Page 37 of Dancing in the Rain

“Thanks.”

Not very forthcoming. He approached the desk under the window and pulled the chair out to sit.

“This all sucks, doesn’t it?” he said quietly.

She heaved a huge sigh. “Yeah.”

“I don’t have any great advice for you. I’ve never been in this situation. I can’t even imagine what it’s like.”

“That’s okay. I don’t need advice.”

“Of course you don’t. You’re twelve years old.”

“Almost. My birthday is in two weeks.”

“October what?”

“October fifth.”

“Do you have big plans for a party?”

She bent her head. “No.”

“I guess it’s hard to think about a party when your mom’s not feeling well.”

“She said I could have a party. But she’s not well enough for it.”

“I’m sure Peyton would help.”

“Yeah. I had this idea…there’s this place that comes to the house with a whole bunch of videogames.”

“That would be cool.”

“We’d still have to get food and a cake. I love birthday cake.”

She looked so forlorn at the idea of not having a cake on her birthday. “I’m sure you’ll have cake.”

Chloe sighed.

“My sister Shawna loves birthday cake. It has to have multicolored sprinkles. Even though she’s thirty-two.”

One corner of Chloe’s mouth lifted. “Oh. How many sisters do you have?”

“One sister. I also have two brothers.”

“Whoa. That’s a big family.”

“Yeah, it was pretty crazy growing up.”

“That would be kind of nice,” she said wistfully, plucking at the cushion she held. “I always wanted a brother or sister.” She paused. “And a dad.”

“I’m sorry we never knew about each other.”

“It used to make me mad, sometimes.”

“At me?”

“At both of you. It made me mad that you didn’t care enough about me to even find out who each other was. I know that doesn’t really make sense because you had no idea I was going to be born, but that’s how I felt.”

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