“Me?” I asked, leaning back in my seat, rubbing a hand over my face. “I’m a firefighter, Teresa. I work long shifts.
I — I don’t know the first thing about diapers.”
“You knew enough to keep her calm, Ethan,” she said. “And sometimes that’s the part we can’t teach. You don’t have to decide now.”
I looked down at my sole bowl of cereal, and I knew exactly what I needed to do.
“Yes,” I said before she could say anything else.
“I want to do it.”
I named her Luna — for the night she came into my life and unknowingly lit it up.
Luna settled into my apartment like she belonged there. Her laugh cracked something open in me. I started cooking again.
I bought picture books and soft blankets. I told myself that it was all temporary — that I was Luna’s safe space until someone came for her.
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