Libby paused with the fork halfway to her lips. “I was thinking you could come with me to the farmers’ market next weekend. I know you don’t like waking up early, but I think you’d like it.”
Annie hunched lower in her seat. “You know you don’t have to do all of this, right?”
Libby’s stomach tightened. “Do all of what?”
Annie made a vague hand gesture, and her brows furrowed. “Butter me up. You can just say what you want to say without all of this.”
Libby frowned and put her fork down. “Annie, what is it that you think I want to say?”
Annie looked at her for the first time since coming home an hour ago, and Charlotte saw the unshed tears in her eyes. “You’re going to send me away, aren’t you?”
Libby jerked back. “What?”
Annie pushed her chair back, and it fell with a thud. She hiccupped and ran a hand over her face. “Between the bad grades and the whole mix-up with Devon, you’re realizing it’s too much...thatI’mtoo much."
Libby pushed her chair back and took a step in Annie’s direction. “Sweetheart, no. That’s not it at all.”
Annie was crying freely now, and she took a step back when Libby moved closer. “I’m not an idiot, Libby. Please don’t treat me like one. You made me my favorite food, and you’re talking about going together to the market and having Charlotte over…like we’re some kind of family.”
Libby’s throat tightened. “Wearea family.”
“I’ve been told that before,” Annie said with a shake of her head. “I was in five foster homes before I came here. All of them said I was a nice girl but that I was too troubled, and I tried not to let it get to me, but when I came here, I thought things were going to be different. I thought—”
Libby crushed Annie to her and blinked back her tears. “Thingsaredifferent, Annie. I know you’ve had a difficult life. I know bad things have happened to you, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
Annie’s shoulders were still shaking. “It doesn’t?”
Libby shook her head and held Annie’s gaze. She cleared her throat and sniffed. “I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you standing in my doorway. And every moment since then. Annie, I…”
Libby trailed off, her mind struggling to catch up to her mouth.
But how was she supposed to tell her the truth?
How was she supposed to tell Annie that she’d known all along they were meant to be family?
She didn’t want to scare her.
“When you first came, and the social worker told me about what happened to you, I didn’t want to scare you by coming on too strong,” Libby continued, pausing to cup Annie’s face in her hands. “I know it’s been an adjustment, and I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been to be turned away by those other families, but then you wouldn’t have ended up here.”
Annie swallowed. “So, you don’t want to send me away?”
Poor Annie.
Had she really been carrying that around with her?
Libby shook her head, her chest tightening with emotion. “Not at all. I wanted to give you time to adjust, and I didn’t want you to feel like I was cutting you off from your birth family or acting like they don’t exist.”
Annie’s brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
Libby pulled back and led Annie to the couch. When Annie tucked herself against Libby’s side, her heart swelled with love and pride, and it grew so large she wasn’t sure her chest could contain it any longer. She ran her fingers down Annie’s back and then moved back up to her hair.
Libby could scarcely believe how lucky she was.
Or how full she felt.
Like nothing in the world could go wrong again.
She wanted to keep them in that bubble for as long as possible.
