For a few moments Sam was 'almost' normal.  They were talking as though Brooklyn had just popped out to go to the supermarket and wasn't laid cold in the morgue.

Looking at Brooklyn's mother Sam replied, "I don't know.  I want to say the moment I met her, but it's never that simple.  I told you about my first proposal.  I knew I loved sweet Brooklyn then,  I've told you about when we found out about Louis and I genuinely didn't think it would be possible for any more love in my heart and then I found out I did."  Sam looked fondly at Louis on his lap and kissed the top of his head.

"Before that Valentine's Day I might have confided that I 'loved' her, but that would have been my secret and I doubt I truly knew what it was.  Love is giving yourself totally to someone else, that your whole life belongs to someone else and you have given it and received it freely and openly."

Sam smiled and thought of his fiancée.  There were some things in his mind he couldn't share with the company.  That they'd both waited until they'd left High School before taking their relationship to the most intimate of levels.  Neither of them had even kissed another person and whilst there was a certain hesitancy and awkwardness, it was nevertheless gentle, loving and beautiful.  The way they looked at each other, whispering, 'I love you', sharing smiles and kisses.  Sam brought his knees a little closer together and the memory made him quiver a little and that ache, that sharp ache that she was gone came back.  Sam doubted that their parents would be keen to hear about them losing their virginity but he did remember the first time he said the words, 'I love you'.

"It was spring and we were walking in Spenney Wood, just down by the brook.  The sun was shining but we were wrapped up with coats and scarves.  We were holding hands, our gloved fingers intertwined and I stood on a log blocking our path.  Brooklyn stood on the log and we met face to face and our lips met.  We jumped down and headed down to the old bridge and we picked up sticks and dropped them into the brook.  They got stuck together in the flow of the water and I said, something like, 'they're stuck together, like us'.  She made a joke about the troll under the bridge and I leaned back, the wood was rotten and the handrail broke.  I slipped and nearly fell into the water.  Brooklyn's hand reached out and grabbed me, pulling me back into her.  We laughed and pressed together, wrapped our arms around each other."

"I love you."

"It was meant as a term of affection, endearment but as soon as I said the words I knew I 'really, really meant it'.  And when she whispered into my ear, 'I love you too Samuel Hanson, and I always will' we knew it was true and if we didn't know before, we were in love."

Sam hoped the parents were not made uncomfortable by this.  Sam loved Brooklyn, the person she was, the way she looked, the shape of her, her imperfections, her warmth, friendship.  No matter how much he teased and flirted with her, the thing he loved most was her soul.  Sam believed that was still there somewhere.