Summary:

He is twelve and clutching at her shoulders again, sixteen and letting her hold ice against his cheek, twenty-one and sinking into her like an exhale, barely twenty-four when Svetlana looks over at him and thinkssomething’s different now. You look happy. You look like you could be happy.Ilya is twenty-six in her kitchen and holding onto the love of his life, and Svetlana can breathe again without worrying that he will stop.