Another giggle.
Within two minutes, Ari was making the rabbit hop across the counter herself.
Claire smiled at me.
“There she is!”
Somehow, Claire had already understood something most people missed.
Ari didn’t need attention.
She needed patience.
Before we left, Claire slipped a small rainbow sticker into Ari’s bag.
“For the birthday girl.”
Ari hugged the bag all the way home.
A week later, I returned because Ari insisted the rabbit probably missed us.
Claire laughed.
“I was wondering if the rabbit would ever see his friend again.”
Coffee became dinners.
Dinners became weekend walks.
Those walks slowly became something neither of us wanted to end.
On our third date, I told Claire about Sarah.
Everything.
Even the guilt I still woke up with every morning.
When I finished, she reached across the table.
“You don’t have to stop loving Sarah.”
I looked at her.
“I don’t?”
She smiled sadly.
“Love doesn’t work that way, Paxton.”
Nobody had ever said that to me.
Most people said it was time to move on.
Claire never did.
She simply made room for Sarah without asking me to leave her behind.
That was when I realized I was falling in love again.
It scared me.
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