For a moment, I couldn’t answer.
I’d thought Emma chose that picture because it represented her perfect Halloween.
Now I realized she had been considering what I could afford.
“Did you pick it because you thought I didn’t have enough money?”
“Kind of.”
She quickly added, “But I really liked it. I liked that you were making it.”
“I believe you, sweetheart.”
Her eyes filled.
“I didn’t want you to have to buy anything expensive.”
I moved beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.
“You are allowed to want things, Emma. Sometimes I can buy them, sometimes we have to wait, and sometimes I can make them. That’s normal.”
“But Dad says you shouldn’t have to make everything.”
“Your dad and I see some things differently.”
“Is he mad because I wore your dress?”
“I don’t know. But you didn’t do anything wrong.”
That night, after Emma fell asleep, I looked at the photograph she’d originally shown me.
