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“Hi, Maainst the screen

“Hi, sweetie” She s all the time, used Ben as a way to make Julia feel bad or to check up on her “I’ll be in when I’m done”

Agnes left and Julia sighed hard

“Things aren’t quite what you hoped for, are they?” her mother asked

“Not at all” Julia stood and walked into the yard just in case Agnes lingered by the door to hear her conversation Even though she knew she was being paranoid, it wasn’t a nes

“Tell me,” Beth said, and Julia let it all spill out

“I caive Ben soood The Adamses treated us like family and…” Jesse’s here He’s actually here but he pushes me aith both hands

She alht up Jesse, but she was still too raw and herinto anything Too late for that

She was up to her neck in s Julia ree The haunted eyes filled with appeal Please, he’d begged, and she’d walked away

But she also reroaned when she touched him The way he’d touched her in Germany, like a thirsty man in front of water

Which was true? False? He’d rejected her twice, how much was she supposed to push?

“And now?” herJulia back into the conversation about the Adamses

“They’re so stifling”

“You’ve been on your own a long tih she couldn’t be seen “It’s hard to give up your independence that way”

“I didn’t think I was!” Julia nearly cried “I thought I was getting a support system, not a mother hen”

“Family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be sometimes”

“That’s not very helpful, Mom”

She laughed “No, it isn’t But I’ll tell you so, sweetheart Sometimes you have to make your own family It’s why your father and I were in the military and it’s e stayed We found friends who felt more like brothers and sisters than our own ever did And each of us had mentors that felt like parents”