Like a Family

MARISSA

Seeing Layton sitting down to dinner with all of us was a little surreal. When I first met him, I never would have been able to picture this scene. I wouldn’t even have been able to picture him in my home.

He seemed too big for it. Both in physical stature and in presence.

And yet—it felt right that he was here. I’d been thinking that way a lot lately, but somehow everything about him just felt right to me. I took it as a sign that we were both exactly where we needed to be and tuned back to the conversation happening around me.

Denise had been drilling Layton since—oh, pretty much the moment he set foot in the house, but it didn’t look like he minded it. He kept up with her and worked through it all, question by question, and seemed to be enjoying himself in spite of the inquisition she was putting him through.

Before he arrived, Denise and I had talked about all the questions she had for him. I asked her to take it easy on the poor guy, but evidently she had decided against