Mom finally came down off the porch then too, hugging us both at once, a slightly awkward three-way embrace that none of us seemed to mind in the slightest.
“I’ve been trying to figure out what to say for the last five minutes,” she admitted, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I still haven’t landed on anything better than thank you.”
“Thank you for what?” I asked.
“For seeing him,” she said. “The way I always saw him. It’s a rare thing, a kid noticing what a grown man quietly gives up for him.”
Jonah and Lily came running off the porch then, Lily asking loudly what a petition was, Jonah just grinning like he already understood more than his nine-year-old sister did.
“It means Eli wants Dad to actually be his dad,” Jonah said. “Like, officially.”
“He already is,” Lily said, matter-of-fact the way only a nine-year-old can manage. “This is just paperwork.”
