Olivia kept that issue in a drawer, mostly because the honesty amused her.
On the night before Lily turned one, the four of them sat in the kitchen after dinner.
There were dishes in the sink.
No one cared.
Noah was drawing a birthday card. Lily sat in Ethan’s lap trying to eat the corner of it. Olivia leaned back in her chair with both hands around a mug of tea.
Ethan looked across the table.
“You okay?”
A year earlier, she might have said yes automatically.
This time she checked.
Tired, but not drowning. Busy, but not alone. Loved, and still allowed to need things.
“Yeah,” she said. “I am.”
Ethan reached across the table.
She took his hand.
Behind them, the old half-birthday banner still had a strip of tape stuck to one corner of the wall. Olivia had never bothered removing it.
It was crooked.
She liked it that way.
