“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“It’s magic.”

“No.” She gave him a little shoulder shove. The smile she no doubt wore echoed in her voice. “It’s love. Better than magic.”

“I don’t like telling people they were right and I was wrong,” he admitted. Kate changed his life, sure. She opened up new worlds of possibilities in just a day… Still, old habits die hard. In business, he never said sorry or admitted fault. He barreled forward without regard for those beside or behind him. With Kate, he wanted to accept her love of him and this holiday, but he wasn’t sure if his lips knew how to form the words necessary to admit his fault.

“You don’t have to tell me. I already know.” By now, he knew any time she sounded smug, she was really teasing. He groaned anyway.

“That’s even worse.”

“Then go ahead. Tell me I’m right and you love Christmas now and you’re a big fat softie,” she punctuated those last three words with pokes right into his gut. “Who believes in miracles and that you deserve good things.”

You deserve good things. The pokes to his gut didn’t knock the wind out of him, but that sentence certainly did. A lifetime of neglect told him the exact opposite.

“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just not used to being given anything. Even though my uncle did try, I didn’t want to be given anything. When I was young, I was always battling a ghost, you know? I worked myself to the bone at school and college and then at work because I needed to make my parents proud. I needed to carry on their legacy, and I had to fight every step of the way to do it. You’re just giving me all of this, and it’s… I don’t know how to handle that.” He stumbled over the words. Rolled his eyes. Old habits die hard, and one of his oldest habits happened to be not letting anyone into the inner workings of his mind. He’d lost countless girlfriends, friends, mentors and roommates that way. His last relationship ended with her saying she didn’t want to be with him anymore because of his lack of emotional availability, to which he responded yes, that’s probably for the best. Kate’s presence threatened the fabric of his entire personality. “Look what you’ve done to me. I’m a sentimental mess now.”

“You can be a sentimental mess. I won’t judge.”