One afternoon, he stopped by her desk.
“Dinner,” he said. “My treat. No babies crying—unless I can’t figure out the corkscrew.”
Claire agreed.
They returned to the same bistro, this time indoors, candlelight flickering between them. Lily was with Nadia for the night. Claire wore a pale blue dress she’d found at a thrift store and altered herself.
“You look happy,” David said.
“I am,” Claire replied. “And scared. But the good kind.”
“I know that feeling.”
Silence followed—but not the awkward kind. The kind that felt safe.
“I owe you everything,” she said.
David shook his head. “You don’t owe me a thing. You gave me something I didn’t even know I needed.”
Claire tilted her head. “What’s that?”
He leaned forward. “A reason.”
