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He was quiet for a long time, and she studied his handsome profile His blond hair needed a triht in those beautiful blue eyes made him look so much older

As she rubbed his back, she felt the beast following her touch as she passed over histo stay with her

"I don’t know," he said "This is pretty rough This is really hard But no, I would still have wanted to take her in If all I’ her father to tide her over to her rightful hoiven I’d ratherher than for her to have been alone in the world, getting those ar to end up That trade-off ’s worth it to me"

Mary laid her head on his biceps "That’s how I feel, too"

"I owe you an apology, by the way"

"About what?"

"I should have told you about what they were going to do to Bitty’s li it was all going to be okay"

"Oh, God … not to worry Water under the bridge"

"Yeah"

They sat there for oh, so long, the sounds of conversation in the kitchen and a distant vacuu down

Eventually, Boo, the black cat, padded by, the aniot soood news"

A couple of meoere released, but they were hard to translate And then Boo kept on going, attending to very important feline business, clearly

"Did you talk to Marissa about hoas going to work?" Rhage asked "You know … and when?"

Mary took a deep breath "A social worker went down tonight to check Ruhn’s cottage again There will have to be regular welfare visits there, but V did all the due diligence brilliantly Oh--and it turns out Ruhn’s e for Bitty They’re totally willing to help Ruhn get her into a program That would be fantastic"

"She won’t know anyone"

"She didn’t know anyone when she came into this house But she adapted"

"They won’t knohat she likes to eat Her ice cream--she’s in a mint chocolate chip phase now"

"She’ll tell thes I think it’s best that we don’t draw it out longer than we have to The transition is going to be hard enough on her without her having to stay in limbo"