Chapter One
RAIN
Isat in the hard chair, looking over the one-page menu. I couldn't decide what I wanted. Mostly because my mind kept jumping back to Christmas. In truth, it hadn't been my first Christmas or anything, but it had kinda felt like it.
Bracken and Liam had gone overboard. Everything from frosting cookies and a massive meal to all the gifts they'd gotten for me - so many gift cards - had been a little excessive, but in the best way. The mind-blowing part was how it had all been for me.Me!
Not even my birth family had cared about me as much as these men I'd basically just met. Ok, so it had been a few months and all, but still! I felt like they understood me. Like they accepted me for who I was. Like they gave a damn. Then again, that was basically the whole reason we were here. We were going to tell my foster parents I was gettingadopted.
A family.
For me.
We were really doing this!
Beside me, Liam had already made his choice, unaware of my spinning thoughts. Sadly, the other half of our lunch meeting wasn't here yet. They were why I couldn't focus enough to make a decision. It was hard to be hungry when I felt this nervous. If anyone could make me tense, John and Nancy Sparks, my latest foster parents, were at the top of the list.
"What are you having?" I asked Liam.
"Burger, fries, and a chocolate shake," he said, flashing me that supportive smile he had. "The shake will make Nancy roll her eyes at least once."
This was why he was so amazing. He knew how to put me at ease, and picking on Nancy helped. I wanted to say it meant more than he knew, but I had a feeling Liam knew exactly how intimidating those two were to their foster kids. So, with a plan in mind, I read the menu again.
I'd just settled on something when the Sparks sat down across from us. Liam greeted his brother, then his sister-in-law, and started in with small talk about the other kids they were fostering. Nancy was more than happy to give a rundown on how noisy the house was now that school was out for the holidays.
I tuned it all out. My eyes drifted to the floor and lost focus. My thoughts kept going back to the moment Liam had asked me if I wanted to be adopted. Every time I replayed the memory, a rush of emotion came back. The only name I could give this feeling was euphoria.
I was seventeen, and so close to aging out. I'd come to terms with the reality of never having my own family, but that wasn't the same as not wanting one. And Liam? Bracken? These two men were the first in so long to make me feel wanted. Not tolerated or merely accepted, but actually wanted.
A little smile was trying to take over my face, but I fought it. The Sparks would take it wrong, and that wasn't a fight I wanted to have. Instead, my eyes hung on the line between darkness and light, right where my shadow reached into the walkway beside our table.
Odd. The thing was shimmering again. I quickly glanced at Nancy's shadow, but hers was calm and boring. Even more confusing, the light in here was natural, mundane, and completely human-made. The only time my shadow had been like this was when a fae light caused it.
I was trying to figure out how to subtly make Liam look when the waitress came to take our order. I picked a chili cheeseburger, cheese fries, and a strawberry shake. Across the table, Nancy visibly twitched. Well, she deserved it after locking me in my room for trying to help. Both of them did! Sadly, my choice of lunch was about the closest I could get to revenge.
The moment the waitress left; John leaned over the table. "Don't tell me she's already been suspended from that school."
"Rain actually made good grades last semester," Liam assured him. "Mostly As and Bs, although I've arranged for her to have some additional tutoring in math."
"Liam!" I groaned.
He shot me a look. "You studied that hard and made a C? That means you're lacking part of the foundation. This will make it easier, Rain. It's not punishment. It's help."
"Yeah, I know," I grumbled.
Yet John acted like my interruption hadn't happened. "So why are we meeting?" he demanded. "You could've just called."
"I actually wanted to do this face-to-face," Liam said. "John, you and Nancy have inspired me." He paused to look at me, the expression on his face both nervous and excited. "Rain is being taken out of the foster system. She's found a family, which means you can request another foster child at the start of next month."
"What?" Nancy gasped. "Who would want to adopt her?"
"I do," Liam said.
His hand clenched in his lap. I could see it, but I couldn't rub his arm without giving him away. I knew this was harder on him than he wanted to admit, but he was doing it for me. He was facing down his big brother and all the idiotic, homophobic ideas his family had because my new dad was protecting me.
It was a strange thought. All my life, I'd had to protect myself. I'd always known I'd be on my own, responsible for my own future, and that if I wanted a good one, I'd have to bust my ass to get it. When I'd gone into the foster system at the age of five, my safety net had vanished and I'd simply accepted it as the way things were.
For me, life lessons had been things like learning not to rock the boat, mastering the art of packing everything up quickly, and never -ever- showing how freaked out I might feel. Calm, polite, and boring were the tricks to being a good foster kid. Sadly, I wasn't really any of those things.
