop expecting her to vanish—she's not going anywhere. She explains that she's been thinking about what she wants out of life, and the answers are getting clearer: she wants to be happy, she wants to feel like herself, and Jacob makes her happy and lets her be herself. She asks him to touch her tonight, and tells him it won't be a mistake—it will be a choice, and it will mean things are different from now on.
Jacob realizes he loves her, and if she's brave enough to choose him, he'll choose her back. He walks around the desk, and they confirm the traffic light system for consent. Eve produces a condom she got from the dispenser in the ladies' room at the pub, and says,