Sylvia opened her mouth, closed it, shifted weight. Her gaze fell.
Ryan said, “Holly, you can’t say you don’t deserve—”
Holly said over him, still to John’s parents, “John’s a hero. He’s saved the world more than once. He saved a little girl’s cat yesterday. In between fighting tiny obnoxious robots. He makes terrible jokes about apples and he builds bookshelves. And he loves us. That’s the person he’s always been, of course. Someone who loves people. So please—I know it’s not my place to say anything and you shouldn’t listen to someone like me anyway—but please just…just love him.”
This time John, voice cracking, said Holly’s name. Pete said nothing.
“I know what it’s like,” Holly finished. “When people have a—an image of what they want you to be, and they love that image, or they lov
