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Tessa Sullivan knew Lucas De Angelis loved her

He told her often and, unlike her late husband, he wasn’t shy in showing her, either Fro her favorite dinner after a long day of interviews, to bigger things, like how he supported her through the whole trial of figuring out what to do with Jack’s ashes

Even though she moved out of the apartment she shared with Jack and into a whole new city a few states over, Tess didn’t feel right leaving Jack behind It was bad enough she was the reason his cremated remains were in the small cardboard box she picked up fro resting place for theafter she stopped loving him

And Tess knew that Lucas continued to love herthe one who put Jack in that box, he didn’t just chuck it out of their sixth floor apart boxes

When she finally decided to take a weekend trip and scatter Jack’s ashes so that he didn’t haunt their new place, Lucas drove her out to the mountains and held her as she watched with a dry eye as her husband’s remains drifted off into the early winter wind, away from them and out of their lives forever

But sometimes… sometimes Tess wondered if Lucas loved her too much

Was such a thing possible? Perhaps

Case in point: the whole, well, putting Jack in the box thing Four , Lucas did what he had to do to make sure that Tess was free of a husband who didn’t believe in divorce

It was okay, though Because there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do—or any lengths that she wouldn’t go—to elis Even if that et exactly what she wanted What was good for Lucas, was good for her, she decided

And that’s when, afterholiday season, she started dropping hints No matter how fiercely she wanted to keep Lucas all to herself, especially since they were poised to spend their first Christether, Tess knew that that wasn’t what Lucas needed

It ht be what he wanted, sure, since his love for her bordered on desperation But she adored hih to make sure he had what he needed And what Lucas needed, o home for Christmas

He’d never ad Hamlet after six weeks instead of the three uilty for everything he was giving up to be with her

His home His sister His practice

In essence, his whole life

Lucas told her she orth it Even now, after everything he’d done to prove he led to believe it

Christ as she ith him, she was happy And Tess knew he’d be happy—or, if not happy, then content—if he could check in on Maria andfine without him

So that’s exactly what they were going to do