After a while, he asked quietly, “Can I hold her?”
I looked at him.
His confidence disappeared.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he admitted.
“No,” I said. “You don’t.”
He looked down.
I let the silence remain between us.
Then I said, “But you can learn.”
His eyes lifted.
I picked Chloe up and placed her carefully in his arms.
Eric became completely rigid.
“Support her head.”
“I know.”
Barbara made a small snorting sound.
Eric looked at her.
Even I almost laughed.
For a moment, the tension broke.
That didn’t mean everything suddenly became perfect.
It didn’t.
Eric didn’t transform overnight into the father Chloe deserved.
Life rarely works that way.
He eventually moved into a smaller apartment rather than pay the higher rent on Barbara’s house.
Tessa left not long afterward.
For a while, Eric’s life became considerably less comfortable.
