Christmas comes in a blur of holly, tinsel, presents and snow. Lots and lots of snow. More than we’ve had for many winters.

As a country, we aren’t cut out to deal with it. The occasional winter flurries are enough to bring everything to a standstill. Which means this winter storm has everywhere practically shut down and snowed in.

Rhys comes home.

Galen doesn’t.

Not because of the snow, but because the promoter offered him extra gigs on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Although only a minor support act on the tour, the buzz around Galen has steadily built, and these shows will see him as the main headliner. They may be only small gigs, but it’s something he couldn’t turn down, and something I knew was inevitable. Galen was born to be a star. He’s got that thing that transcends talent and raises him up way above others.

The last time I talked to him on the phone, he was bubbling over with an infectious mixture of excitement, disbelief and sheer joy. He promised to call on Christmas Day, and despite me overhearing Max on the landline to him earlier in the morning, evening comes, and my phone doesn’t ring.

It’s only nine, but I make my excuses, kiss everyone goodnight and tell them I need to sleep off the ridiculous amount of food we’ve been eating all day.

Mum hugs me tight, something in her smile not buying my story, but she doesn’t call me on it.

“Sweet dreams, Fflur,” she says instead. “Hey, if the roads clear enough tomorrow, do you fancy coming to check out the Boxing Day sales with me?”

No. I really don’t. But what I say is, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

And she rewards me with a beaming smile, a smile that should warm me from the inside out. But, I’m hollow and cold. And no matter how much I know I’ve made Mum happy, that happiness cannot permeate the cold inside me.

I climb the stairs, intending to curl up in my bed and read, but when I pass Galen’s closed door, it beckons me.

I don’t know if it’s because he hasn’t called or if it’s just an attempt to blanket out the coldness creeping through my veins, but before I know I’ve done it, I’m curled up in his bed under the covers, unable to keep the tears at bay.

I cry until the pillow is wet with my hurt, and snot runs out of my nose. I cry pathetically, like the weak girl I am. And that’s probably why I don’t hear Max coming into the room.

“Hey, it’s Christmas. Why are you crying?” he asks concerned. “It’s the law. No crying at Christmas or an elf drops dead and poufs out of existence.”

I burrow into myself, tugging the covers closer to hide my face. I know he means well, but I wish he’d go away.

“Oh, Fflur,” he sighs, all the lightness from his previous comment gone. “I miss him too. It feels like he’s left us all behind, doesn’t it?”

At that, a sob escapes my mouth, and I tug the covers over my head to try and contain everything. I don’t want Max to know why I’m hurting. I don’t want him of all people, Galen’s father, to know I’m crying because his son isn’t home where he belongs. With me.

I feel the end of the bed dip, and Max doesn’t say anything for a long enough time that I forget that he’s there.

I startle when he speaks again.

“I was probably just like you are now when I first left your mother behind. We’d been best friends forever, and at the time, neither of us could drive, so my university felt very far away.” He shifts on the bed and continues, “I think Jenny’s mother disapproved of our friendship and meddled a little, too—the old bat.” He huffs out a laugh. “Of course, I dealt with it in a manly, I’m completely unaffected and my heart is not breaking way, but I felt it just as hard all the same.”

I use the edge of Galen’s bedcovers to wipe my eyes and peak over the top of the quilt to acknowledge Max’s words.

“It was hard to leave my best friend behind; one I always knew was more than just my best friend.”

My voice croaks when I reply with a simple, “Yeah.”

Max turns to me then, and his smile is sad, but there’s a lot of pride in it too. Pride for his son.

“I miss Galen too. One day he needed me for everything, the next he’s gone. It was just the two of us for such a long time that I guess I didn’t expect him ever to leave. He’s not just my son, he’s my wingman, you know?”

I nod. I do know. Gal and Max are close—two peas in a pod.

“Are you sad he didn’t come back for Christmas?”

His reply is immediate. “Sad, yes. Upset about it, no. How can I be when he’s making his life a success and chasing his dreams? I’m proud of him. So bloody proud, but that doesn’t change the fact that feeling him slip further away is painful. I just tell myself that this is his home and he’ll always find his way back, one way or another.”

Watching Max, as he smiles away what he’s feeling inside, I feel somewhat closer to Galen, and not because they look so alike, but because I’m here with someone who wants the best for him and misses him just as much as I do.

“I’m okay now,” I whisper. “I was upset with Gal… well, angry with him is a better word, but I’m not now.”

“Angry at him for not coming home?”

I shake my head.

“He promised to call.”

Max smiles at me then, and it’s the smile that Galen gives me to cheer me up.

“He will, Fflur. I have no doubt he’ll call. And anyway, we can mope together until he finally decides to come home.”

“When will that be do you think?”

Something flickers behind Max’s eyes, but he tells me the truth anyway. “End of February. But that isn’t so far away.”

It feels like it.

“Yeah,” I offer in reply, fresh tears threatening to fall. “Not long at all.”

Galen calls the following day.

He apologises for not having the time to call yesterday and says he spent the day with a friend’s family that lives in London. Someone he met on the tour from another band.

I want to push him to tell me more, but I’m so content just to hear his voice that I let it pass, not wanting anything to eat up the time we get to spend just talking.

He’s telling me all about his solo gig on Christmas Eve, and how the New Year one is going to be even bigger when a male voice in the background calls out for him to hurry up.

Galen pulls his phone away from his mouth and calls back, “Give me five, let me say goodbye to my sister.”

There’s that title again. Sister.

It’s like a sharp knife to my belly.

“Sorry,” I rush out before he can be the one to dismiss me. Again. “Mum is calling me. I gotta go. I promised to go to the sales with her today.”

“Buy something nice,” he says in reply. And before he can say any more I stop him with, “Talk soon, bye Gal.”

I can hear him say goodbye as I disconnect, and I want nothing more than to crawl back into bed and sleep this all away. But I don’t. I dress warmly and find Mum and Max outside clearing a path in the snow from our driveway.

“We can go tomorrow if it’s easier,” I call out, noticing the exertion on Max’s face.

“Hell, no,” Mum calls back, climbing in the driver’s side and waving her arm out the window for me to hurry up.

Max bends through the open window and kisses her cold lips as I slide into the passenger seat.

“Get back inside,” she chastises him. “You can’t afford to get a cold. We’ll be fine.”

“Yes, boss,” he mumbles feigning annoyance but ruins it with a big smile. “Your wish is my command. Now, don’t go spending all my hard-earned cash.”

Mum harrumphs, and presses the button on the door to close the window, blowing him a kiss once it seals shut.

“I might buy you something, I might not,” she yells with a grin at the closed glass. “But if you don’t get your arse back inside that house right now, the chances of it being something you’ll like will diminish.”

Max salutes her and walks back towards the house.

His smiling face and goodbye wave is the last thing I see as Mum puts the car into gear and pulls out onto the icy, one track road.

“It’s good to see you guys happy,” I say as Mum crawls at five miles an hour towards the clearer main road.

She rests her hand on my knee, gives it a brief squeeze and replies, “Even during the worst part of last year, we were happy, Fflur. You couldn’t see it because we had a hell of a fight on our hands. But even during the darkest days, we were happy.”

“Why?”

“Because we were together, and that’s all either one of us needs.”