He was gentle and attentive, steady in ways she hadn’t realized she had been missing. He didn’t rush her feelings or fill silences just to hear himself speak. She felt grounded around him, as if her thoughts finally had somewhere safe to land. It was something she had never found, not even with her father.
With Bill, the old tension that clung to family gatherings seemed to loosen its grip. He asked questions without prying and never pushed her to explain things she wasn’t ready to name. Life felt lighter with him, less shaped by an old, inherited unease.