go of Hudson’s hand and slowly rounded the table. I was so filled with feelings, it cut off communication from my head to my body, my legs wobbling and my hands shaking. When I reached Molly and Diogo, I looked up at them with my heart throbbing behind my eyes, and I whispered, “Please don’t be mad at him. Please don’t send him away.”
Molly bit off a sob and covered her mouth with her hand.
Diogo blinked as if I’d pinched him then shook his head slowly as he bent in half to look me in the eye. His large, rough hand descended as it always did, so slowly, like I was a wild animal who would run, onto my head.
“We’re mad at him, Li girl, but we would never send him away, okay? Just like we’d never send you away.”
“I’ll get a job so Jonathon can go back to school and you can be happy with him and we can all live together still because I’ll have money.” Saying this in such a rush, I somehow bit my tongue, and metallic blood filled my mouth.
“Honey,” Molly said softly. “You’re six years old. You can’t get a job.”
I tipped my chin into the air like Jonathon and planted my hands on my hips. “I’ve got skills, you know. I can plant things because I have a green thumb.” I held them up for Molly and Diogo to inspect. “And people pay for pretty gardens.”
“They do,” she agreed, reaching out to clasp my hands so she could place kisses on my thumbs. “But kids can’t work. Only adults can do that, which is why we are upset with Jonathon. It’s a child’s job to learn and go to school. It’s an adult’s job to provide.”
“He did it for us,” I whispered through my throat as it closed up, my nose stopped up with tears. “Please don’t be mad. No one ever did something like that for me and Dane before.”
There was a hand on my shoulder, and I turned slightly to see Jonathon behind me. His face was sober like at a funeral, but when he crouched in front of me, I could tell it was because he was moved, and he didn’t want anyone to see it.
“You remember your dream?” he asked.
I nodded, worried it was a trick question.
“Well, it’s a dream that’s come true. There’s no goin’ back now. We’re all a big family now, and even though I did somethin’ because I felt it was right, my parents are allowed to disagree with me. Because they’re my parents, they’re gonna worry ’cause they want what’s best for me. They feel that way about me, Milo, Oliver, Hudson, and now you and Dane. They love us, and when we don’t respect them, we gotta live with the consequences’a that. But those consequences will never be to send us away, okay? That dream’s never gonna die for you, Li. You’re here with the Booths now, and you’re here to stay.”
“You are,” Dane agreed, his voice too loud in the hushed, confessional space the kitchen had become. He was standing too tall, his chest puffed out. “And I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Now that Lila has a safe place to be, I can do what I’ve always wanted to do, and I can do it making money for the family so we aren’t a burden––”
“You are not a burden,” Molly interjected.
Dane ignored her.
“I’m enlisting,” he continued. I was old enough to know what that meant, to feel each word like an assault rifle pounding rounds into my chest. “I’m enlisting in the navy.”
“Hey now, don’t do something so drastic because of this,” Diogo demanded, stepping forward. “We want you here, we’ll make it work.”
But my brother was already shaking his head, so firm, so calm. As assured in this as he was everything else.
I felt my heart sink like a stone into the soft pit of my belly.
“Always wanted to do something worthwhile. Jonathon’s an idiot, but he did something worthwhile for me and Lila by quitting school. I want to do something worthwhile by making money for this family while serving my country.”
“You just want to be a hero instead of someone evil like Papá,” I spat at him, backing away from Jonathon, Molly, and Diogo, inching toward the front door to be as far from my brother as I could possibly be so that maybe it would lessen the assault on my heart. “You just want to