Page 65 of The Dating Charade

But they weren’t here, were they? And that’s what her job was now, wasn’t it? To be the person who did the hard things, sometimes. To be the person they could rely on. No matter what.

Cassie spoke slowly, carefully. “I’m saying that your mother signed over her parental rights.” Her voice felt more clogged by the moment.

But no, she couldn’t stop now.

“And . . . if you want me to,” Cassie continued, “I can adopt you.”

Star watched the sidewalk some more. Cars moved around Bree, who waited beside them, wipers on, lights flashing. Cassie glanced back to the girls in the back seat. Deidre pressed her face against the window, taking it all in.

The girls shouldn’t have been watching this. Yet another bad parental move, Cassie was realizing.

“You wanna take my sisters?” Star said abruptly.

Cassie stared. “Of course not. I want to take your sisters and you.”

The light turned yellow, then red. Cars began to line up again.

She didn’t have the heart to tell Star it was up to her, that she had to give consent before the judge. Maybe Star would hear that and back out, changing her destination from Ershanna’s to the DCS building, so she could be there first thing in the morning to give her statement and get out of Cassie’s home. She could do that, too, probably. She was old enough. The courts surely would respect her wishes—

Cassie felt her breath knocked out as she was suddenly hit in the chest. Just when she felt certain Star was in the throes of pummeling her, however, she felt Star’s arms wrap around her ribs, her face pressed so hard and so deep into Cassie’s chest she felt Star was getting zipper burn. She wasn’t trying to smother her. She was trying to hug her.

Relief flooded over Cassie.

Everything was going to be okay.

“Why doesn’t she want us?”

The almost inaudible, whispered words halted Cassie’s thoughts and turned her blood ice cold.

Suddenly she felt the wet tears on her neck, the slight tremors of Star’s body through their coats.

“Oh, Star.” Cassie wrapped her arms around Star’s shoulders and squeezed tight.

For seconds that turned to minutes, they stood in silence.

Eventually, Bree turned the car off.

Finally, after the fourth series of cars went by, Cassie pulled away enough to look down at her, her throat throbbing. “I don’t know, Star. No matter what, though, I’d like you to stay. With me.”

She swallowed, these emotional moments—especially with the stream of cars watching—foreign and uncomfortable.

Star pulled back and rubbed her nose against her jacket. She didn’t move. Didn’t seem to breathe.

After a long, thoughtful pause, she nodded.

Slowly they both stepped toward the car and slipped into their seats.

They sat in silence the rest of the way home, even Deidre and Kennedy in tune to the heavy moment. Hours later, after Cassie had cleared the cookie crumbs from the kitchen table and helped the girls get baths before bed, she quietly shut the door to Star’s room and tiptoed down the hall. Part of her felt like her feet were in charge of her dragging body, and catching the sight of her bed through her open door, she was tempted to collapse on it clothes and all. But her mind ached in the way it did after six hours of television in bed on a sick day, overstimulated and too wound up to let her sleep. She turned instead at the top of the stairs and started down.

Hot tea would do her good. Help her process what all had happened that day.

And there, at the end chair of the dining room table, sat her best friend, two cups of steaming tea on the table.

“Bree?” Cassie said, skipping down the last three steps. “I didn’t realize you were still here.”

Bree turned the handle of the mug in her hand, nodding with a weary smile. “I waited.”

Once seated, Bree pushed the mug her way. The way she slid it over silenced Cassie; the lack of animation on Bree’s face hushing Cassie’s thoughts. Never had she seen Bree look so somber—at least, not since Cassie’s accident.