I remembered the nights I’d spent beside her after that loss, when Lucas had been almost painfully attentive.

That was what made his collapse after Hope’s birth so bewildering.

He knew what grief could do.

He knew how to stand beside someone in it.

Yet fear of being seen as financially inadequate had driven him to do the opposite.

“You can love him and still need distance,” I said.

“You can decide one day at a time.”

She leaned against my shoulder.