Kayla Wallace Says She'll 'Never' Say 'Goodbye' to “When Calls the Heart, ”Teases Return After Season 11 Exit (Exclusive)

Never fear, Hearties — Kayla Wallace is not closing the chapter on When Calls the Heart!

The Canadian actress, 31, starred as Fiona Miller on the Hallmark series from season 6 through season 10 but had to bow out of the show's eleventh season as filming for Landman conflicted.

"It was definitely a schedule thing that wasn't going to work out," she tells PEOPLE of the "moving pieces" behind the scenes that prompted her character to be written out of season 11, which premiered in April.

Related: Landman's Kayla Wallace Recalls Learning When Calls the Heart Was a 'Comfort Show' for Billy Bob Thornton (Exclusive)

"My husband's on that show, so it's still very much in my life," she says, referring to Kevin McGarry, who she married this summer. "And we're friends with a lot of the cast."

"It's never a goodbye," she continues. "It's never a goodbye. It's just always like — can it work out with whatever's going on in my life that year?"

In fact, as season 11 was filming last year — before she went to live in Texas for five months to film Landman — Wallace reveals she was "on set so much."

"I was literally there every other day because we were raising a puppy, so I would bring her out to the set," she says.

After spending so much time in Hope Valley, albeit somewhat unofficially, Wallace teases that fans could see a familiar face on the show's upcoming season. "I might have an appearance on this season," she says of season 12, which premieres Jan. 5.

Related: Erin Krakow Reflects on the Real-Life Romances on the When Calls The Heart Set: 'Magic in Hope Valley' (Exclusive)

Being on set not necessarily for work was a funny experience for Wallace, though. "I felt like I couldn't really go to Crafty without [Kevin]," she jokes. "I was like, 'Right, I'm just a visitor today.' Although I totally did."

"It's one big family, that set," she continues. "It's such a great community that show, and we're both very lucky that that show came into our lives. It brought us together, so we're just very grateful for it."

Reflecting on her relationship with McGarry — who proposed in 2022, two years after they confirmed they were together — Wallace says the romance "wasn't an immediate thing" when she met McGarry (a.k.a Constable Nathan Grant) on set in 2018.

"It was definitely stretched over many years that we were friends. But I think it's pretty common that people meet on set, at least in our industry. I think we see it a lot," she says. "But yeah, sometimes I think about, had I not got that audition or had he got that audition, would we know each other today?"

She adds, "We're always just grateful that the cards played out the way they did, and that we got to work together."

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When Calls the Heart season 12 premieres Sunday, Jan. 5 at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel, and new episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+.

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