He was, in his very existence, a kind of refutation of everything Laura had taught my daughters by leaving.

He was proof that people also stay, that love can be reliable, that a person can be chosen and kept.

I do not think he knew he was giving me that.

He was just a good man marrying a woman he loved.

But to a father who had spent fifteen years afraid of what his daughters had learned about love, he was something close to an answered prayer.

Chapter 13 — Do I Have to Hug Her