David glanced at his mom during the message. Her face was almost as bright as the yellow hoodie she wore. And when she looked at him expectantly, he felt the pressure again. Another adoptive mom might have felt threatened, but it was almost as if his mom needed him to be excited about the idea. But inside, the woman’s words stirred things he couldn’t process.

“Wow, I forgot,” his father said. “You’re old enough now.”

David took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and slung his duffel bag over his shoulder. “I don’t know.”

His mother followed him down the hall. “Well, we should probably talk a little more about this, you know? Do you think you might want to meet your birth mom?”

David whirled and snapped, “I don’t know, Mom. It’s a lot to think about.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t have to do anything right now, David,” his dad said, trying to keep the peace. “It’s okay.”

David looked from his mother’s pained face to his father’s. “I don’t know if I want her back in my life. I mean, I don’t even know her. Is meeting her going to be—”

“I wasn’t pushing you to do that,” his mom said, interrupting him.

“No, there’s no rush,” his dad said. “We have plenty of time. We’re not getting in the van to go meet her.”

“That’s right,” his mom said. “But I was thinking, we might want to respond in some way?”

Her voice lilted up, ending in a question. Every time she did that, she expected him to have an answer. And he didn’t have one and couldn’t think of one and the pressure was reminding him of the headaches that were supposed to be gone from his life.

“Right?” she continued. “So maybe a letter for an update?”

David wanted the conversation to be over, so he said, “Okay. Fine. You can send her whatever you want.” He turned and walked toward the stairs. “I’m going to shower and go to bed.”

“Still no headaches, right?” his dad said.

“Still no headaches,” David said. He trudged up the stairs.

When David was gone, Jimmy turned to Susan. “We cannot rush him.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be kind of cool for her to see him all grown up? She took a really big risk on us. She would be so proud of him.”

“She would be.”