When it was time for the candles, Juniper realized Peanut was missing from her backpack, and her face began to crumple.

Grayson remembered seeing the giraffe in the back seat of his car, and he ran — full out, across the whole park — to get it, and came back breathless and rumpled just as we started the song, and put it in her hands.

Juniper hugged the toy, and then she hugged him around the waist, and said, into his shirt, “Thanks, Dad.”

Grayson went still, his eyes filling.