Had seen the loneliness she carried. Had seen the courage it took for her to ask for help. But he had not seen her like this. Crouched beside Amara at the honey table, letting Amara explain the difference between clover honey and wildflower honey with the patient attention of someone who was genuinely interested. Asking follow-up questions, laughing at something Amara said with a laugh that was completely unmanaged and had no audience.
He had not seen her happy before. Not performing happiness, not projecting the warm, competent confidence that served her professionally, just actually quietly, genuinely happy in the way that people are happy when they found something they didn't know they were looking for. He stood back and watched and felt something very specific and very decisive move through him. At 12:05, Amara declared that she needed the grilled cheese and also that she had something to ask Victoria and that she wanted to ask it at the table because important questions should be asked sitting down. They got the grilled cheese.
They found a table. Amara sat across from Victoria with the focused energy of someone executing a plan. Okay, Amara said. I have a question. Go ahead, Victoria said.
Do you like my daddy? The table went briefly electric. Darius opened his mouth. Amara held up one small hand in his direction without looking at him the universal signal for do not interrupt, which she had apparently picked up from him and was now deploying against him. Victoria looked at Amara.
Then she looked at Darius. Then she looked back at Amara. Yes, she said. Very much like a friend or like a different kind of like Amara. Darius said, I'm asking, Amara said patiently.
It's important. I need to know. Victoria held Amara's gaze with the seriousness the question deserved. Like a different kind of like, she said. But it's new and we're figuring it out.
Amara absorbed this. Is figuring it out hard? A little. Why? Victoria thought about this for a moment and Darius watched her choose deliberately to answer a seven-year-old's question with the same honesty she was learning to use with him.
Because I spent a long time being really good at my job, she said. And I forgot to practice the other things. What other things? Letting people in. A pause, trusting that they'll stay.
Amara looked at her with those serious eyes that had been seeing past surfaces since she was old enough to look at anything. Then she reached across the table and put her small hand on Victoria's. "Daddy stays," she said. "That's what he does. You can trust that one. " Victoria pressed her lips together.