I smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “I’ll keep your secret, Dylan. But just this one time. After tonight though, the ‘too many sweets’ rule is back in effect. Deal?”

“Deal. Too bad Calla can’t eat the cake. When will she be able to do stuff? Babies are so boring. They just lie there and poop and burp and eat and get drool everywhere. She’s kind of gross.”

“Aw, she’s cute too. Admit it,” I teased.

“I guess so. I like it when she smiles at me. It’s too bad she doesn’t have a dad.”

I froze in my seat. “Are you okay, bud?” It had been over a year since Will died. Dylan’s grief was no longer as overwhelming as it had been in the beginning. But it still popped up in random observations that made him realize the finality of Will’s absence. Sometimes it still hit us both hard.

“I miss my daddy Will, and I was remembering when he showed me how to ride a bike the last time we were all at Grandma’s house. Then he put me up on his shoulders, and I could touch the bottom of the super tall trees in their yard. Who’s going to teach Calla?”

Daddy Will? Not just Daddy?

“We can both teach her. We’re great bike riders.”

“Yeah, but you’re really short. No way you can help her touch those trees.”

“Yeah, but Grandpa will be there. And you have four uncles who can reach them. They used to climb those trees all the time. We will make new memories, Dylan.”

“Yeah, but I remember Daddy. Calla won’t ever be able to remember him. It’s not fair.” His voice trembled, and I could tell he was close to crying.

“It will be our job, mine and yours and Auntie Jane’s, to tell her all about what a great man he was.” Now I was close to crying too. At this point, thinking of Will was mostly bitter and hardly sweet. As time moved on, hopefully, the balance would shift.

“Okay, I can do that. Mommy, is my dad Luke back in this town now?”

I had been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to broach this subject with him. He must have overheard us talking at Violet’s. Sometimes he was way more observant than I gave him credit for.

“Yes, he is back in town. He got hurt and can’t be in the Army anymore,” I answered, deliberately vague so I could see where he was going with this.

“Did he want me?” I took a quick look in the rearview mirror, tears shone in his eyes.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if he had known about you, he would have wanted you. And I know he wants to get to know you now.”

“But does he want a baby?”