adoption pt. 2
Rafael looks up as she approaches and lets out a deeply held breath. “This whole adoption thing…it’s a little more complicated than I thought it would be.” He turns back to the doors and stares at them for a bit. “Jane is really doing her research.”
“Has she found any that she likes?”
Rafael looks up and sighs again. “She’s got a stack of prospective hopefuls that she wants to meet. It’s crazy.”
Luisa’s smile freezes at the word. Even if it’s not used to describe her, and even if it’s meant as a joke, something in it still feels bad to her. She doesn’t expect Rafael to notice the reaction, though, and when he doesn’t, it almost doesn’t hurt anymore. Almost. “I’ve been talking with a couple of the kids.”
“You have?” Rafael asks. “I thought they were all at school.”
“Well, these two must have gotten off early.” Luisa smiles and nods in their direction. “They’re really cute. I wish I could take them both.”
Rafael’s brows furrow. “Why can’t you? Is there a problem?”
“No, no, not a problem, not like that!” Luisa says all at once, eyes widening, and she holds her hands up, palms out, to try and pacify him. “But one of the kids….” She sighs. “I think she has a crush on the other one, so she doesn’t want to be sisters.”
“So you’re coming to me—”
Luisa’s grin turns its most award-winning, and she offers a small shrug.
“Luisa, kissing your cousin is bad, too.”
“You didn’t think that with Josephina.” Luisa crosses her arms, her smile fading.
“We weren’t related.”
“Neither are they. And it’s not like you knew that at the time.”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” Rafael hisses, but his voice softens as the girls slowly approach him. His eyes widen as they catch sight of the cat, and he gives Luisa a look that is somewhere between how could you and I will get you for this later. “Hi,” he says, voice full of fake cheer. “Who are you?”
“I’m—” the blonde hesitates, her eyes flick to Luisa, and then she continues with a frown, “I’m Dorothy. I hate that name but it’s the one they gave me and they don’t like me changing it. And don’t call me Dot because I hate that.” Her brows furrow, and she swallows once before continuing, “And this is Joan. And her cat named Cat.”
Joan shifts the cat in her arms a little bit before holding him up as high as she can. “You looked sad, so I thought you could use a cat.”
“A cat,” Rafael says, and he gives Luisa that look again before reaching for the creature.
Luisa stops him. “Hold on. Cat is a very particular cat. I’m not sure he’ll like a stranger picking him up all at once, will he?”
Joan shakes her head once.
“Do you think I could hold him?”
Joan looks from Luisa to Cat and then turns to her. Luisa very carefully takes the cat from her arms, and to her surprise, the cat doesn’t hiss or scratch or react negatively at all. If anything, he sniffs her a couple of times and then curls up in her arms. It’s only when Luisa glances at the blonde and sees her wide blue eyes that she realizes just how big of a deal this is. She moves a little closer to Raf, and he reaches a hand out tentatively for the cat to sniff at him. It barely does before hissing.
“Too bad,” Luisa says. “Seems like Cat doesn’t like you.”
“Of course it doesn’t.” Rafael heaves a big sigh and sticks his hands into his pockets. “So you’re Dorothy, and you’re Joan,” he says tentatively, looking from one girl to the other and then back to Luisa. To his favor, Rafael does not wince, but he does give Luisa a very clear help me, which of them am I supposed to be liking here look.
Luisa glances upward and gives her head a brief shake. She sits down and pats a spot next to her. Rafael sits next to her, and before she can even begin to pat the spot on her other side, Joan is already there, staring at her. “He likes you.” She reaches out and begins to pet Cat, who has curled up in Luisa’s lap. “He doesn’t like anybody.”
“He likes you.”
“A very unwise decision, obviously,” Dorothy – Dorothy, really, who names their kid Dorothy, Luisa can’t help but think – says as she pulls herself up next to Rafael. “If he were smart, he’d like me. I’m the nice one.” She looks up at Rafael with her big blue eyes. “You think I’m nice, right?”
Rafael nods slowly once and then turns back to Luisa with that same help me expression.
“You’re hopeless,” Luisa says, shaking her head. “That’s Dorothy. She’s cute and blonde and talks just as much if not more than Mateo. They will get along great. This,” and she tilts her head to Joan again, “is Joan. Joan comes with the cat, and if Cat doesn’t like you—”
“But he likes you,” Joan says, patting Luisa’s thigh with one tiny little hand, “and he doesn’t like anybody. Except me.” She spreads out on her stomach and leans forward just enough to press her face against Cat’s. Instead of swatting at her the way most cats might, he butts his head against her, and she giggles.
“That means you have to adopt her,” Dorothy says, Dorothy the girl who has been calling herself Rose but is not Rose in the slightest, not at all, not at all. She presses her lips together, and her eyes meet Luisa’s. “No one’s ever been chosen by Cat before. You can take Cat, too, can’t you?”
Luisa’s head tilts to one side, and she nods finally. “I think I can take a cat. It’s not like my landlord minds, and if we move back up to Longbourne—”
Joan’s eyes widen. “Longbourne?”
“Only over the summer,” Luisa states, as matter-of-factly as she can. “And sometimes in the winter. I run one of the inns up there, and that’s when they’re at their busiest. They don’t need me as much during the school year, and one of the others likes to run things during spring break.” Luisa doesn’t say it – because she couldn’t have explained it to the girls even if she wanted to – but spring break is hard for her. She wouldn’t have been able to say why to anyone, except maybe Rose. And there is no Rose anymore, no matter how much this blonde girl wants to be her. “Don’t worry. We can take Dottie here—”
“Dottie!” Dorothy interrupts, and her eyes widen and then narrow. “My name’s Dorothy. But,” and she hesitates, looking from Luisa to Rafael and then back again, “Dottie’s better than Dorothy. Better than Dot. It can work. I like it. Almost. Not as much as—”
Luisa gives her a sudden look, and Dottie shuts up all at once. Rafael looks from Dottie to Luisa and back again. “What were you going to say?”
“Nothing,” Luisa says, trying to grin. “She’s Dottie. That’s a good name. A strong name. And one we’re good with using.”
“Because you wouldn’t like what I was calling myself before.”
Luisa gives Dottie a very strong look, but by then it’s much too late. Rafael gives Luisa his own look and then turns to Dottie. “And what were you calling yourself before?” he asked, his voice as sweet and charming as he can make it – in a version appropriate for a child, after all. Something he’s learned to do in dealing with Mateo and the twins and all of their friends.
Dottie looks from Luisa back to Rafael, presses her lips together, takes a very deep breath, and then says, finally, “I was calling myself Rose.”