“Maybe you should start wearing shoes, then.” There was no humor in Jonathan’s voice. He didn’t joke about feet. After all, he had a scholarship riding on his.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’d get fewer forks stuck in my foot, that’s for sure!” She snorted.

Jonathan grimaced. The more Finn liked a guy, the flatter her jokes fell, she’d noticed.

“I should go grab a Band-Aid. See you later!” She hobbled as fast as she could into the pavilion and locked herself in the women’s bathroom. “Smooth, Finn,” she muttered to her reflection in the mirror, then lifted her injured foot into the sink. She examined the cut. It didn’t look particularly deep, nothing she’d need stitches for. She ran water over it and grabbed a bandage from her purse. As she was peeling off the paper backing, she heard a knock at the door.

“Finn?” It was her foster dad. “Your mo— Kathy told me to tell you it’s almost time for cake.”

“Thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Is everything okay? I saw you limping.”

“I stepped on a fork.” Finn smoothed the bandage over the wound and gingerly placed her foot back down on the floor.

“At least it wasn’t a knife.”

Finn opened the door and Steve handed her a pair of flip-flops. “For your own safety.”

“Thanks.” Finn took the flip-flops without protest and slid her feet into them.

“I’d like to say you learned your lesson, but I know you better than that,” he said, amused.

Finn smiled. It was true. Steve knew her better than almost anyone. She didn’t remember much about her biological father, and based on the things she’d heard about him, she never really cared to. Steve was the only person she would ever dream of calling Dad.

“Well,” he continued, “I’m going to go find a strategic spot next to the cake so I’m first in line. Unless there’s something else on your mind?”

Finn hesitated. Sometimes she wondered if Steve had a special gift like Zadie and she did—he was that good at reading people. “No. I’ll see you out there.”

“Okay. Cake’s in five,” he said, holding up as many fingers.

The guests began to filter out onto the back deck, where a large dessert table had been set up. In the middle of it sat a huge sheet cake decorated to look like a mortarboard. A few weeks ago, Kathy had asked Finn what flavor she wanted her cake to be. Finn had changed her mind several times before deciding on strawberry with vanilla frosting.