My body automatically moved one step forward.
Then I stopped.
Lucas looked at
him.
The man answered.Plan Family Trips
I stayed where I was.
One afternoon did not suddenly make him part of our family.
The first week, he called once.
The next week, twice.
He never showed up without asking.
He never demanded that Lucas call him Dad.
And when Lucas didn’t feel like talking one evening, he accepted it.Find an OBGYN
I watched everything.
Not because I trusted him.
Trust wasn’t something he earned simply by finally appearing.
He would have to build it.
Maybe I would too.
Three weeks later, Lucas sat at the kitchen table eating Sunday pancakes.
Too thick, as usual.Study Biology
“He wants to come to my game Saturday.”
I set down the syrup.
“Do you want him there?”
Lucas nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Then he should come.”
He studied me.Support Causes
“You won’t be mad?”
“No.”
“He’s still not my dad-dad.”
“You don’t have to decide what to call him.”
Lucas went back to
his pancakes.
I reached across the table and straightened his napkin out of habit.Plan Family Trips
Then I looked at the syrup bottle.
The crumbs.
The plate sitting crooked beside his elbow.
Normally, I would have fixed all of it.
That morning, I left everything exactly where it was.
