I have simply stopped waiting for one, and stopped letting my son’s happiness depend on it, because a childhood spent waiting for an absent parent to become present is a childhood spent looking backward, and I wanted Leo looking up, at the sky, where he belongs.

His father made his choice.

My job was to make sure that choice did not get to make my son’s.

Chapter 19 — He Held His Sky Steady

“How is Leo’s ground school?” Rachel asked, and I pointed out the wide hangar doors toward the runway.

“See for yourself.”

Out on the main runway, a small white-and-blue trainer was executing a smooth, picture-perfect touch-and-go, the tires chirping softly against the asphalt before the aircraft lifted back into the clear afternoon and banked gracefully into its crosswind turn.

Five minutes later it taxied up to our hangar, the propeller spinning down to a quiet stop, and the door popped open, and my son stepped out onto the wing step.