Life in Fairhaven with a four-year-old was a beautiful chaos. The quiet study filled with soft northern light was no longer just Aaron's workspace. His neat charts and graphs shared wall space with Leo's colorful drawings taped up crookedly. The calm, predictable routine they used to have was gone, replaced by nonstop questions, sudden laughter, and the occasional full meltdown over the wrong color of cup.
Leo settled in slowly, but steadily. The fear he carried from the beach and the woman who left him didn't disappear overnight, but love worked on it little by little. He was a quiet kid, but endlessly curious. He could sit for ages watching Aaron work, following the movement on the screens like he was trying to crack a secret language.
"Daddy's light boxes," he called them.
