Maybe another gift was still in the car.
Maybe I was being unfair.
Then my mother-in-law, Cecilia, crouched beside Alice and said, “Happy birthday, sweetheart. Grandma found something special for you.”
Milo was sitting on the floor beside the coffee table.
He smiled.
That was the part I couldn’t get out of my head later.
He smiled while his little sister tore pink tissue paper out of the first bag.
He smiled when she squealed over the toy inside.
He helped her pull the ribbon off the second package when she couldn’t manage it herself.
He never once asked where his present was.
I wish I could say I understood what that meant immediately.
I didn’t.
My mother did.
She caught my eye from across the room, waited until the kids were distracted, then pulled me into the kitchen.
“You see it now, don’t you?” she asked quietly.
I looked toward the living room.
