Ash grimaced as she slowly pulled on the simple purple sheath dress. It had been almost three months since she’d been discharged from the hospital, but the wound on her abdomen was still healing. All her doctors tried to get her to take pain meds, but Ash wasn’t interested. She didn’t care how hard the recovery was, Ash wasn’t relapsing. Not again.

The good news was Becca was there with her every step of the way. They were quite the pair, with their nonstop physical therapy appointments and twice-weekly sessions with their psychotherapists. All that talking about Mo and Nate and Vic and Leslie and Eli and her own mistakes weighed on her. Sometimes, after a particularly grueling session, Ash thought about running away again, escaping to someplace where she didn’t have to think and feel all the time.

Those thoughts were fleeting. Today running was the furthest thing from Ash’s mind. Today was adoption day. She remembered when she landed in foster care, one of the older kids told her how it worked. “You’ll live with a bunch of shitty people looking to make a few bucks, and when you’re eighteen they’ll dump your ass back on the streets. No one’s ever gonna take a reject teenager.”

That girl was wrong. Ash couldn’t believe it when Becca told her they had a court date. “All we have to do is show up, and the judge will make it official.”

“Wow, you look beautiful,” Becca said. Ash turned to see her leaning against the doorframe, wearing a simple white blouse and lilac slacks. “You wore my color,” Becca said, her voice trembling with emotion.

When Becca suggested color coordinating, Ash couldn’t stop laughing. “Sorry. Not happening,” she said. She’d always thought it was lame when families wore matching colors. It wasn’t until she saw the purple lace dress on the rack at the Goodwill that Ash said to hell with it. She was glad she had. The look on Becca’s face made it all worthwhile.

“You all set? We don’t want to be late,” Becca said.

“Let’s do it,” Ash said.

On their way out of the house, Ash knelt beside Freud, throwing her arms around his neck, his tail wagging excitedly as he licked her face. “Sorry, bud, they don’t allow pups at the courthouse. We’ll celebrate later. All the steak you can eat.”