“Yes.” She pressed a kiss to his hair, amazed he’d made the connection. But then Graham and Allie did a stupidly cute got my heart when Graham left for work so maybe he’d picked it up from that. “That’s right. When you hug the bear, I’m in your heart. And when you’re all grown up . . .”

“Big!”

“That’s right, when you’re big, too big for bears, you can give them to your little brothers and . . . Ow.”

Evan’s remarkably pointy foot dug into her thigh as he launched himself toward his mother. “Brothers!”

Fortunately, avoiding kids was part of the kitchen dance.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Charlie . . .” Graham leaned forward, muscular forearms braced on his thighs. “. . . but you couldn’t have bought uglier bears if you’d tried.”

Charlie smiled and settled Edward against her heart. “I know.”

Later, she danced the bears into their crib with a rousing—albeit edited—version of “Rocket Scientist” by the Teddybears. Maybe someday the boys could meet Kiren. Before Allie could come in and remind her that no one appreciated toddlers whipped into a frenzy right before bed, she segued into “To Know Him is to Love Him” by the Teddy Bears—the space between teddy and bear making all the difference.

“When you hug the bears, I’m in your heart,” she repeated quietly, kissing their foreheads as they blinked sleepily up at her. “No matter what happens.”

Allie and Graham both were waiting for her outside the boys’ room. “Charlie . . .”

Charlie could hear tone and timbre of a complicated question behind Allie’s hesitant voicing of her name. Fortunately, shared history kept it from needing to be put into words. “No, it’s too weird missing Jack while I’m in bed with you.”

“Weirder than wanting Jack while you’re in bed with us?” Graham wondered.

“Weirdly, yes.”

“We could just sleep,” Allie pointed out, digging an elbow into her husband’s ribs.

“No, I . . .”

“For comfort.”

Graham rolled his eyes, leaned past Allie and kissed Charlie good night. “She’s not looking for comfort,” he said, his fingers warm on Charlie’s shoulder. “Not yet.”