He had apparently asked to come here.
Yet he behaved as though Daniel and I might send him away at any time.
The two things didn’t seem to fit together.
After dinner, Josie climbed onto the couch with her coloring book.
Jace was rinsing his plate at the sink when Daniel spoke.
“Hey, Jace. Can we talk for a minute?”
Jace froze.
It lasted less than a second.
But I saw it.
His entire body seemed to prepare for something bad.
“What about?”
“Nothing bad,” Daniel assured him.
Jace’s eyes immediately moved toward Josie.
That tiny reaction broke my heart.
Even before knowing what we wanted, his first instinct was to check on his sister.
We sat down at the kitchen table.
I told him about Marlene’s call.
His face changed.
“Oh.”
“She said something I didn’t understand,” I continued. “She asked whether you had ever told us why you picked us.”
Jace stared at the table.
“Rebecca also said you were the one who told her you wanted our family.”
“I did.”
“Would you tell us why?”
His eyes moved toward the living room.
Josie was still coloring.
Finally, Jace answered.
“Because Josie picked you.”
Of all the explanations I had imagined, that was not one of them.
“Josie?”
I glanced toward the tiny girl on our couch.
“She was four.”
Jace rubbed his thumb against the edge of the table.
“Exactly.”
I waited.
“Nobody listens to her about important things because she’s little,” he explained. “They ask her what toy she wants or which cup she wants. But when something actually matters, adults decide everything for her.”
He looked toward his sister.
“So when Josie told me she wanted you guys, I made sure Rebecca listened.”
Suddenly, it made perfect sense.
Jace had spent a month avoiding asking for almost anything for himself.
But when his little sister wanted something, he made sure an adult heard her.
Josie must have heard her name because she looked up.
“What?”
Jace motioned for her to come over.
She jumped off the couch and squeezed herself between us at the table.
“Jace says you picked us,” I told her.
Josie nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why?”
She immediately pointed toward her brother.
“You talked to him.”
I almost laughed.
“That was all?”
Josie frowned at me as though I was missing something extremely important.
“Everybody talks to me,” she explained. “They play with me and give me snacks.”
Then her expression became serious.
“But they don’t talk TO Jace. They talk ABOUT Jace.”
Jace lowered his eyes.
“What did they say?” I asked gently.
Josie answered without hesitation.
“They ask if he’s bad. Or if he gets angry. Or if he could live somewhere else.”
Jace’s jaw tightened.
“One lady said she wanted me,” Josie continued, “but her house was too small for Jace.”
Jace spoke quietly.
“After that, Josie wouldn’t talk to her anymore.”
Josie shrugged.
“She didn’t want my brother.”
There was something almost startling about the certainty in her voice.
She leaned against Jace.
“So I stopped caring if people were nice to me.”
Daniel swallowed.
“What did you care about?”
Josie looked directly at him.
“If they were nice to Jace.”
Then she turned toward me.
“You asked him what he wanted for dinner.”
She looked at Daniel.
“And you talked to him about basketball.”
Suddenly, I remembered Jace’s surprised expression when I asked him what food he liked during that first meeting.
And I remembered Josie sitting nearby, watching everything.
She wrapped both arms around Jace’s waist.