This held warmth.
Choice.
The tenderness of a man discovering something precious he had assumed lost forever.
Eleanor melted toward him.
Her hands found his shoulders.
The solid reality beneath her palms.
When they separated, breathing hard, Thomas rested his forehead against hers.
"There's room."
His voice was low.
"Margaret will always be part of my past."
He looked at Eleanor.
"But you..."
A pause.
"You're my present."
Then:
"My future, if you'll have me."
"I'll have you," Eleanor whispered.
Running footsteps thundered through the hallway.
They sprang apart just before Daniel entered, Samuel immediately behind him.
"Papa!"
Samuel appeared oblivious.
"Miguel says supper smells good enough to wake the dead!"
Daniel was not oblivious.
He looked from Thomas to Eleanor.
His eyes seemed far too knowing for 7 years old.
A slow smile crossed his face.
"You were kissing."
Eleanor's cheeks flamed.
Thomas chuckled and ruffled Daniel's hair.
"Indeed we were."
Samuel's eyes widened.
"Does that mean you really love each other now?"
He made an impatient gesture.
"Not just married for practical reasons. Real love?"
Thomas and Eleanor looked at each other.
Eleanor saw her joy reflected in him.
"Yes," Thomas said firmly. "Real love."
Samuel whooped.
He wrapped himself around Eleanor's waist.
"I knew it!"
He laughed.
"I told Daniel Papa's smiles were getting bigger and you got a special look when you watched him work."
Daniel approached more calmly, but pleasure filled his face.
"I'm glad."
His voice was quiet.
"Mama would've wanted Papa happy again."
The generosity of the statement broke through Eleanor's composure.
She knelt and gathered both boys against her.
"I love you both very much."
She held them tightly.
"And I promise I'll take good care of your papa."
Daniel nodded solemnly.
"And we'll take good care of you too."
That night, after the boys slept and the house settled, Eleanor and Thomas sat in the parlor.
They weren't touching.
Propriety still mattered, even between married people.
But the air between them had transformed.
"What happens now?" Eleanor asked.
"Now we finish what we started."
Thomas smiled.
"We build a life."
He looked at her.
"A real one."
A pause.
"Built on choice instead of necessity."
Eleanor thought about the journey from that blizzard to tonight.
It hadn't been storybook romance.