For once, I did not try to finish his feeling for him.

One of the girls opened her eyes.

He leaned slightly closer, then stopped.

I did not prevent him from seeing her.

I did not hand him a child in the middle of a confrontation either.

Any practical discussion about contact needed to happen with attention to their care and the developing arrangements, not as a test of whether I was a forgiving person.

“They’re small,” he said.