“I wonder about my birthfather. Is he alive? Would he want to know me? It’s all just so complicated.”

“Do you think you want to look for him?”

Kate leaned back in her chair and shrugged. “Maybe one day. But right now I need to process all of this first, if that makes sense.”

“I know you lost your adoptive mom, but what about your adoptive father?”

Kate groaned. “We were close when I was little, but my parents divorced when I was in fourth grade. My father left, started a whole new family and dropped me like a hot potato.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“No big loss to me now, but it sure hurt when I was a kid.”

Mia walked into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. Even though it was after ten, she needed a little pick me up to get her back into that spreadsheet at some point before she could even think about going to bed.

“What about Evie’s father?”

“We were married for a long time. Divorced when Evie was ten. He did the same thing my adoptive father did and started a new family. I think it’s why Evie has had some of the trouble she’s had. She kind of has a ‘get them before they get me’ mentality.”

“Apparently, we don’t have great luck with fathers,” Mia said, leaning against the counter. “Maybe that’s why marriage scares the crap out of me.”

“Oh, you too? I doubt I’ll ever do it again. I’ll become one of those old maids with forty cats and a lot of muu muu dresses,” Kate said, laughing.

“We can do that together!”

“I assume my birthfather is very tall.”

“Maybe so because Momma wasn’t much taller than me. You got that height from somewhere.”

Kate smiled. “This is nice.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. It kind of feels natural, you know? Like real sisters.”

“I didn’t want to say anything, but it is nice. I’ve always dreamed of having a sister, and now you’re here. Can I hug you?”

And for once in her life, Kate suddenly felt like she was accepted, so she stretched out her arms and welcomed it. “Bring it in.”

Evie stood on the edge of the ravine, looking down at the creek running below it. She didn't have places to retreat like this back in Rhode Island. Sure, there was the ocean, but there was no place for her to go out and explore like she did here.

She missed her friends back home, the few of them that she had. But she sure didn’t miss school. Her reputation there had become tainted, and now that she couldn't go there anymore anyway, it just served as a reminder of all the ways she had failed her mother.