(Amelia)
Liam came by in the evening with takeout, the way he did most weeks. Ethan ate half his noodles, told Liam the entire dinosaur report a second time, and fell asleep on the couch before eight, worn out from the park.
Liam waited until the boy was down. Then he looked at me across the kitchen and said, "So. How was it."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"It was fine, Liam."
He got two mugs down without asking and put the kettle on. He knew where everything in my kitchen lived. Five years of this, of him showing up with food and knowing where the mugs were, and I'd never once had to explain myself to him.
"He was good with Ethan," I said, because Liam would get it out of me anyway. "That's the truth of it. I went in ready to hate how he was with him. I had a whole plan for if he tried to buy th
