We made blueberry pancakes for three and laughed when Elena failed to flip the first one.

It was a noisy, easy morning.

Mabel didn’t clutch Bunny.

She left him on a chair where he could watch us.

I looked at our bracelets against the breakfast table and understood that protection wasn’t always about catching a hidden object or making a dramatic choice.

More often it was about small, repeated evidence that a child’s place in your life was secure.