Seb pulled something from his pocket and handed it to her. “What do you see when you look at that?”

Via felt shocked and soft, as she had the first time she’d looked at the Polaroid. She glanced up at him and saw that he was legitimately waiting for her to answer the question. She cleared her throat and was pretty surprised when her voice didn’t shake. “I see you, looking so handsome I can barely breathe. And you’re holding me. And I see me.” Unbidden, her eyes tightened with tears. She blinked them immediately back. “I look so happy that it makes me sad.”

“Makes you sad?”

She didn’t look up at him, instead kept her gaze on the Polaroid. “Because I haven’t seen myself look this happy in a really long time. And more than happy. I look like I belong. Look at that! I look like I got invited to this party and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.” She held the photo far away and then close again. “I haven’t looked this happy since I was a child.”

Since before my parents died.

The words were unspoken as she handed the precious Polaroid back to him. He studied her face for a second and then looked back at the picture. “That’s really what you see?”

“Yes.” She cocked her head to one side, wondering what he was trying to get at.

He shucked the Polaroid against the fingers of the opposite hand. “Via, I’m forty-two years old.”

“Okay.” What was he getting at?

“That doesn’t give you any sort of reaction?” His eyes were shadowed and inscrutable across the hallway.

She wanted to cross over to him. But she had the feeling that a lot hung in the balance of her answer. She did the only thing she could. She told the truth. “It gives me a little thrill, I suppose. The same way any new information about you does. But I’d figured that’s about how old you were.” She took a tentative step forward. “I love learning new things about you, Seb. I’m hungry for it all. I wanna know everything.”

He made a sound, almost like she’d punched him. Seb crouched down, onto the balls of his feet and gripped his silver-brown hair with both hands for a moment. She took another step toward him. When he rose up again, his eyes were blazing. He was bright with so many emotions she couldn’t have begun to separate one from the other.

“All right,” he said, almost to himself. “All right.”

He stepped toward her and met her in the middle of the hallway. He reached for her face, took her in his hands, swallowed her up in that warm grip.

“All right,” he said one more time and let his hands fall to her shoulders. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna stick to the original plan. We’re gonna go downstairs and drink a little and dance a little and celebrate Sadie and Rae.”