Which of course only made her cry even harder. It was the best thing he could have said, the most touching and genuine, and so she held on even tighter and just let out all the emotions he'd brought to the surface with that beautiful painting. Grief at the loss of those people, happiness at the memories of being with them in the good times, utterly pure love for the man sitting beside her.

It took a few minutes, but she did manage to finally pull herself together enough to loosen her hold on Steve and lean back to give him just a little breathing room. She just looked at him for a moment with red-rimmed shining eyes before saying in a completely deadpan tone, "Only you could make me cry on Christmas and get away with it."