A pause. Then Noah said, a bit more quietly, “See you downstairs, Mum, love you, bye.”

Which just set Will off all over again.

He rolled over to lie against the pillows, butt naked and laughing uncontrollably. At the sight of him, Abbie’s own chuckles faded, replaced by a tiny smile and a quiet swell of love, like everything in her heart had broken the banks and flooded her entire body. The ghosts of her old fears hovered in the back of her mind, but they were only that: ghosts. Scary yet transparent. Unable to truly touch her. The fact was, she adored him, and she glowed with it, fizzed with it—couldn’t keep it in and didn’t know how she’d ever managed to.

People coped with all sorts of things when they felt they had to. Like a flower locked in a cupboard, they’d grow desperately, instinctively toward the light, even if it required them to bend and twist and almost break. Even when you moved out of the cupboard, you still needed a little support to grow strong again.

Abbie had always had that, and lately, she’d dared to enjoy it.

“What?” Will had noticed her stare, his laughter turning into a bemused smile, his dark eyes turning her transparent as always. Beautifully so.

“I love you,” she told him simply.

His happiness was obvious. Infinite. Incandescent. But all he said was, “That’s twice in one morning, Abbie-girl. You feeling the Christmas spirit?”

She leaned over to kiss the corner of his smile, the scruff over his chin, the space between those lovely eyes. “Something like that.”

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