Desmond looked up at me, his eyes red, something breaking open in his expression that looked less like fear now and more like genuine shame.
“I know,” he said. “I know that, Mara. I think some part of me has known it since the second the words came out of my mouth. I just don’t know how to undo saying it in front of both of you.”
“You undo it,” Renee said, quiet but firm, “by picking her back up. Right now. And by telling her, out loud, even though she can’t understand the words yet, that you’re not going anywhere.”
PART 8
Desmond stood up slowly, walked back over to the bed, and I handed Nora carefully into his arms for the second time that afternoon.
He looked down at her for a long moment, his hands considerably steadier this time than they’d been the first time he’d held her.
