Page 25 of Christmas Boss

She does, crying out my name, and the final chord her hands strike on the piano is somehow the perfect punctuation. I follow her over, pulling her down onto me as I come.

We stay like that for a moment, both breathless and laughing, her collapsed against my chest while random notes still echo in the air.

"I love you," she says.

"I love you too." I brush her hair back from her face. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not giving up on me. For seeing past all my bullshit. For making me remember how to be alive."

She cups my face. "Thank you for seeing me. Really seeing me."

"Always." I kiss her softly. "You're impossible to miss."

She pauses and then muses softly. "I'm glad we got snowed in."

"Me too."

"Best Christmas ever."

I smile into her hair. "The first of many."

I spent five years hiding from life, from love, from everything that made me feel human.

Claire brought me back.

And I'm never letting go.

THE END