Page 111 of Smoke and Glitter

"You did."

"And you still helped."

"I sent an email."

"To the right person."

"You still had to walk through the door."

Her smile softens. "You can let me thank you without turning it into an argument."

I laugh and squeeze her arm before Lucia calls from the other side of the room that her mother is urgently required for something involving ribbon.

Marisol gets up, and I glance toward the dining table without thinking about it.

Sam is already looking at me.

This time there isn't a conversation holding him in place.

He says something quietly to Dom, sets his water on the table and starts across the room.

My pulse finds a new speed.

Months ago, at the fundraiser, there were empty seats between us. I waited for him to cross that space because I needed to know whether he would do it without me making the first move.

Sam comes around the coffee table and stops beside the couch.

"Hey."

"Hey."

His hands are empty. One settles briefly against his thigh before he gestures toward the open place beside me.

"Can I sit?"

I move my bag off the cushion. "Yeah."

He sits close enough that I catch the familiar clean scent of his soap underneath everything coming from the kitchen. For a minute neither of us attempts a conversation. Summer is opening another gift, Lucia is collecting discarded bows, and Colt is trying to write something down while Bex keeps moving the pen out of his reach.

Sam laughs when Summer threatens both of them.

The sound is quieter beside me.

Someone calls from the kitchen asking about napkins. Sam's head turns immediately, and his palm presses against his knee as if his body has already decided he should stand.

"Pantry, second shelf," Colt calls without looking up from the gift list.

Sam stays seated.

His fingers loosen against his leg.

I turn my attention back to Summer before he catches me watching.

A few minutes later Colt squeezes around the coffee table, and Sam shifts just enough that his knee presses against mine.

Neither of us corrects it.

Summer pulls a tiny pair of lemon-covered pajamas from a gift bag and holds them up with both hands.