The third Saturday Darian brought coffee again.
Same order. Same time. Nine forty eight which Seren had now established as the correct arrival window and which she monitored with the specific authority of someone who had decided that punctuality was a character indicator.
He was nine forty seven this time.
She approved.
They had settled into a rhythm that felt, Nia thought, less like something being carefully constructed and more like something that had always existed and was simply being uncovered. Seren led most of it she had opinions about which park activities were appropriate for which Saturdays, about the correct order of swings then climbing frame then the patch of grass near the fountain where interesting sticks were most reliably found, about how many crackers constituted a re
