against the railing and watched us with a warm smile I had not seen in nearly a decade.
“Ivan! Look!” Leo shouted.
He pressed the plastic launch button.
The model rocket shot upward, climbed thirty feet, then released its tiny parachute and drifted toward the grass.
Leo raced across the yard after it, laughing.
I climbed the porch steps and accepted a glass from Jessi.
“He’s getting good at building those.”
“He gets his patience from you,” she said softly. “Even if it took us seven years to learn that.”
