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and Jason was glad to have avoided that fiasco. Just one less problem to solve.
    Amanda handed Jason a white drawstring trash bag like the one she was using. He took it and dutifully began to make the sweep of the living room. He chose his footing deliberately to avoid the sting of some small figurine or pointy toy in the bottom of his feet as he canvassed the living room. Minefield. That was the image he conjured in his mind as he chanced each footstep.
    A minute or two passed in silence as the cleanup commenced. He had grown accustomed to the silence, but it still felt sour.
    You could at least say something , Jason thought, aggravated over nothing. Or was it the silence that bothered him?
    “She is really growing up isn’t she? Seems like yesterday she was just a little baby.” Jason reminisced, finding something to break up the silence.
    “Yeah, she is.” Amanda paused for a second, “She got an award at school for being a top reader.”
    “Really? When?”
    “Last week,” Amanda said with a hint of accusation, letting her voice trail off.
    “Last week?” Jason asked, trying to focus on what she had said rather than her tone. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
    Amanda turned to Jason derisively, “Really? She thought you were too busy. As usual.”
    “Oh.” Chagrined, Jason looked back to the floor and picked up another wad of pink wrapping paper.
    “’Oh?’ Is that all you’ve got, Jason?” Amanda’s freckled face redden.
    Jason looked back up. Amanda was right, and he could see the anger beginning to build in her face.
    “I… I’m trying. You know that.”
    “Trying? You’re trying?” Amanda mocked. “You mean the extra fifteen or so minutes you spend with her a day? She needs more time with you. She needs to know you love her.”
    “Of course I,” Jason bellowed back, catching himself in mid-sentence, “love her. She knows that.” How could she question his love for Kallie? He loved her to no end.
    “Does she?” Amanda asked as she took a step back, not used to Jason raising his voice. “You’re always gone and when you are here you seem to be elsewhere. In your office checking on some cold case you’re never going to solve or God knows what else. She needs you. I need you,”
    “I know I tend to bring my work home.” Jason admitted, still pained by the accusation. “I know I need to spend more time with her, and you, but don’t those families deserve closure, justice? Don’t they deserve that too?”
    With her hands at her hips Amanda took a step closer through the trash as her expression eased.
    “Yes. Yes, they deserve closure. But Kallie deserves you. Do you not think that the one thing those families wish for the most is simply to have had more time with their loved one before they were taken away? To have simply been there with them more? They’ll never get that back… You’ll never get that back.”
    Jason turned away and wiped a single tear from his eye. How had he never thought of it like that? It had always been the victim’s family that deserved closure. They deserved for the culprit to be behind bars. He had to figure it out. But no, maybe the one thing they needed was the one thing he could never provide. The one thing he was missing out on.
    She’s right.
    His eyes still locked on a small doll, half its clothes missing, he tried to think of what to say. It was hard to accept, but he knew she was right. He would never get this time back with Kallie. He loved his little princess, and he wanted to be sure she knew it.
    “I, uh…” he struggled to find the words. “I have to work on that.”
    He took in a deep breath and let it out. Amanda maneuvered through the remaining debris, sneaking up behind him. She put her arms around his firm waist and laced her fingers together over the gentle rising and falling of his stomach. Her cheek rested against his back.
    “I know,” she said in his ear. “We’ll work on it together.”
    Even with her arms around him Jason