Derek’s briefcase dropped to the floor. His heart thumped as he followed the sound through the hall, down the stairs, toward the sunroom where the light spilled across the polished wood. There, a woman he barely knew was on the floor with the boys, tangled in an exuberant game. Clara Winslow, the nanny his mother-in-law had hired a few weeks prior, was pretending to gallop like a horse, while Finn, Eli, and Jasper clutched her back, shrieking with delight.
The sight made Derek’s chest ache and then soften. All the plans, the schedules, the therapy sessions he had meticulously arranged had failed to coax this life back from the shadow of grief. But Clara had done it with nothing but presence and love. She hadn’t tried to fix them. She hadn’t forced words or memories. She had simply shown up and let them play.