Neither of us spoke, just then. Neither of us needed to. Later, of course, we would. In the days that followed, we talked about everything – how Alex’s deepest fear, right from the start, had been that something would happen to his team; how I’d been so scared of my angel’s actions, but somehow couldn’t talk to him about it. How Sophie hadn’t been the one who’d protected my mother after all – which panicked me when I heard, so that I had to check her again and again to reassure myself that she really was all right, even if we had no idea where she was or who with. Alex’s old crush on Kara, and the way she’d kissed him in the AK house; my own kiss with Seb. My friendship with Seb, which was never going to go away, ever – and which Alex really was fine with now. It turned out that he had been ever since the night of the terrorist attack, when he thought I’d died and had spent hours searching for me – it “kind of put things in perspective” for him, he said.

We’d talk about all of these things later; we’d hash them out and look at them from every angle and make them all okay...but for now, the only thing that mattered was the two of us in the tent together. The softness of the sleeping bags, and the warmth of our bodies.

At last the glow from the campfire was almost gone, leaving the tent cast in shadow. We’d heard Seb and Sam go to bed in the truck a long time ago; the world was quiet. Alex rolled over onto his side and lay looking down at me in the dim light, propped up on his elbow. The expression in his eyes was as serious as the first time he’d told me he loved me. He took my hand and kissed its palm, his lips pressing against my skin...and my heart quickened. I knew before he said it.

“Willow, listen...” He stroked a strand of my hair back. “I know we said we wanted to wait until it could be perfect, but—”

“This is perfect,” I interrupted. I touched his face. “We’re here together. It couldn’t possibly be more perfect.”

Alex didn’t say anything, but I caught a wave of his emotions as he bent down and kissed me, and my breath caught with their intensity. Then he pulled away, stretching down to the bottom of the tent. I raised myself up, admiring the beautiful lines of his body as he reached into his bag and pulled something out.