Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“ I made mac and cheese,” Libby said, pausing to switch the phone to her other ear. “I’ve also made some potato salad, and I marinated the chicken just the way she likes it.”
“I’m sure it’s going to go great,” Charlotte replied warmly. “I’m really glad you two are working things out.”
Libby slammed the oven door shut and inhaled the smell of the casserole. “I guess I had to yell at her friend for me to get the point across.”
“Yeah, but hopefully, you don’t have to do that again.”
Libby peered through the oven glass at the chicken, now a nice golden brown. “How’s it going with the schedule? Addison still driving you crazy?”
“She’s agreed to let Patrick take me on a date, but on the condition that she has to know when he’s picking me up, where we’re going, and when he drops me off.”
Libby choked back a laugh. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish I was.” Charlotte sighed. “I know Addison means well, but she definitely needs to tone it down.”
Libby took off the oven mitts and tossed them onto her counter. Then, she swung the refrigerator door open and pushed some containers aside. When she pulled the bowl of potato salad out, she set it down on the counter and removed the lid.
“How’s Patrick taking all of this?”
“He’s handling it so well. I feel guilty. He definitely deserves a lot better.”
Libby retrieved a wooden spoon and began to stir the salad. “He’s a good guy. He’ll be good for you, even if it is an adjustment.”
Charlotte snorted. “That’s an understatement.”
“When will you be back on your feet?”
“In a week or so if everything looks good. I’m so ready to go back to work.”
Libby chuckled and stopped tossing the salad. She took two plates out of the top cupboard and set them down on the dining room table. Then, she took out a bottle of soda and two cups. When Annie got home from school, she left her bag by the door and kicked off her shoes.
She froze when she saw Libby in the kitchen, untying her apron and smiling. “Welcome home. I made your favorite today.”
Annie glanced from the casserole to her face and back again. “Why?”
“After dinner I thought we could talk. I made some chocolate cake too. Char, I’m going to call you later, okay?”
“Good luck,” Charlotte replied before hanging up.
Annie frowned and peeled off her sweater. Wordlessly, she disappeared into her room and returned with her hair tied back and droplets of water on her face. She tugged on the hem of her hoodie and helped Libby carry the food out to the table. Once everything was set, Libby pulled her chair out and paused.
Annie wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Dig in,” Libby said a little too loudly. “There’s potato salad, mac and cheese, and grilled chicken. Everything is just the way you like it.”
Annie picked up her fork and sank lower into her seat. “Okay.”
“How was school?”
“It was fine.”
“How’s Devon?”
Annie gave her a sharp look. “He’s fine too.”
Libby scooped up a spoonful of salad and added it to her plate. She stabbed her fork into the nearest potato and lifted it to her lips. “I was thinking of having Charlotte over once she’s feeling better, if that’s not too weird for you.”
Now that they were in a better place, Libby didn’t want to jeopardize that.
Annie could take as long as she needed to adapt to the idea of her foster mom and former teacher being friends.
Libby was going to try to be more respectful of her space.
They’d come a long way in the past few weeks, but Libby was a little too aware of the fact that they still had a long way to go.
Annie was pushing the food around her plate and staring at it, as if it had all of the answers in the world. Libby finished her salad and added a generous amount of mac and cheese to her plate, bursting with rich and creamy flavor. When she glanced back up, Annie had barely touched her food, and it sent a ripple of unease through Libby, the kind that made her stomach clench and her mouth turn dry.
Had she misread the situation?
Was this all too much for Annie?
Libby paused with the fork halfway to her lips. “I was thinking you could come with me to the farmers’ market next weekend. I know you don’t like waking up early, but I think you’d like it.”
Annie hunched lower in her seat. “You know you don’t have to do all of this, right?”
Libby’s stomach tightened. “Do all of what?”
Annie made a vague hand gesture, and her brows furrowed. “Butter me up. You can just say what you want to say without all of this.”
Libby frowned and put her fork down. “Annie, what is it that you think I want to say?”
Annie looked at her for the first time since coming home an hour ago, and Charlotte saw the unshed tears in her eyes. “You’re going to send me away, aren’t you?”
Libby jerked back. “What?”
Annie pushed her chair back, and it fell with a thud. She hiccupped and ran a hand over her face. “Between the bad grades and the whole mix-up with Devon, you’re realizing it’s too much...that I’m too much."
Libby pushed her chair back and took a step in Annie’s direction. “Sweetheart, no. That’s not it at all.”
Annie was crying freely now, and she took a step back when Libby moved closer. “I’m not an idiot, Libby. Please don’t treat me like one. You made me my favorite food, and you’re talking about going together to the market and having Charlotte over…like we’re some kind of family.”
Libby’s throat tightened. “We are a family.”
