Page 22 of Dallas

“These are amazing,” she says, focusing on eating, which I can’t start until I have my coffee.

I realize that I left my phone in my room, and I go to grab it, because honestly, I wouldn’t put it past my mom toshow up and knock, desperate for Intel. So, it’s better to just text her.

I grab my phone off my nightstand, and I see that I do, in fact, have two unread text messages.

I look at Kaylee’s text first.

I left breakfast for you and your friend out front.

And then my dad’s.

Sorry, ratted you out. You’re probably going to get interrogated later.

I press the message and give Dad a thumbs down, while I go back to my mom’s message and give her a thumbs up.

Then I return to the kitchen just in time for the coffee maker to finish running. I pour a cup of coffee for myself and one for Sarah, bringing it over to the table. I’ve never actually had breakfast with a woman in my house before. Another way that Sarah is special. As she should be.

Because she’s still one of the most important people in my life, even with a ten-year gap between meetings.

“Well, my family isn’t planning to invade, but we should go over to the house and meet everybody soon.” I pause. “How much do you want them to know?”

She looks down at her plate. “You can tell them whatever. I mean, you might as well tell them the truth. You have siblings, what if he follows us here…”

“First of all, that’s not going to happen. He’s not tailing you, and we left your car for a reason. We left a lot of things for a reason. Didn’t make a production out of moving out. We’re six hours away. But also, he’d be rolling up on a whole Dodge militia. My dad has two brothers, and his sister is pretty mean if I’m honest. And when I tell you,they’re not going to take kindly to you being threatened, I mean it.”

She blinks. “Oh. Of course. You have this whole big family.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“It’s really amazing, Dallas. Whenever I thought of you, I was so worried that you were still alone. When I left you were still in foster care.”

“Yeah. I already mentioned that it kind of pushed me over the edge when you left. But all that is what led to finding my dad. They got desperate. They didn’t have anywhere else to put me.”

“Losing me really did that to you?” She looks hungry for the answer.

I get it. I know that feeling way too well, and she hasn’t had the family I’ve had these past nine years making everything better.

Reunification is supposed to be a good thing. It’s supposed to be the kind of thing that a kid in care dreams of. But in her case, it was a nightmare. It didn’t give her anything good. The irony that she lost support when she went back to her mother is definitely not lost on me.

“I knew you didn’t want to go back to her. I think if you’d been happy, things would’ve been different. I think I would’ve felt different,” I say. “But I knew. I knew you didn’t want to go back to her. I knew you wanted to stay with me. I couldn’t do anything. I felt so powerless. Being just a kid, trapped in the system. Not able to do anything. So, I lashed out. At everyone. At everything. Because it was the only thing I could think of to do. Or maybe it wasn’t even that calculated. I was just angry. Angry that I lost you.”

“Well. You have me again,” she says.

We eat the rest of our breakfast in silence, and then I decide it’s time for me to go talk to the family.

“Why don’t you wait here?” I suggest.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Just let me deal with it.”

“I’d like to meet your family.” She’s looking at me with suspicion, and I wonder if I hurt her feelings. Definitely not my intent.

“I’m not hiding you, I promise. I just don’t want to throw you in the middle of all the chaos.”

“I’m fine. Honestly. I am staying on your parents’ property, and I do feel like I should at least make an appearance. Otherwise, it’s going to be weirder.”

I laugh. “Well. True enough.”

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