Summer on Blossom Street (Blossom Street #6)(100)

“No, Casey. We want you to be our daughter, part of our family,” I said, my voice cracking with emotion. “Brad and I want to adopt you.”

“And I want you for my big sister,” Cody added, refusing to be left out. “I didn’t like you when you came here. I was supposed to be the oldest when they adopted ’nother kid.” He grinned.

“But, you know, it wouldn’t be so bad to have a big sister.”

Casey just stared at us.

“Would adopting you be all right?” I asked.

“You mean it?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, as though testing us to see if this was some cruel hoax. Brad and Cody nodded vigorously.

“This isn’t a trick, is it?” Her eyes implored me and then Brad before she swiveled around to look at Cody.

“No, Casey, we mean it,” I said. “We love you and want you to be with us.”

“Forever and ever,” Cody chimed in.

I saw tears form in Casey’s eyes. In all the weeks she’d been with us, I’d never seen her cry. Not once. She’d been terribly upset the day she’d heard from her brother but if she’d cried, she hadn’t let anyone see. Emotion came to her so tentatively that when I saw how affected she was, my own eyes f illed with tears. I gave her a watery smile.

“That’s why we got the ice cream cake,” Cody explained happily. “That’s why Aunt Margaret and Uncle Matt are coming over tonight with Hailey and Julia.”

Casey gulped back a sob and covered her mouth with both hands.

I reached for her, almost fearing she’d push me away as she so often had in the past. But Casey moved willingly into my arms and leaned her head against me, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

“We love you, Casey,” I whispered through the tightness in my own throat.

“I…love you, too—all of you,” she choked out. I murmured quiet endearments as she clung to me and I to her.

“I hoped…I didn’t want to leave you and…” She gulped between sobs.

“This is your home now,” Brad told her, placing his arms around the two of us. Cody joined in, and I felt his small arm curl around my waist.

“We want to be your family,” Cody said sweetly, “okay?”

“Okay.” She hiccuped.

Family.

Casey might have come to us as an unexpected surprise, but she was in our hearts now and there she would stay.

Epilogue

There is no life without knitting; every pattern on my needles presents an exotic challenge. My love for knitting is similar to my mother-in-law’s infatuation with her soap operas. On her deathbed, she said to me, “I don’t mind dying, but could you put a TV in my coff in so I could see how my stories turn out?” That’s how I feel about knitting. Could I please have needles and lots of yarn in my coff in so I can see how my patterns turn out?

—Rita Weiss, www.creativepartnersllc.com

The adoption went through rapidly and with ease, thanks to Evelyn Boyle, who smoothed the process for us. Only a month had passed, and now Brad, Cody, Casey and I stood before a judge to make legal what had begun from almost the moment Casey had arrived in our home.

Evelyn was with us as the judge asked a few simple questions, then declared Casey Marie Goetz to be our daughter. The courtroom was respectfully quiet except for my sister, Margaret, who sat in the front row and wept like a baby. I was emotional myself, but managed to hold back the tears until the judge made his declaration. Then I sniff led and turned to throw my arms around Casey.

She remained dry-eyed. But what I read in my daughter was joy—pure, profound joy. She hugged me back, squeezing hard in her enthusiasm. Then she hugged Brad and Cody and f inally, to everyone’s astonishment, she spoke to the judge.

“Would it be all right if I hugged you, too?” Casey asked, ready to bound up the steps.

At f irst the judge seemed taken aback. “I’ve never received such a request,” he said formally. Then he grinned and added, “I do believe I’d like that very much.”

Casey bolted up the steps and the judge stood and accepted her embrace.

“You’re a very fortunate girl,” he told her.

“I know,” she said, locking eyes with me.

Margaret continued to wail in the background and I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. So did Cody and Brad. You’d think my sister was at a funeral instead of a celebration. I suddenly saw that Alix and Jordan were in the courtroom. I was touched that they’d come, along with some of our other friends. Susannah from the f lower shop sat next to Alix, and of course Anne Marie and Ellen were there, too. As Brad, Cody, Casey and I paraded out of the courtroom, Margaret and Matt followed, with our friends trailing behind them.

“We’re treating everyone to lunch,” Brad called out. “It isn’t every day a man gains a daughter.”

“Especially one who can order off the adult menu,” Casey told him smugly.

“I want to order off the adult menu, too,” Cody insisted. Someone suggested we go to Chinatown and as it happened, Brad knew a good restaurant that was on his UPS route. We’d eaten there once, and I’d found it delicious. And that way, everyone got to order from the adult menu.

As we left the courthouse, we ran into Hutch and Phoebe. To be honest, I’d forgotten the “Candy Man Trial,” as it was being called in the media, was still going on.