Page 159 of Shattered

“Sam, don’t thank me. You did that. You worked your butt off.”

Sam nodded as she wiped away the tears, then asked, “Mexican or Italian?”

“I will never be a woman who turns down queso,” Ms. Ashlyn replied with a wink as she ushered Sam into her car.

December

“Absolutely not,” Callum and Connor stated their refusal at the exact same time.

“Come on.” Sam threw her hands up in the air as both men adamantly shook their heads. Even Justin, Connor's boyfriend, gave them a pleading smile. Nothing worked. Not until Millie walked over to her two big brothers with that bottom lip pushed out just about as far as it could go.

“Please!” Millie clasped her hands in a pleading gesture. “For me?”

Sam wanted to laugh. Millie sounded so meek and sad, which was definitely not her normal. But it seemed Millie knew exactly how to get her brothers to cave to any request.

The two brothers looked at each other and then back at their baby sister.

Callum then shot a glance at Sam.

“I better get laid tonight,” Callum grumbled with a smile as he yanked one of the adult-sized Christmas onesies out of Sam's grasp.

“Ditto,” Connor stated as he looked at Justin.

“Ew!” Millie called out to her brothers with a scrunched up nose. “I want to know nothing about either of your escapades.”

Sam laughed even harder then.

It reminded her of a few weeks back when she and Kristin had snuck Millie into a bar and had all gotten rip roaring drunk. On the ride home, Sam and Kristin had practically peed themselves from laughing so hard. Sam had started detailing out exactly what Callum could do with that tongue of his while Millie covered her ears and began intermittently humming a melody to drown out the words and screaming at them that she was going to truly vomit if they didn’t stop talking about Callum.

“Go put them on so we can take pictures before the sun goes down!” Millie ordered as she pushed the two guys into a bedroom to change.

Sam, Millie, Justin, and Ms. Ashlyn had already put on their sets earlier while the two guys made a quick run to the store up the street.

Sam burst out laughing as the two brothers walked back into the living room, a beautifully begrudging look plastered on each of their faces.

It was Christmas Eve. And it was Sam’s first Christmas Eve where she was actually excited about the holiday festivities. Everyone had congregated at the Barker’s home, the one that was currently on the market, for one last family get together before Ms. Ashlyn moved into a ridiculously fancy, but much smaller, high rise apartment in the city.

It was also the first holiday she could recall ever not spending with Christian. But that was okay. She hadn't even thought about him once in the last few weeks. Not intentionally, at least.

The month prior, she and Irene had finally broached the subject of her assault which had resulted in Sam practically using an entire box of tissues during each of their next four sessions. Every time she’d walked out of that building and into Callum’s arms, she had all but collapsed in relief that she had him to lean on in those moments.

It was a process. A process that was going to take years to get through. But she was making progress every day.

There were setbacks, as was to be expected. But with the support of Irene and her new family, she was able to break out of most any funk her mind would throw her into.

So this Christmas, instead of buying the customary cookie plate she had given to each of the families that had taken her and Christian in during their school breaks the last three years, she had bought personalized gifts for each person around her. Sam had never much liked spending money. That thought had changed, however, when the people she was buying gifts for mattered more to her than anyone else on the planet.

She could barely contain her excitement when she, Millie, and Justin were going through the photos they had taken on the dock later that night. There was one of her and Callum that she kept going back to. He’d had a grumpy expression plastered on his face, but Sam had reached behind them and pinched his butt just before Connor snapped the photo, resulting in his wide-eyed grin and a laughing Sam. It was her favorite photo to date.

She promptly added it to her Instagram account. The same one Christian had made for her all those months ago.

She had thrown the phone on the floor the day she went to upload her first post, a photo of Callum hunched over a canvas, only to find that she’d never deleted the one Christian had taken of them at Dianne’s. She’d buried her face in the pillow, refusing to look at the screen until Callum had deleted the photo and put theirs in its place. Now her feed was full of photos of her and Callum, Kristin and Micah, Connor and Justin, and Millie and Ms. Ashlyn.

Looking at it now, there was no trace of how her page had first come to be.

“How long do we have to wear these?” Connor asked as they sat down, matching PJ’s and all, for dinner.

“We are sleeping in them, and then opening presents in them in the morning,” Millie proudly exclaimed.

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