“I’ve been told that before,” Annie said with a shake of her head. “I was in five foster homes before I came here. All of them said I was a nice girl but that I was too troubled, and I tried not to let it get to me, but when I came here, I thought things were going to be different. I thought—”
Libby crushed Annie to her and blinked back her tears. “Things are different, Annie. I know you’ve had a difficult life. I know bad things have happened to you, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
Annie’s shoulders were still shaking. “It doesn’t?”
Libby shook her head and held Annie’s gaze. She cleared her throat and sniffed. “I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you standing in my doorway. And every moment since then. Annie, I…”
Libby trailed off, her mind struggling to catch up to her mouth.
But how was she supposed to tell her the truth?
How was she supposed to tell Annie that she’d known all along they were meant to be family?
She didn’t want to scare her.
“When you first came, and the social worker told me about what happened to you, I didn’t want to scare you by coming on too strong,” Libby continued, pausing to cup Annie’s face in her hands. “I know it’s been an adjustment, and I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been to be turned away by those other families, but then you wouldn’t have ended up here.”
Annie swallowed. “So, you don’t want to send me away?”
Poor Annie.
Had she really been carrying that around with her?
Libby shook her head, her chest tightening with emotion. “Not at all. I wanted to give you time to adjust, and I didn’t want you to feel like I was cutting you off from your birth family or acting like they don’t exist.”
Annie’s brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
Libby pulled back and led Annie to the couch. When Annie tucked herself against Libby’s side, her heart swelled with love and pride, and it grew so large she wasn’t sure her chest could contain it any longer. She ran her fingers down Annie’s back and then moved back up to her hair.
Libby could scarcely believe how lucky she was.
Or how full she felt.
Like nothing in the world could go wrong again.
She wanted to keep them in that bubble for as long as possible.
“Someday, when you’re older, your family might want to reach out to you, or you might want to reach out to them. I don’t want to get in the way of that or make it harder.”
Annie blew out a breath. “They don’t care about me. They’ve had their chance to show that, and they didn’t.”
Slowly, Libby pulled back to look at her, a soft smile hovering on her face. “You might feel that way now, but you might not always feel that way. Regardless, I don’t want that to change the dynamic between us. I don’t want that to change what we are. We’re a family.”
Annie’s eyes widened, and her face flushed. “We are?”
Libby nodded and stood up. She went to her purse, thrown haphazardly onto the kitchen counter, and picked it up. Then, she rummaged through it, her heart missing a beat when she pulled out the papers. She paused to smooth them out and carried them over to the couch.
Libby’s heart was racing, and her palms were sweaty when she handed them to Annie. Annie sat up straighter, lifted the papers closer, and began to skim them. Libby felt sick to her stomach the entire time and wondered if she was doing it all wrong.
Should she have done something fancier? Asked during a better moment?
She only got one chance to get Annie to agree to adoption, and she wanted to do it right, with all of the bells and whistles.
Annie gasped and stopped reading. Her eyes darted up, and she stared at Libby in disbelief, her mouth half-open and her eyes lowered. “You want to adopt me?”
“Only if you want me to,” Libby replied hastily. “If you don’t want me to, nothing will change. You and I will be a family regardless.”
A piece of paper wasn’t going to change how Libby felt, and it wasn’t going to change what Annie meant to her.
All the paper did was formalize things and give Annie some much-needed stability and security. After everything she’d been through, she deserved at least that much.
Annie blew out a breath. “I don’t know…”
Libby’s stomach dropped. “It’s okay. It’s too soon. We can talk about this more later if you want—”
Annie’s hand darted out and closed around Libby’s. “No, I don’t want to talk about this later. I want to…”
Libby took both of Annie’s hands in hers. “Yes?”
Annie lifted her gaze, and her eyes filled with tears again. She took several deep breaths. “I want you to adopt me.”
Libby’s heart stopped. “You do?”
Annie nodded, her voice catching toward the end. “I really do. I’m sorry I’ve been so difficult, but I promise I’ll do better.”
Libby drew Annie into her arms. “You don’t need to apologize, sweetheart. Mistakes are meant to be made on both sides.”
Annie choked back a laugh. “Yes. Hey, Libby. I mean, Mom?”
Libby’s eyes welled with barely restrained tears as she drew back to look at Annie and kissed her forehead. “Yes?”
“Can we eat now? I’m starving.” Annie gave her a sheepish smile.
Libby laughed, took her hand, and stood up. “Of course, we can. How about we watch a movie together? After dinner. I’ve got some ice cream to go with that chocolate cake.”
Annie gave Libby another hug and practically skipped into the kitchen. “Sounds perfect.”
When they sat down across from each other to eat, Libby realized that having many more nights and days like this was exactly what she wanted.
After all this time, they both finally had a family again.
And it was more than anything Libby could’ve imagined.