“Occasionally?”

“Very occasionally.”

He laughed.

That evening, I sat on the porch after bedtime and thought about the strange ways old pain can survive inside a family.

I had kept the boys safe, loved, and informed, yet they still sensed the hurt in places I thought I had hidden it.

I couldn’t prevent every difficult feeling, but I could show them that feelings didn’t have to dictate how we treated other people.

The next morning, Mason asked Tristan whether they could go on a short hike together, with Robert and me nearby.