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My lungs tightened. “You were in foster care?”
“Foster care,” she whispered.
“You don’t have parents?”
“Nope.”
“No family of any kind?”
“Nope.”
“No one wanted to adopt you?” I felt nauseous. “How is that even possible?”
She twirled a stray thread on her sleeping bag. “When youlook like this, foster dads tend to notice.” She inhaled. “Which really,reallypisses off their wives.”
Her words knocked the air out of me. I sucked in a breath. “Did any of them… touch you?”
“No,” she said, eyes fierce. “The minute anything felt wrong, I told Astrid, and she got me out of there. Astrid was my caseworker.”
I exhaled. “Well, that’s something.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “What else don’t I know? If you were a foster kid, how’d you wind up at DayGlow?”
“I dunno. Lucky break?” She didn’t sound grateful, though. She sounded a touch bitter. “The local community college was holding a one-day career fair. I was too young to be there, but I went anyway. Brought along a couple of ‘headshots.’ Anyone with a clue would’ve known a friend took them—but apparently, they were good enough. The following week, I got a call from Cecil Waterson, the owner of DG. They brought me in for a couple of interviews. Presented me to the board.” She shrugged. “Changed my name, created a fake backstory, and the rest is, as they say, history.”
“Sounds like a miracle,” I said.
“No.” She popped the stray thread loose. “I’ve only ever experienced one miracle in my life.”
“Tell me,” I said.
“Easy.” She looked me in the eye. “You.”
“Okay.” I scrubbed a hand over my face… floored. “Yeah. I’ll be your miracle.” I hurt for her. For the life she’d lost. The years she’d had to do it alone. I wished more than anything I could’ve known her back then. I would’ve brought her home with me, and my mom would’ve taken her in. Without a second thought. Because that’s what Duprees do. I forced an exhale. “So am I calling you Julie or Juliette?”
“Jules,” she said. “It’s what I heard when I was under thewater and you were looking for me. It was the first time in my life I knew someone cared whether I lived or died. Really, truly.”
“That’s… terrible. Yeah. I care.” I tucked her bangs behind her ear. “I didn’t know what I was going to do if I lost you.”
“I know. I could feel it.”
“Jules, it is then.”
“Griffin?” she asked, barely a whisper. “I want to be your wife.”
I nipped her nose with mine. “Then be her.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
She pecked me on the mouth, light and happy. “When?”
I laughed, overwhelmed in the best way. “Well, we’ll probably date for a while. Maybe a year or?—”
”No,” she said.
“Okay, well?—”
“I can’t even wait a month or two. If I’m going to be your wife, it needs to happen now.”
