Asher returned then, Eira bouncing in his arms, giggling as she told him about how one duck had tried to steal her snack last time.“Uncle Dorian got mad,” she added with a grin.Asher raised a brow. “Did he?”“Yup. He yelled at the duck.”Dorian laughed under his breath. “It hissed at her.”Vera, unexpectedly, laughed too. And for a second, a single suspended moment, it almost felt like something normal.Until Eira said the next thing.“Can we do this every weekend? Me, Mommy, Uncle Dorian, and Daddy?”The three adults froze.Asher’s grip on her shifted.Vera blinked, her smile slipping.And Dorian looked up at the sky like he needed divine intervention.“We’ll see, baby,” Vera said softly, brushing hair from Eira’s forehead.But the little girl was already distracted again, wiggling out of Asher’s arms to chase a squirrel that had scurried past the playground.The moment shattered.The quiet returned.And the three adults stood there, not quite a family, not quite strangers, and not
Last Updated : 2025-06-20 Read more