Page 69 of All Your Life

This makes her clap her hands and laugh so hard she actually starts coughing. “Bravo!” she says after catching her breath.

When I get quiet, she presses me gently. “You have something on your mind. You can ask me anything, or say anything, really.”

“Did you have a lot of friends growing up?”

She takes in a deep breath and lets it out. I think it soothes us both. “I had dance friends, I had friends in school, but I never really had true friends until I went away to college.” She looks away for a moment, wrestling with something. “I had a hard time in high school.”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Maybe it seems that way, at least to some degree, anyway. But I’ve witnessed a lot in my years teaching that age group. Some people do sail through and thrive, some struggle, and most float somewhere in between. In my case, I don’t think my parents splitting up helped matters. But I made it through, and then college was such a good change for me. I got matched with two roommates, and luckily, we got along great.” Grace gets up and takes my plate. “Frannie and Reese, along with my two former star students, also known as the fabulous Perillo twins, are my closest girlfriends.” I follow her, and looking up to me as she stacks the plates in the dishwasher, she says, “I find that I don’t need a lot of friends—”

“Just true ones.”

She nods in agreement. “Penny may or may not be a lost cause. What she did was really horrible, but time is a funny thing.”

“Heals all wounds?”

She’s talking about us when she answers, “I hope so.”

Grace notices when I look down to my phone. There are two missed call notifications.

“Your mom?” Wiping her hands on a dishrag, she says, “I’d love to meet her someday. Your motherandyour father.”

It cracks me open again, hearing her refer to them as my parents, because she’s that, too. Maybe it’s just that I don’t want to let go of this young love fairytale that’s been taking root and growing in my mind. Grace and Damien and their baby. The happy family that could have been.

“Huh?”

“I said I’d like to thank them, if I ever get the chance someday.”

I recover without her noticing that I spaced out there for a second. “I think you’d like them, and they’d like you.”

“Adoption is complicated. I’ve thought about it before, but maybe never fully realized how complicated it is until you arrived on my doorstep today.”

“It is, but how do you see it?”

“There’s always an up and down, someone happy, and maybe someone who’s not so happy.” Bringing two cups of tea with her, she sits back down at the dining room table and gestures for me to follow. “What I mean is that today, this was the best possible surprise, forme.” Those words hang in the air for a few seconds. “I’ve been praying for you to find me, dreaming of this day for so long. But your parents, especially because they didn’t know this was coming, I’d imagine they’re not feeling crazy elated the way I am today.” Pushing a plate of cannolis my way, she adds, “Buckets of tears and runny noses aside, make no mistake,” her eyes begin to water again, “I’m so happy you’re here, Sarah.”

I take one, take a bite, and swallow the emotion down. Grace hasn’t given me any reason to think otherwise, but I guess I needed to hear it said out loud, plain and simple.

She’s glad I came.

Chapter Thirty-Five

LIAM

“Thank you so much for coming.” Grace is fighting off tears and Owen is standing behind her with both hands on her shoulders as the four of us stand in the driveway.

Sarah and Grace hugged before, and the moment was laced with so much pain that I had to look away.

No one is saying when exactly they’ll see or speak to one another again, but all that stuff is hanging in the air. I suppose the ball is in Sarah’s court. Sarah has Grace’s phone number, her email and her address. Grace has Sarah’s information, too, but I’m betting she’ll wait for Sarah to reach out first. If I were in Grace’s shoes that’s what I’d do.

Once we’re back in my car, they’re both sporting watery smiles as they wave their goodbyes.

“Wait!” Grace calls out, and then stops short. “Do you want—”

“Oh my God, the pictures, yes!”

Owen comes over while Grace is retrieving whatever picture it is, and leans down with one hand on the top of the car. “I can’t tell you how much this means to Grace…How much it’s meant to both of us.” When Grace comes jogging back out with a box, he backs away. “Drive safe, you two.”

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