“Why do you all look so surprised?” Rachel asks. “I would have thought it would be obvious by now. I don’t know what happened all those years ago to make you so uncomfortable around him, but he was stupid for a long time, so I’m absolutely certain it was his fault. That boy has been like a lost puppy begging for your attention for years. Am I right that he has it now?”
I blow out a breath and lean forward, resting my crossed arms on the island.
“You’re spooky, Rachel; you know that, right?”
“Takes one to know one, Em,” Hallie says. “You’re pretty damn spooky yourself sometimes.”
“We just know what we know.” Rachel slides the donut box towards her and picks a strawberry frosted with sprinkles.
“So, what do you know?” Julie and Molly say in unison before bursting out into giggles.
“It was nothing, really. We ran, Hallie called me, we went shopping for stuff for Maddy’s room, and Jeremy came back to my house to help me set it up.” I leave out the part about copious amounts of Chinese food and sitting so close to each other on the couch that a sheet of paper couldn’t have fit between us.
“He wanted to help.” Rachel makes it a statement, not a question.
I nod. “He did.”
“And you let him.”
“It was…nice to have the company. And he seemed to really need to do it.”
Rachel’s eyes soften when she looks at me. “You and Jeremy understand each other, and you are both going to understand this little girl. Let him help you. I think she may just need you both.”
I shift in my seat, considering her words. I do understand him, even if I don’t know his whole story. The lost boy growing up without a family of his own. The gifted athlete who had his sport yanked away from him far too soon. The outwardly cheerful and outgoing guy who hides a part of him that is still a little bit broken. I want to know everything, I realize. I want to know him all the way down.
“If he wants to help, I’m happy to let him.”
“He’ll want,” Rachel says, giving me a satisfied look that tells me she has said everything she wanted to say. And so have I. Not wanting to delve further into the details of last night, I change the subject.
“Hallie, should we talk details now?”
Hallie sits up straight, and I can see the switch she makes from friend mode to lawyer mode.
“Okay, first things first. She’ll be here at three so you can take her home, and Cindy at the Center for Children and Families already set up a time for you to take her to her new school tomorrow morning to meet her teacher. She’ll officially start on Monday.”
“Oh, before I forget!” Julie jumps off her stool and grabs a box on the kitchen counter, handing it to me.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“A booster seat for your car. The small one older kids use when they’re not tall enough for the shoulder belt. Asher ran out and bought it for you last night as soon as I told him what wasgoing on. He wasn’t sure if you would know to buy one. He has a zillion nieces and a nephew, so he knows all the things.”
I didn’t know to buy one. Suddenly the sheer number of things I don’t know about caring for a seven-year-old drops on my shoulders like an anvil and I start to panic a little.
“It’s going to be okay, Em.” Molly’s voice is soft. “We are going to figure it all out together.”
“You won’t be alone,” Julie says. “You have all of us.”
“You certainly do,” Rachel says. “Now, tell us the rest, Hal.”
The panic ebbs just a bit, and it’s replaced by the confidence that with these women by my side, I can get through anything.
This could have been me.
It’s my first thought when Maddy walks through the front door, her hand holding tight to Cindy’s and her eyes cast down at the floor. I meet them at the front door, Rachel and my friends hanging back in the kitchen so we don’t overwhelm Maddy with people.
Her bright red hair is the same color as mine. She’s holding a tattered paperback copy ofHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stonein her free hand and is wearing a pink backpack, the head of a stuffed dog poking out the top. She has on jeans and a T-shirt, and my heart squeezes at the tiny notebook and pen sticking out of her back pocket. When her lip trembles, my nerves vanish, replaced by an overwhelming instinct to protect this child. To let her know this is a safe place for her and I’m a safe person.
I act without thinking, crouching down so I’m eye level with her.
