"There's a difference between knowing I'm beautiful and hearing it from my lover, especially when he doesn't need to pay me compliments," she replied and let her own too-soft emotions carry her fingers into his hair to pet him the way she already knew he loved.

"It makes me want to help, with Charlie, and with anything else I can." Because you see me. You look at me when you don't have to and you see the woman and not the queen. And you want me to know you do, instead of making me work for it.

"So I'll accept awesome, even if I think my son is the only person I know who knows what it really means."