Lea smiles a bit shyly at me and I can’t help but twist my lips upward at her easy smile. I want to reach out and touch her but I don’t know how she will receive it. So, I force my hands to stay where they are because I don’t want to freak her out right now. She has overcome all of my senses and I don’t even remember why I was that tense in the first place.

Without missing a beat, Lea closes the distance between us, gets up on her tiptoes, puts her arms around me, and hugs me. For a second, it is awkward and uncoordinated. There...