When she’d gone to tell him dinner was ready and saw him sitting on the guest bed with his face cupped in his hands looking shattered, she didn’t know how to reach out to him. But now Charlie had the confirmation for something she had been feeling for quite a while. Grant was tired. Not the tired of a busy workload, nor the tired of having the baby being fussy and not being able to soothe her. Charlie knew Grant was tired of it all. She was actually surprised he had lasted as long as he did. She knew one of his main reasons had been Stella. Grant’s sense of duty and honor would never let him abandon his child. But she could see that the struggle to juggle his life was taking a toll. Yet every time Charlie tried to broach the subject, Grant became irritated or frustrated. Continuing to spoon the last bits of Stella’s food in her mouth, Charlie began to think of ways she could talk to him about revisiting their child-rearing ideas. After cleaning up residual food from Stella’s mouth, Charlie put a pacifier in her mouth and turned to her own food.
