Ethan still missed his dad.
He would probably miss him for the rest of his life.
But now, whenever he made pancakes, he could remember the man who had taught him how to flip them. Whenever he needed to learn something new, he could ask me, a teacher, a friend, or someone willing to help.
He didn’t have to stop missing his father in order to keep growing.
As I sat down, Ethan slid a pancake onto my plate.
It was perfectly round.
I stared at it.
“Daniel would be proud,” I said softly.
Ethan paused.
Then he smiled.
“Yeah. But he’d still complain that I used too much milk.”
I laughed, and for the first time that morning, my eyes filled with tears for a reason that didn’t hurt quite so much.
Across the table, Lily was trying to convince Jacob that she needed her own sewing machine.
Jacob was pretending to consider the request seriously.
