I chewed my lip, thinking. “One of two places. With his aunt, who has a bakery in Brampton, or at the shelter.” I thought about it for a moment. “The shelter is closer. We could start there.”
I texted Andre.
Me:Hey Andre, sorry to bother you, Is Daniel there?
Andre wrote back right away.
Andre:Yeah, and I’m glad you texted. I wanted to call you, but Daniel asked me not to. He’s here. Making pies.
I exhaled a long sigh of relief. “He’s there.”
“Want me to drive you?” Cass asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
After telling Mom I was going out with Cass and probably wouldn’t be home for dinner, Cass, Owen, and I headed to the shelter.
Cass didn’t come in after dropping me off, saying they’d wait in the park with Owen so they could bring me home. I gave them an awkward hug. “Thanks. I mean it, Cass. I probably don’t deserve you.”
“You don’t, but you got me anyway.”
Yasmin was sitting on a bench right inside the lobby of the shelter, staring outside longingly. Her leg was in a cast.
“Mama said I was supposed to say sorry to you for causing so much trouble,” she said to me when she saw me rushing in.
I was impatient to speak to Daniel, but this was the first time I’d seen Yasmin since she’d gone missing. I smiled at her. “Apology accepted. How’s your leg?”
She shrugged. “I’m not allowed to ride my bicycle. I only wanted to see the fairies in the forest. I was going to tell you what they look like for your game.”
I crouched in front of her. “Thank you for thinking about my game. Did you find any fairies?”
She shook her head. “No. But I saw some trees that had holes at the bottom. Were those fairy doors?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.” I didn’t want to encourage Yasmin to look again. “I think we might be able to get some fairies to move in here at the shelter, though.” I pointed to the little garden out front that was visible through the window. “I’d bet if we built a fairy house and put it there, they’d move in for the winter. We might not see them, but we’d know they were there.”
Yasmin’s face erupted into a huge grin. “Will you and Daniel help me build one?”
“I absolutely will. I need to go talk to Daniel about something else right now, but I’ll come back in a few days so we can do this as research for my game. And I’ll give you consulting credit for the game.”
“What’s consulting credit?”
“It means I’ll add a note in the game letting everyone know you helped me. But I want you to promise you’ll listen to your mother and not leave the shelter without a grown-up again. Okay?”
Yasmin’s enthusiastic nod made my heart melt a bit. “Okay. I think Daniel is mad at me.”
“Why? I don’t think he is.”
“He didn’t say anything when he got here today. And he doesn’t want me to sit in the kitchen and watch him bake.” She had a solemn look on her face.
I tilted my head. “Sometimes big people need to be alone to think.”
She glanced toward the kitchen, then back at me. “You can help him. I think he likes you better than anyone else here.”
I patted her leg. “I think he likes you second best.”
I found Daniel alone in the kitchen. He was scooping cookie batter onto baking sheets. He looked rough—dark circles under sleepless eyes, and no sign of his normal cheerfulness. It hurt my heart to see him this way.
He barely looked up when I walked in. “I know you can’t abide raisins in cookies, but how do you feel about currants?” he asked.
