Had I done enough?
Had I said the right things when they needed to hear them?
Did they understand that I loved them, or did they only see how tired I was?
I wondered if the girls noticed.
Beneath all those questions was a fear I’d never spoken aloud. That somewhere deep inside, the triplets were still waiting for their real father.
That I was the man who stayed, but not the man they truly wanted. I couldn’t fault them for that. I simply couldn’t stop wondering.
There was a fear under all of it.
On the morning of the triplets’ graduation, I remained inside my truck in the parking lot for 20 full minutes before finally convincing myself to get out.
I was 49. Gray had started appearing throughout my beard. My knee still hurt from falling off a ladder two summers before, and it had never completely recovered.
