"Yeah," he says, because she isn't wrong. He'd lived in hope for years, a whole childhood of infrequent visits and overheard arguments, then written both his parents off in the anger and grief of his grandfather's death. Now, with Edie here, it feels like a chance--maybe too late, too lost--for something new.

Looking down at Edie, he smiles. "And she slept right through...all of that, probably," he says, going back to where Alex is sitting, bending a little to show her Edie fast asleep in his arms. "Must be nice, to be so easily unconcerned."