For a moment,Ithought he was going to kiss me, but instead, he lifted his hand to tuck a loose curl behind my ear.
“Go inside and get changed andI’llmeet you by the fire pit,” he said softly. “I’llletPercyout.”
I knew when to take advantage of a moment, and this was one of those times.Iturned and made my way up the small sidewalk to his front door, walking inside without looking back.
14
ARCHER
I found her sitting on the back patio by the fire pit, wearing a loose-fitting yellowT-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants.Herlegs were bent, and her knees were up against her chest.Shewas quiet, seeming to be contemplating life.
“Alright ifIjoin you?”Iasked, walking up to the chair next to her.
I, too, had taken off my wedding clothes and was wearing a pair of gray cotton shorts and a blackT-shirt.
She turned, taking the bottle of waterIheld out, and nodded. “It’syour house,Archer.Youcan be wherever you want.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that response, but it was an opening nonetheless, soItook it.Isat down in the chair next to her and watched her stare into the fire as though it contained all of life’s answers.Itwas a gas fire pit, so it had very little smoke, which allowed for the nice ambiance without the smell.
Hoping to break the silence and also get to know her better—whichIshould have done years ago—Itried to get her to open up. “Tellme more about your family.”
I knew a little about her foster moms and siblings, as well as a brief bitIhad gotten from a background checkIran on her after we got divorced.ButIdidn’t know the personal stuff.Thethings a background check couldn’t tell you.
“My two moms were sisters who had grown up in the foster system.”Shespoke softly but with a smile in her voice. “There’sWinnie—who we just callMom—andTia—which isSpanishfor aunt, so we’ve always called herAuntie.”
She smiled and relaxed back in her chair. “FromwhatIunderstand, their mom would clean up her act and get them back, only for social services to come back a few months or even a year later and take them back into state custody.Bythe time their mom finally gave them up to be available for adoption, they were sixteen and fourteen.Mostpeople don’t want older kids, let alone siblings, so they were never adopted.Theyeventually just aged out, but they still had each other.Theymade it their adult life mission to try to take in as many foster kids as they could so that no one had to go through the constant moving around.”
She filled me in on life growing up on a farm—Ihad never actually known anyone with llamas or ostriches.Ilearned all about how she came into the foster system and the whole journey leading up to her adoption with theO’Haras.
The biggest takeaway from all of this was that she’d been rejected and abandoned multiple times throughout her childhood, only for me to do the same to her in adulthood.
She smiled. “Theyboth still live on the farm.Sodoes my sisterGale.”
“Wow, my memory must be worse thanIthought.Howold isGalenow?Ithought she was the oldest sister,”Icommented to her.
“She is,”Aceconfirmed, her face full of empathy. “Shehad the roughest childhood and is very introverted, so she still lives at home and helps out with the farm.Sheis a forensic scientist but can do most of her work remotely, which is good for her.”
Her voice was heavy at the end, andIhated that for her sister, butIwas also glad she had that safe space.
“Cora is the next oldest, and she is theNevadaStateHydrologistup inReno.ThencomesIris, and she just got a new job with theNationalWeatherServiceas theWarningCoordinationMeteorologist, which she is super stoked about.”
Her face lit up while she talked about her family, andIloved seeing her this happy.
“Next up was me in the sister order, and thenHazel.Sheis currently a marine biologist and lives in a coastal town not far fromMomandAuntie.CoraandHazelare biological sisters.”
“Only girls?”
“They had some boys in the beginning, but once they broughtGaleinto the fold, they stopped fostering boys because she had a really hard time with any male presence,” she answered somberly.
There was clearly more to the story there, butIwasn’t going to push on that.Ialso didn’t want our conversation to end, soIchose to just switch to a new topic.
“So,Iknow yourfirstchoice for a dream wedding…obviously.”Ileaned over and winked at her. “Butif you couldn’t get married inVegasand not remember any details the next day because you were hungover, what would be your second choice for an ideal wedding?”
She snorted. “Strangequestion.Umm…Idon’t really know.”
“You don’t know?Don’tall girls dream of that kind of thing when they’re little?”
“Some girls dream about other things,” she said so softlyIbarely heard her.
