Page 5 of The Hallows Queen

“No one wants to adopt a teenager who’s already messed up from bouncing around the system. You guys seem really nice, but you don’t have to pretend.”

“Pretend?” Stephen questioned, but then he pressed his lips together for a minute before he spoke again. “I’m almost sixty years old, Penelope. We don’t have the energy to chase around an infant or change diapers. We just want a child to welcome into our family. Someone who we can call our own.”

Colette looked at her husband and smiled like he hung the stars in the sky, then looked back at me. “We never had children. We focused on our careers, and now we’re ready for a family. It’s unconventional, but that’s us.”

“Unconventional,” Stephen echoed.

I started to look at this like something that could bereal,so I sat back in my chair and leveled them with a look. “What do you do for a living?”

Stephen leaned back in his chair as well. “We’re both doctors.”

“What kind of doctors?” I asked.

“I’m a cardiovascular surgeon, and Colette is a neurosurgeon.”

My brows raised, impressed. “Wow.”

Colette smiled. “We met in med school – Johns Hopkins – but did our residencies in different parts of the country, me in New York and Stephen at Cleveland Clinic. It wasn’t until we both accepted positions here in North Carolina that we spoke again.”

Stephen chuckled. “Like fate.”

“Why North Carolina? Why not somewhere better?” I asked.

“I’m from here,” Colette answered. “And I always thought Stephen was still hung up on me and followed me here.”

They both laughed, and I let myself giggle as well. Stephen raised his hands a bit. “I didn’t. Raleigh was updating their surgery wing and offered me a position. Colette being there was just an added bonus.”

“You guys seem really lucky,” I said, feeling a little sad. “Are you sure you want to adopt a teenager to come and mess up your life?”

“Yes,” Colette said without missing a beat. “We could use a new challenge. We’ll be retiring soon, that’s why we moved back to Luxington, and our home feels too empty.”

I nodded, not sure how to respond. I could feel myself making the room fill with awkwardness, but Stephen sat forward again just as I was about to get up and excuse myself.

“What do you like to do, Penelope?”

I thought over his question for a moment, then settled on the answer that felt the easiest. “I don’t know, really. I like school. I think I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I’ve always felt like teachers understood me better than my classmates.”

“Why is that?” Colette asked.

I shrugged. “It’s not easy making friends as the weird kid who lives in a foster home. I usually just stick to myself, I guess.”

“Maybe you’re just too mature for them,” Colette suggested.

“Maybe.” I shrugged again, feeling exposed.

“So, what do you say, Penelope? Do you want to become a part of our family?” Stephen asked, making my head snap up in surprise. I didn’t expect this today – orever, really – and it didn’t feel real. But as I moved my gaze between them, their positive and loving energy almost spread across the room into me, giving me the confidence to answer.

“I think I do, yeah,” I said quietly. “Only if you want me.”

Colette leaned across the table, reaching a hand out to me and resting it atop one of my own. Her skin was soft and warm, and I didn’t feel like pulling away, which was a good sign. “Let’s get you home, then.”

I didn’t know how much of ahomethey would provide for me. For the first time in my life I had somewhere that was mine, somewhere that I could be myself, somewhere I feltsafe.

I think that’s the most beautiful thing about being adopted at an older age, the fact that for so much of my life I felt unsafe, not cared for and tossed aside, and I was suddenly taught how to accept love and give it back.

Luxington becamehome.Luxington taught me how to be a real person, and for the first time, I had a family. I met cousins and grandparents, family friends, and local people who grew to recognize me as Colette and Stephen’s daughter. It was weird, but it was exactly what I needed and wanted all along.

Mom and dad and daughter, we grew to be best friends. They taught me to laugh, to love, to drive, to surf, and to breathe for the first fucking time.

---