I smacked his shoulder, and he put his hands up in surrender. “Sorry! Sorry!”
“Speaking of Moore, he is supposed to be here in a couple hours to do dinner. Want to stay?”
He shook his head. “Thanks, but no. I need to run.”
“Alright, well, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a twin date.”
“It really has.” He rinsed his glass in the sink and stuck it in the drying rack.
“Look at your schedule and let me know a night that works for you.”
“We could go—“ Jack and I spoke at the same time.
“You first.” Jack smiled.
“I was going to say we could go to that new Barbeque place—”
Jack laughed and tapped his temple then pointed at me with squinted eyes. It was his gesture to communicate we were reading each other’s minds. He had been doing it our entire lives.
“—is that for real what you were going to say?”
“Absolutely it was.” He chuckled. “Friday works for me.”
“It’s a date then.”
Jack walked back towards the door, pressing a kiss to my forehead on the way. He was halfway out the door before I stopped him.
“Hey, Jack? Don’t be alone if you don’t want to be. You can come hang.”
“Thanks, sis.”
THIRTY-FIVE
Sunny
Debbie was already at the home by the time the bus dropped me off from school. I came into the office and Debbie stood to give me a hug. She teared up and told me how much I’d grown. It had been a while since I’d seen her. I flopped down on the couch next to Sam, my house parent. Debbie settled in a chair across from us.
Jason, Debbie’s supervisor was there too. Major red flag. He waved and asked me a few catch-up questions. Been a few minutes since I’d seen him, too.
Debbie said, “How was school, sweetpea?”
“Alright, I guess.”
Truth was, it was the worst. I’d been fretting about this meeting all day. Sam told me Debbie would be here, and I knew what that meant.
Debbie was easy to read. I’d seen her so many times I knew her bad news look and her good news look. Today she was pressing her lips together and her eyebrows were raised, like she was bursting to tell me something. Good news. Or at least good news inhermind. I braced myself. All news ultimately turned into bad news.
Sam must’ve known why she was here. She was fiddling with the hem of her shirt. She always fiddled with stuff when there was something going on.
“I know you probably want me to get right down to it.” Debbie smiled and the color returned to her lips. “There is a man who believes he is your father, and he petitioned for a paternity test a couple weeks ago. His petition was granted, and they want you to take a test to confirm whether he is actually your dad.”
Debbie pressed her lips together again and looked at me, her eyes shining. Was this supposed to be a good thing?
“Is he wanting parental rights?”
“Well, honey, we don’t really know yet. He’s just trying to figure out whether you’re related or not.”
“And if we are?”
