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“I know” Damn, I felt inadequate What would Juliet say? Somehow, she always

He turned his hopeful, puppy eyes on me “Maybe I can come with you? Like, you could adopt me”

“Shit, kid If I thought they’d say yes, I’d do it in a heartbeat”

At least that seemed to comfort him I held out my hand and helped him up off the floor

“How’s Juliet?” he asked

I’d finally relented and shared a little about her with Pip Nothing important I liked Pip and would do what I could to protect hiot rough He just wasn’t h stuff to lie for me, and it probably wasn’t fair to expect him to, either

“She’s good We had a lot of fun today Fletcher Park is pretty You’d like the view” I didn’t share any of the R-rated details Everything about those stolen ed to me alone

“You think…” he gazed at the set out of here?”

“Once I have a job and can afford to, yeah, I want to marry her,” I admitted

His eager puppy dog eyes returned “Maybe the two of you could adopt me? A married couple would have a better chance”

Da in his tone almost undidout of foster care himself “That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?” I carefully sidestepped the question and clapped his shoulder “Coht”

He groaned but got to work

My body and mind clashed with the desire to seek out Squire and punch hi with Evie I’m not proud of it, but I wanted to shake some dae and da stupid decisions And while that was sad in its oay, my sympathy ended where her problems started to interfere with my life

Pip and I went downstairs early I wanted to talk to counselor Mike aboutan after-school job And Pip had talked Judy, the counselor we’d dubbed “housecloth napkins he wanted to fold into swans To bring some culture to our dinner table, he’d said Judy was too amused to say no, and I’m pretty sure she’d used her own money to purchase the napkins

Pip and his napkin-swans saved my ass

“Help!” a voice I recognized as Janet’s screamed from the top of the stairs

The girl screamed for help once or twice a week, so no one exactly jumped to attention

Mike groaned and nodded at Judy as she poalked by to see what the eency was

Thuds and bangs bounced over the ceiling above our heads A few minutes later Judy rushed down “Where’s Roman?”

I leaned over and waved at her “Right here”