Grace said. “You didn’t, Joaquin. You were defending me. He said something really terrible that he knew would hurt me, and you defended me. That’s not the same thing at all.
“And,” she continued before he could argue with her, “remember how I told you that I punched a guy at school?”
Joaquin waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, the realization dawned on him. “That was him?”
Grace nodded, her face grim.
“Wow. Okay.” Joaquin felt a tiny bit less terrible about wanting to murder Adam.
“Then that guy is an even bigger idiot than I thought!” Maya said. “When do I get to punch him?”
Joaquin smiled at that, and Maya hugged him, pressing her face against his arm. “You’re not a bad person, Joaq,” she whispered. “You’re not.”
“I threw a metal stapler at a baby,” he replied. He had thought that by saying it out loud, he would diminish how terrible it was, like ripping off a Band-Aid, but it was the completely opposite feeling, the words cutting his mouth as he said them.
“You threw a stapler because you were scared,” Grace corrected him. “The baby happened to be there. It was an accident. They shouldn’t have hurt you, too.”
“You were a just a kid yourself,” Maya added.
Joaquin had to close his eyes at that, felt like he was going underwater, his sisters the only thing buoying him.
His sisters. Holy shit.
“Is it okay that I said that?” Joaquin asked, glancing over at Grace.
She frowned. “Said what?”
“You know. I called you my sister.”
The edges of Grace’s mouth trembled even as she started to smile. “That’s fine,” she said. “That’s what I am, right?”
On his other side, Maya rested her head on his shoulder. “Me, too,” she said quietly.
When he could talk again, Joaquin swiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his T-shirt. If Linda had been there, she probably would have handed him a packet of tissues.
“So—I’m a monster,” he said. He was trying to keep it light, trying to bring them back up after almost drowning in the tide, but it felt forced. He didn’t even believe his own tone.
“I think anyone who’s been in that much pain must have a pretty big heart.” Grace’s voice was thoughtful. “And no matter what, Maya and I won’t give you back.”
“Nope,” Maya added. “This was a final sale. No returns, no backsies.”
Joaquin smiled a little. “But what if—”
“Nope!” Grace said. “You heard Maya.”
“But maybe—”
“No!” both girls cried this time, and Joaquin laughed, clear and sharp in the cooling air, the sound echoing back in his ears and filling him up.
GRACE
Grace nervously bounced her leg in the waiting room of the therapist’s office. There was a half-done puzzle on the table in front of her, but she had no interest in fitting the rest of the pieces together. She just wanted to get this over with and get the hell out of there.
Next to her, Grace’s mom leaned over and gently pressed down on Grace’s knee with her hand.
Grace started bouncing her other leg instead.
She had been dreading this appointment for the better part of a week. She knew she was going to have to talk about Peach, talk about her biological mom, her siblings—basically everything that had blown up in her life over the past few months was about to be fair game to a stranger, and all Grace wanted to do was circle the wagons and head back home to the safety of her bedroom and her loneliness. Her only consolation was that at least her parents looked as ill at ease as she felt.
Grace wished that Rafe were there with her. If nothing else, at least he could make her laugh.
By the time they got into the office, Grace thought she might throw up. How does Joaquin do this every week? she wondered, and then she thought of the last time she’d seen Joaquin and felt sad all over again. After he had told her and Maya everything, Grace had started to drive herself home, then pulled the car over halfway there so she could cry. More than anything, she wished she had known Joaquin back then, wished she had known him her whole life so that he would have been a little less lost. She thought of Alice again, tossed in the bottle and riding through the storm on the ocean.
The therapist’s name was Michael, and he seemed nice enough. His tie was in a perfect Windsor knot, which Grace had only seen in pictures on the internet, and