“Where is she tonight?”

He twirled his pasta in his fork. “Cleaning an office building. Sarah’s at a sleepover, and Alex is at an amusement park with a friend. He’ll get home before Mom and then we can leave. He can watch Chelsea. No meeting the parents, as requested.” He smirked and took a bite.

I gave him a look. “It’s not personal. I just don’t do that.”

He swallowed. “No, I get it. I get the full Amber/Neil/Maddy death-threat submersion experience and you just get to vibe.”

I snorted. “I’m sorry. Am I the a-hole?”

He smiled. “Nah. You’re all right.”

We ate dinner and I told him about the whole day while I helped Chelsea color a picture of Elsa. I told him about Mom painting the wall, the flowers, the fight with Maddy. He mostly listened. When I finished the spaghetti, I asked for seconds and he got up and served me more.

“Do you think Maddy’s right?” I asked. “Should I tell him?”

He sucked air through his teeth. “That’s hard,” he said, putting my plate in front of me and sitting back down. “If she’s turned over a new leaf, I can see why you wouldn’t want to get involved. It’s kind of messed up to bring up old stuff. And it’s not like he’s marrying her or something, they’re just having fun, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let them have fun. Let him make his own decision about her. The guy’s not an idiot.”

I nodded, feeling a little better about my decision.

Chelsea squirmed in her seat. “Jussin, I’m done.”

He set his fork down and got up again. “Okay. Let me clean your face and then you can go watch Frozen until bedtime.”

I watched him take a wipe and get the sauce off her mouth and her hands. When he let her go, she ran out of the kitchen toward the living room. He followed her to put on her movie. I smiled after them.

When he came back, I was washing dishes.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, coming up next to me as I set the pot in the drying rack.

“It’s no problem, Jussin.”

He grinned and picked up a towel to start drying. I’d already loaded the dishwasher and started it, it was just the big stuff left to wash.

“Do you babysit a lot?” I asked.

He laughed dryly, but he didn’t get to reply. The sound of a door slamming came from the front of the house. Justin checked his watch and leaned back to peer down the hall. “Alex? You home? You’re early.”

But it wasn’t a teenage boy who came down the hallway, it was a young girl with a pink backpack slung over her shoulder.

He wrinkled his forehead. “Sarah. I thought you were spending the night at Josie’s.”

She looked around the kitchen, bored. “She’s being a bitch. I don’t want to hang out with her.”

“Uh, does Mom let you talk like that?” Justin said.

She rolled her eyes. “You asked me.”

“How did you get home?”

“I walked?”

He shook his head. “I don’t want you walking alone at night. You need to call me next time.”

“It’s like three blocks—”

“I don’t care. It’s late.”

She looked annoyed. “Fine. Whatever.” Then she looked at me. “Who are you?”

“This is Emma,” Justin said.

“Is she your girlfriend?” she said, looking me up and down.

“Yes.”

The corner of my lip twitched. I know we’d agreed on that title, but it still surprised me to hear it out loud.

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

I’d never seen someone roll their eyes without actually rolling their eyes, but she somehow managed it anyway.

“There’s spaghetti—” Justin said.

“I ate at Josie’s. I’ll be in my room.” And she left.

Justin looked at me with an amused expression while we listened to her stomp up the stairs and slam the door.

“She’s twelve and at the hating-everything stage,” he said. “Were you like that when you were twelve?” he asked, taking the cookie sheet from me to dry.

“I didn’t have the luxury of being like that. I had to be invisible.”

He drew his brows down. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “I couldn’t really be needy or crabby. It just made Mom worse. And then when I was in foster care, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”

“Why?”

“Because being difficult is the best way to get sent back? Or getting the crap beat out of you?”

He stopped and stared at me. “Did anyone ever do that to you?”

I looked at the sink as I scrubbed it out. “I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the foster care system, Justin. And there’s definitely all three. Maddy’s parents were the good. I got really lucky with them.”

A little twinge of guilt stabbed at me suddenly, remembering I wasn’t going home for the anniversary party. It didn’t stab at me because I felt bad I wasn’t going. It stabbed at me because I felt bad that I didn’t feel bad.