Steady. Present. Available without being intrusive. He paid for things without making her feel the weight of it. Showed up to the important moments without demanding she acknowledge him at them. Kept every promise he made and stopped making promises he couldn’t keep.
It wasn’t a warm relationship — he understood that, had made his peace with it — but it was functional, and functional was more than some people got. Claire had seen it differently. In her more optimistic moments she’d called it a work in progress. Ray had loved her enough to agree, even when the evidence suggested otherwise.