But the sweatshirt is gone and Xander’s wearing slacks and his vest with nothing under it, and he doesn’t look like any fairy godmother I’ve seen. The excitement in his grin is laced with wickedness as he pulls me under his arm and starts walking. He leans down to my ear. “You’ll forget about it soon.”

I already have.

We make our way through the thick crowds, and I let myself get lost in the colors and smells, the brightly painted booths filled with stuffed animal prizes and surrounded with people laughing and cheering, the smell of corn dogs making my stomach grumble, the screams of the people on the giant wooden roller coaster.

Normally I’d feel uneasy around so many happy couples and families, but I blend in just fine.

I’m about to ask Xander where exactly we’re going when I spot Aristelle through the crowd. She’s standing above everyone else, and when we get closer, I can see she’s on top of one of the stone tables lined up in front of a stretch of food places. She wears a black dress that flares at her knees and wrists. A red glowing pizza sign behind her head casts the perfect lighting for her.

She smirks at my surprised face.

Xander pulls me farther down. Reina stands on top of the next table, contrasting Aristelle in a glowing white feathered skirt stopping inches above her ankles, and the twins stand on the next table with their perfect blond ringlets reaching the puffy shoulders of their old-fashioned blue dresses. They smile at me in unison. Diantha is next in a green gown stitched with cascading roses.

“What is this?” I ask. Some of the crowd has started drifting to a stop around them, waiting to see what they’ll do. A few people grumble with hands full of food, looking for a table, but most people just seem curious.

“A welcome,” Xander says, “to your new family.”

Family. The word starts an ache in my chest, and yes, part of it is the pinch of sorrow, but most of it is the ache of finally finding something you’ve wanted for years even when you told yourself you didn’t. And they do feel like family already. I know Aristelle will talk softly and warmly to the twins one minute and snap at the rest of us in the same breath. I know the twins braid each other’s hair in the mornings and take them out right before they get onstage. I know Diantha only truly laughs when she’s holding hands with Reina. I know Xander eats sugar like he’s in kindergarten.

If that’s not family, it’s at least the seed of one.

I look at them all and smile.