Yes, 10!
His wife had sadly passed away two years earlier, and he was raising all of them alone.
The first time I saw him was in a grocery store. He was trying to steer a cart overflowing with cereal boxes while keeping an eye on several children at once. In the middle of the chaos, a toddler reached her little arms toward me.
That toddler was Sophie.
“I’m sorry,” Robert said, lifting her into his arms. “She does that with anyone who smiles at her.”
“Then I suppose I’ll keep smiling,” I said.
He laughed—a tired laugh, but a warm one—and something inside me softened before I had the sense to stop it.
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