My kitchen smelled faintly of coffee and sawdust, the lingering perfume of last night’s chaos. I set my mug down, cold now, and stared at the blinking cursor. “Ugg,” I groaned. Words should have come more easily, but each one felt weighed down with tension I couldn’t name. My fingers hovered over the keys, hesitant. I typed a sentence, reread it, and deleted it. Then another. Deleted again.
The cursor blinked back at me, steady and unforgiving, a quiet judge of my inability to shape the story that had been so clear in my mind last night.
A shout from the hallway made me jump. “Mel! Look!”
Blaine barreled in, toy car in hand, while Leo followed close behind, a mischievous grin on his face. Oceano trailed them a few steps back, juggling grocery bags and a diaper bag.
“I need a ramp!” Bl
