Three days later, conflicting schedules force Delilah and Jackson to get creative about spending time together. They watch a movie together over the phone and discuss Jackson’s anxiety about Camille, who’s supposed to take his sisters to their leadership brunch at school the next day. When Penelope and Adeline engineer a ruse to get Jackson away from the call, the sisters commandeer the call and secretly question Delilah about her intentions regarding their brother. Delilah sincerely reassures them that she truly likes him. The girls ask her to be patient with Jackson and to help take care of him, which she agrees to do. Jackson returns to the call, completely unaware that his sisters have just vetted and approved of his new relationship.

Gianna confirms to Delilah that Keith deliberately sabotaged her work trip and had the production team tap in early to one of her broadcasts—the one where the whole city heard her with Jackson. Gianna also confides that she’s now dating Mark. Later, Keith calls Delilah into his office for a private meeting and informs her that he’s demoting her to the features department, a less visible role that won’t allow her to report on the weather. When Delilah asks why he has always treated her poorly, Keith admits that it’s because “everyone else loves [her]” (387). Stunned and feeling trapped, Delilah goes to the set for her noon broadcast. Overwhelmed during the live report, she pulls out her earpiece and abruptly announces to the viewers, “Breaking news, actually […] I quit” (388).

At the radio station, Jackson’s colleagues Aiden, Maggie, and Hughie rush to tell him that Delilah just quit her job live on television. Jackson runs to the parking lot and finds a distraught Delilah trying to pack a box of her belongings into her car. As he comforts her, his phone rings with a frantic call from his sister Penelope. She tearfully reports that Camille failed to show up for the leadership brunch. In the ensuing argument, Adeline ran off, got onto a city bus without her phone, and is now missing.

Delilah puts her own crisis aside to help a panicked Jackson search for Adeline. After checking the ice-cream shop, the pagoda in Patterson Park, and the Bond Street Wharf, they locate her sitting alone on a bench in the Federal Hill neighborhood. To comfort the distraught sisters, Delilah shares her own story of being abandoned by her mother, a professional violinist, and finding love and stability with her grandfather, who raised her. The story helps Adeline realize that Jackson is all the family she needs. 

Later, at Jackson’s house, the day’s events overwhelm Delilah. She blames herself for her career crisis and suggests to Jackson that they need space from each other. Jackson firmly refuses, producing the Post-it note contract that they made on their trip to cover the storm. He’s crossed out the clause limiting their relationship to the trip. He insists that they will face her problems together, and a relieved Delilah agrees.

A supportive group of friends and family, including Gianna, Aiden, Maggie, and Jackson’s sisters, gathers at Jackson’s house to plan Delilah’s comeback. Gianna presents a meticulously researched file detailing Keith’s history of professional and financial misconduct. Delilah states that she does not want to blackmail Keith to get her job back, and Jackson agrees, framing the effort instead as a fight against Keith’s pattern of abuse. In a quiet moment, Jackson and Adeline have a healing conversation where she affirms that he’s the only parent she and Penelope need. Inspired by the unwavering support around her, Delilah devises a plan.

Gianna sets the plan in motion for Delilah to have a private meeting with the station’s owner, Ava Monroe, by fabricating a meeting request from Keith. Gianna reveals that Jackson’s role is to create an on-air distraction by wearing the station’s old turtle mascot costume to keep Keith from distracted. When Delilah meets with Ava, she gives a speech affirming her professional value and her connection to the Baltimore community. Ava is convinced and agrees to reinstate Delilah and force Keith into an early retirement. As Ava leaves, she mentions that Keith is currently preoccupied with the on-air distraction: a “man in the turtle suit” (424).

Live on the air, Jackson stalls for time in the suffocating turtle suit, ignoring a furious Keith. Instead of delivering a proper weather report, he looks into the camera and gives a heartfelt speech praising Delilah’s resilience and publicly promising to never underestimate her again. After ending the broadcast, he pulls a touched Delilah into a quiet hallway and explains that he wore the suit to prove that she will never have to face her battles alone. Referencing her signature sign-off, “And now, back to you” (431), Jackson tells her that the universe has constantly been guiding him back to her. When a tearful Delilah asks if he could love her someday, Jackson passionately kisses her and promises to love her always. An appended radio transcript features the couple playfully recounting their first impressions of each other on Aiden’s Heartstrings broadcast.

Sometime in the future, Delilah and Jackson have settled into a happy routine. She delivers her Sunday weather report from a local park while Jackson and his sisters watch. Afterward, they will visit her grandfather Gus, whose memory is fading but whose days are filled with their company. Jackson, who once left Delilah critical notes about her parking, now tucks loving Post-it notes inside her notepad. Delilah knows that he’s planning to propose soon—three weeks ago, she discovered a small rose-gold ring hidden in his sock drawer. She sees him toying with it in his pocket and feels a deep sense of peace and patience, secure in the knowledge that he’s just waiting for the right moment.