‘It wasn’t your fault, Henry. Claudia was a deeply unhappy person and it took a lot of people to ignore that. What you did with the app? Your first one? It helps make the world a safer place for people that are struggling. You did that. But you need to forgive yourself. There is no one who can do that for you.’ He knew that what Lily was saying was right. That he did need to forgive himself. But she was also wrong. There were two people who could still help him move forward. Who could help him really put this behind him.

Why didn’t you stop her?! Why didn’t you do something?!

He shivered and Lily went to remove her hands as if she’d thought he was trying to shuck them off. In a second, he’d placed his hands over hers, keeping them there, desperate for the warmth, comfort and reassurance they offered. He bowed his head, too ashamed to meet her eyes.

Lily saw the top of Henry’s bowed head and hurt for him. Hurt for all the guilt that he’d been carrying for years. She wished she could take it away, but knew that only he could do that for himself. And knew that as much as the accident had shaped Malie, Zoe and Victoria’s lives, it had also shaped him into the man that stood before her today. The man who had, from something devastating, created something so powerful. The app that she’d checked out online the night he’d told her about it, had been astounding. The reviews and accolades it had received had been full of thanks and praise. A resource for struggling teens, and parents who had named it as lifesaving for their children. But more than that, he was a man who felt things deeply. She could see it in his actions and words. And he deserved to move on. They all did.

She felt his sigh against her skin, the slow, deep exhale gentle and warming. And suddenly she was painfully aware of where they touched, of their closeness, of the scent of him wrapping around her, sandalwood and smoke and something still fresh and clean from his shower earlier. It drew her in, and their breaths became an exchange of give and take and the tension in the air between them morphed from grief and loss into hope and desire.

‘You should go,’ he said quietly without raising his head, his eyes still closed, perhaps purposefully so.

She knew she could. Should walk away from this, from him. But she didn’t want to. For the first time in so, so long, she wanted to stay. To be selfish and take what she wanted. What she’d wanted for weeks now.

‘I’d like to stay.’