Carla hurried over with his meal, concern etched across her face. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked softly, her voice filled with genuine worry. He looked up at her, his eyes heavy with fatigue yet still warm. “Just feeling a bit worn out, I guess. Life has a way of wearing you down, doesn’t it?”
“It really does,” she agreed, feeling a lump in her throat that was hard to swallow. There was a heaviness in James’s words that made the moment feel unusually poignant. “But you’re always welcome here. We all need a little comfort sometimes,” she added softly, hoping that her words might offer him some sense of solace.