Lily giggled through a mouthful of cereal. I decided that counted as a win.
I wasn’t looking for anyone and never expected anyone to fit. Then, 10 months before that champagne glass, I met Claire at a bookstore, both of us reaching for the same paperback.
“Your best is a rat’s nest!”
***
On our first date, I told her the truth up front.
“I’ve got two girls. That’s the whole deal. No hiding them, no dating around them.”
Claire squeezed my hand across the table. “I adore children, Ben. I’ve always wanted a family.”
She said it almost like a line she’d practiced. I told myself I was being paranoid.
And then she backed it up.
I told her the truth up front.
After meeting my babies, Claire learned and remembered that Lily hated crusts. She sat cross-legged on our kitchen floor, helping Grace glue a solar system to poster board for a science project.
