Page 158 of Wherever You Are

“I meant to give you this.” My hand shakes as I pass him an envelope.Willow, you fool, stop shaking.“You can open it now or later. I already gave Lo and Dad his.”

“Are we doing presents already?” Lily asks.

Daisy stands. “I left Willow’s in the car.”

“No, it’s alright,” I tell her. “I can wait until later. The time just presented itself to give them theirs, so…”

Daisy gives me a smile. “I really want you to see it. I’ll be right back, and I’ll be really fast.” She holds out her palm to Ryke, asking for the car keys. Daisy’s enthusiasm is contagious, and I find myself grinning.

Rose and Lily stand like they’re accompanying Daisy, and Ryke passes his wife the keys, despite the torrential downpour outside. Daisy jingles them in excitement before ambling out with Rose and Lily.

Just as they leave, Ryke tears open the envelope.

My heart beats faster. Gift-giving always has that effect. What if the recipient hates it? And then there’s the worst scenario: the recipient hates a gift but pretends to love it,andit’s so obvious that both parties partake in this quasi lie.

But luckily, I don’t think Ryke would lie.

All worry washes away when Ryke pulls out a photograph. It was taken in a candid moment during Christmas at the mountain lake house. Lo, Ryke, and I sit on the patio around a fire. We’re all drinking homemade, non-alcoholic Butterbeer that Lily and I concocted together.

All three of us are smiling.

Ryke doesn’t say anything as he stares at the photo, but he has this faraway look like he’s remembering that day. He flips it over.

I wrote on the back.

Ryke Meadows (Gryffindor), Loren Hale (Slytherin), Willow Hale (Gryffindor, like Neville Longbottom).

Thanks for caring about me, even before we were family.

I could have probably said more, but the photograph wasn’t big enough. Anyway, I don’t think there are enough words in the dictionary to describe what my brothers mean to me. What Ryke means to me.

He takes a deeper breath. “You changed your name?” he asks, his voice splitting.

Tears threaten to rise. “It’s pending, but yeah.” My eyes burn, fighting off the waterworks. “I just hope everything goes right.”

I guess, there’s still a possibility that things end poorly today. But I’ve tried not to believe that. I glance anxiously at the judge’s bench. Empty. Once she arrives, all will either go smoothly or horribly.

Even though Jonathan Hale is my biological father, Robert Moore has legal claim, since he was my dad at the time of my birth. It’s all really complicated, and I hate that there are hoops to be jumped through just so that Jonathan can be my dad on paper.

The biggest hurdle: Robert has to give consent to Jonathan.

I may be eighteen, but Jonathan wants me on his health insurance, and I’m willing to acceptsomefinancial help from him. Maybe not a lot. But I don’t want to be drowning in debt when my dad actively wants to be involved. I figure it’s easier accepting this than a twenty-grand medical bill from an accident or surgery or some unknown thing happening to me.

“I need to talk to you,” Connor says, abruptly capturing everyone’s attention.

His gaze isn’t planted on me though.

He’s looking at Garrison.

My boyfriend frowns. “Me?”

“I am staring at you,” Connor says, expressionless and calm.

Garrison turns to me for answers, just as puzzled as I am.

I shake my head. I don’t know what this is about.

“Let’s not drag this fucking out, Cobalt,” Ryke says, but his brows are furrowed in confusion. I think that Connor might be the only one who’s caught up to speed.