Far from the Tree(84)

Mark and Linda would never let him back in their house now. Joaquin wouldn’t have wanted to let him back in, either, not after what he had said.

The dragon had won, and Joaquin was just a pile of broken bones and ash on the scorched ground, out of time and out of lives.

Game over.





GRACE


Grace had never kept such a big a secret from her parents for this long. Even when she’d discovered she was pregnant, she had told them within twenty-four hours. But she knew that if she told her parents about her upcoming trip, how she planned to just go up to the front door of a stranger’s house and knock on it and possibly meet her birth mother?

Grace had a pretty active imagination, but even she couldn’t imagine all the ways her parents would say no to that.

So she told Rafe instead.

“Wait, so let me get this straight,” Rafe said. They were sitting in what Grace had come to think of as “their” booth at the back of the restaurant near the kitchen supply store. “You’re just going to go up to some stranger’s door and knock on it and say, ‘Hi, Mom’?”

“Well, not exactly like that,” Grace said. “You’re making it sound like we’re going to egg her house or something.”

“Grace.” Rafe set down his fork and looked at her. “Look, no offense, but I don’t think this is your best idea.”

“It’s not my idea, it’s our idea,” Grace said. “Me and Joaquin and Maya, we’re all going together.”

Rafe didn’t look convinced. “So what are you going to do if she’s not home?”

“Leave a note?”

“Leave a note?” Rafe repeated. “‘Hi, your three bio kids swung by to say hey, sorry we missed you.’”

Grace rolled her eyes at him. This was not how this conversation was supposed to go. “You know, if I wanted someone to illustrate for me all the ways that this could go wrong, I’d just tell my parents.”

“You didn’t even tell your parents?” Rafe lowered his head to the table and started banging his forehead against the edge. “Grace, Grace, Grace. This has disaster written all over it.”

“You know, you could be at least a little supportive!” Grace said. “This is really scary, okay? You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes your friend has to tell you the truth,” Rafe said. “You should tell your parents, at least.”

“They won’t understand.”

“Grace, you had a baby and they seemed to come through that experience just fine. I don’t think you’re giving them enough credit.”

“If I tell them, they’ll just give a million reasons why it’s a bad idea.”

Rafe just raised an eyebrow as if to say I told you so.

“God, never mind,” Grace said, pushing her plate away. She had barely touched her sandwich or fries, or much food at all, for that matter. Just thinking about Saturday made her feel nauseous in a way that she had never experienced during pregnancy.

“Okay, but can I just ask one question?” Rafe said.

“If I say no, are you going to ask it anyway?”

“Yep.”

“Fine, ask away.”

Rafe leaned forward a little, putting his hand on the table toward Grace. “What if your birth mom doesn’t want to be found?”

Grace sat back against the booth, the leather suddenly cold on her legs.

“I mean, all the letters were returned, her phone’s disconnected, she’s never tried to find any of you, not even Joaquin. What if she just wants to stay gone?”

Grace fiddled with the napkin in her lap. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t. But I just want her to know that I’m okay. Is that selfish?”

“I don’t think so,” Rafe said.

“Is this a stupid thing to do?”

“Maybe. I’m not really sure.”

“What would you do?”

Rafe thought for a minute, then pushed his hand farther across the table so that their fingertips were touching. “I don’t know,” he said. “But maybe this way, either way, you’ll have an answer.”

Grace raised her hand so that it was covering Rafe’s. “I told Joaquin and Maya about Peach.”

Rafe’s eyes widened almost comically. “Seriously?” he asked. “Why? How?”

“Maya saw an email from her adoptive parents. She was just teasing me with my phone and she saw it, and yeah. Hard to hide after that.”

“Wow. Are you good with that?”

Grace was, actually. She felt lighter after that day, like the heavy cloud that had hung over her had finally turned into rain. “They want me to visit her.”

“Joaq and Maya do?”

“No. Peach’s parents. They want me to visit in a few months, when she’s six months old. We had originally agreed to two visits a year back before the adoption.”

Rafe waited for her to go on, flipping his hand over so that their palms were pressed together.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to.”

“But what if she wants to see me? I mean, not now, but in the future.”