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“Can I go?” Leon pipes up next, and Ma gives him a glare.
Ignoring his question, Ma asks, “Mimi, I thought you were going to work on your manuscript for NYU this summer?”
“What better place to find inspiration than a lake-town adventure?” Mimi gives me a squeeze and a wink.
“I don’t like this,” Ma huffs, and we make eye contact again.
Ma has always been a bit more stoic when compared to Mama. She needs to be stern to keep her station under control, but for the first time since the start of this conversation, pain strains her eyes.
Moms never once kept us from being able to see our birth parents. The idea never appealed to me, but Leon has monthly video calls with his mom to practice French, and Miggy will see his dad in public.
Forgiven, but not forgotten.
“Ma, I promise I’ll be okay.” She’s worried I won’t want to leave my hometown.
“I refuse to let anyone separate us all again.” The last part causes Ma’s lips to tremble.
I pass a side glance to Ella, who is now absorbed by the food in front of her, staring at it like that will cause the nutrition to enter her body.
We had a scare when Ella was first getting adopted, and her addict birth mom was trying to steal Ella from us.
“Ma, it’s important. I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t think it was.”
She sighs before looking over all of us, each passing gaze holding the purest of motherly love.
“Okay,” she concedes, “but I want daily updates.”
I nod, then it dawns on me that I’m actually going back to Alliance.
I don’t think I could do this without any of them.
CHAPTER FIVE
Oliver
“Ow!” I hiss as Gerald bites my hand.
“Oh, Ger, let the nice man go!” Glynda chides the old hound.
I half expect the dog to ignore her, but he lets me go and looks at her like he deserves a treat for it.
Glynda fishes out a biscuit for him, and the dog munches down before going off to the other side of the room.
“Sorry about that, Oliver. He can be a bit temperamental. I think he assumes you are going to adopt him every time you come.”
A ping of guilt hits me. I come here weekly to handle any maintenance our towns humane society needs. They don’t have much, just donations from the town, but I cost them less than one of the other companies in town.
“Make sure to grab a treat from the break room.” Glynda hands me my pay for fixing some of the kennel doors.
“Same time next week?” I ask with a smirk. They call me weekly, and they always have the break room stocked full of treats for me.
Glynda waves off my insinuation. “The place is old. It needs a lot of maintenance.”
With that, I grab a cinnamon bagel from the break room and do my round of saying goodbye to all the ladies and animals.
The Alliance sun is out, warming my skin to just the right amount that makes me want to jump in the lake and get another morning swim in. Not the best idea, though, since I would need another shower.
Adulting is hard.
