She shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.” She fiddled with one of her curls that had popped out of her ponytail. I knew her well enough to know this fidget meant there was more.

“And?”

“Fine.” One of the best things about my sister was how easily she caved. “Colin might have messaged me.” Ah. “Human, not dog. And I might have decided that a dorm with six other people wasn’t where I wanted to make this call. He’s worried about you, Hol.”

Cringe.

“Well, he doesn’t need to be.”

“’Course. And in unrelated news, waterproof mascara is a thing, you know.”

IGNORE.

“So how is Koh Samui?”

“Excellent.” I could see the sea behind her, so I already knew that was the answer. “As is the subject change.”

But I didn’t want go into the details of how much I’d messed everything up on this end.

“Aren’t you missing out on having breakfast with turtles or something?”

Naomi sat up, taking off her sunglasses as she moved into the shade.

“No, Holly. I’m not. And believe it or not, talking to my little sister who is on her own and having a tough time is exactly the one thing I want to be doing right now.”

And something about the way she said it, and knowing that she meant it, made me miss her more than ever.

Oh, great. Wave three of intense tears. At least my mittens were incredibly absorbent.

But it was like the tears took off my mouth brakes, and without meaning to, I told Naomi everything. About how everyone had been right about Woody. About how scared I’d been about the move. About how I’d gotten Nick all wrong. And jumped to conclusions about Elle. And told Fred all the wrong stuff about Logan. Let alone being rubbish to Ruby. About how I’d come here for the perfect Christmas, but right now I felt miserable, not magical, and couldn’t figure out how to get it all back on plan.

“So.” Naomi listened to it all, not interrupting me once. “There’s a lot to unpack here…” She paused. “But let’s take a moment to celebrate that when you’re back, you’re finally going to tell Woody to do one. That has been a LONG time coming.”

Between the sobs that were still popping out when I didn’t expect them, I high-fived her back at the screen.

“Good.” Naomi smiled. “Can my Christmas present be watching out the window?”

I nodded, trying to smile, but she could see right through it.

“C’mon, Hol, I hate seeing you like this. We all make mistakes, admittedly some more than others, and actually…not me so much…” She laughed. “But you were trying to help in your weird little way. And now you’ve apologized to everyone, so please stop beating yourself up.”