“Sheila’s having another baby.” He said it as if that explained everything, then turned to examine his surroundings. They were standing between her small kitchen and the dining area, the bourbon bottle resting on the high granite countertop that was large enough to serve as a breakfast bar. The small dining room was open to the adjoining family room. In the back of the family room, an open door led to a bedroom. A small statue of Ganesha stood on the counter. Remover of obstacles, ha. Obstacles were never removed—only added.

Annika sipped her drink. “Your ex-wife is having a baby, so you’re drinking?” She narrowed her eyes, her gaze penetrating. “Are you still in love with her?”

“No.” He had the presence of mind to catch the worry in her voice. “That’s not the problem.”

“Okay, Daniel. What’s the problem?”

He gulped down his drink, poured another. Some might call it liquid courage, but it was never that for him. It was more like liquid memories. His muscles relaxed. Even his mind calmed a bit. He focused on those brown eyes as if they were his lifeline. Where to begin? “She’s having a replacement baby.”

Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head, confused. “Replacement?”

Finally, he was ready to tell her everything. “Sheila’s new baby is going to replace the child we had.” He wasn’t making any sense to Annika, he knew it, but how did you tell someone that you had a beautiful girl at one time, but now you didn’t?

“You had a child...” Her voice drifted off, and then her eyes met his, and she gasped. Her next words were barely a whisper. “Daniel, what happened to your—”

“Sara.” However softly he spoke her name, it was still too loud for him. “She was five.”

“Was?” She walked toward him and stopped just two steps from him. Tears shone in her eyes. “Sara.” Her breath hitched.

At the sound of his daughter’s name on her breath, the sound of her surprise and sorrow, tears prickled at his nose. Tears he had never allowed before blurred his vision and clogged his throat.

“Beautiful name.”

Daniel nodded slowly. If he moved too fast, he would lose his mind. A tear escaped, falling directly to the floor as if even his own tears needed to escape his sorrow. He took another gulp of his bourbon and spoke. His first words had to fight the backlog of emotion in his throat. “She had curly brown hair and blue eyes, and she loved school.”

Annika smiled through her tears. “She looked like Sheila?”

He nodded, his mouth automatically forming a frown. “Except when she smiled.”

Annika nodded, knowledge in her eyes. “The dimples.”

“Yeah.” He could barely even whisper. Her smile had been a miniature version of his from the start. Everyone had commented on it. He had thrilled in seeing that little piece of him in another human being. In the end, it was the thing that he had come to avoid.