He turned back to the plans.
Not to add color or glitter or wreaths—this wasn’t about imitating her aesthetic. It was about learning how to find his own.
What do I love?
What makes me smile?
What feels like me?
He moved a wall; widened a window; shifted the flow of the room. He imagined moving through this space. He imagined a house that embraced its owners. Something warm. Something real.
Something like her.
He glanced again at the mason jar.
The glitter had settled for a moment, then—just from the soft hum of the heating—rose again in a tiny spiral.
He didn’tneedto be as strong as her. He didn’t need to have her courage. He didn’t need to lead.
He only needed to follow.
To keep choosing her, again and again.
He made one more adjustment on the blueprint and nodded to himself.
Not her taste. Herbravery.
That was the type of style he wanted to build with.
He may not be her equal. But he would follow her lead forever.
Just like he’d followed her lead on the weekend.
Scraps of fabriclittered the table—early attempts, crooked bits of embroidery, two edges he’d hacked off in disgust an hour ago.
Tom exhaled, slow and unsteady.
This was going to be the one that worked.
The square that he was creating to show Lauren how he saw her.
Powerful. Incredible. Radiant.
Brave.
He smoothed the small piece of fabric in front of him—a soft winter-blue background he’d cut three times to get right. In its center, he’d penciled the faint outlines of a front door. Their door. The moment she’d stood there, blazing in the colored glow of her own handmade Christmas, telling him to get out.
He squinted as he tried to thread the needle. The thread slipped, missed the eye. Tom swore under his breath and tried again.
A new memory rose up.
The night he’d returned after Christmas. That itchy, unhappy feeling crawled straight up his ribs, into his throat at the memory.
He’d walked into the bedroom and… nothing.
No garland over the headboard. No little felt snowman she’d stitched their first year. No star mobile she’d hung above their bed.
Just cold walls. Bare. A hollowed-out room.
