It's nicer to do this than to think of her parents. His lips banish those thoughts back to the doors and trunks she keeps her past in and she focuses on him, his lips, his mouth. The charcoal on her cheek smudges and swipes a nice line but she ignores it and wraps an arm around his neck to tug him closer to her.

The specter of her parents is still lurking but she's putting them back into their box and concentrating on the present. On him and how it's getting easier to talk about the things in her past that she's never spoken about before.

Not easy but easier. And she's still doing it in bits and pieces. Dutch pulls away a bit and says, "Well, if you keep doing that, I'll want more too."