Starlee's Hope (The Wayward Sons 4)

I give him a horrified look. Dexter smacks him across the head at the same moment Jake punches him in the bicep. He rubs both and shakes his head in offense. “I was just kidding, geez.”

My mom comes from the small hallway that leads to the bathrooms, thankfully in one piece.

“Oh good,” she says, checking out my dress and the boys' suits. “How was the party?”

“Fun,” I say, although my feet are killing me in these shoes and I kick them off. “What’s going on?”

“Your grandmother asked me to come over. Your guess is as good as mine.”

She walks onto the porch first and I follow. The boys come in behind me. Candles are lit all over the room and a dozen red roses are in a vase on the coffee table. Leelee and Tom sit on the couch. My grandmother has a wide smile on her face. Actually, they both do.

“We have an announcement,” LeeLee says, her voice filled with excitement. Nerves twist in my stomach and I feel slim, cool fingers slip in my hand. My mother’s.

“I asked Lee to marry me,” Tom says, his blue eyes twinkling.

“And I said yes!”

My mother gasps, audibly, and I’m just shocked. Happy but shocked. The guys voice their congratulations and I feel their touches on my back, my shoulders as they offer handshakes with Tom in congratulations. Mom circles the coffee table and embraces her mother. The look on Mom’s face seems genuinely happy—and I’m glad. I’m happy, too. LeeLee looks up at me, her eyes

bright and happy.

“Well?” she says, as though she’s waiting for my input.

“I’m just…” tears well in my eyes. There’s something so perfect about this. “I’m just really happy for you both.”

She pulls me into a tight hug and whispers in my ear. “I’m so glad you’re here to share this with us.”

“Oh,” Tom says suddenly, “I have champagne.”

His smile is broad and excited as he leaves the room. Dexter and Jake follow him out to help. I see the happy expressions on George and Charlie’s faces and I realize more than ever that the tattoo we all wear is true. Family is more than blood and tonight we’re adding someone new.

The weekend is spent discussing wedding plans. Tom and LeeLee definitely want it later in the spring, when the flowers are blooming and the weather is warming. We agree to the weekend before graduation. Dexter will bake the cake. For obvious reasons, she’ll wear cream and not white. Other than those little details, they haven’t decided on a location (The lawn? The chapel in Yosemite? By the lake?) and by the time school starts on Monday I think I’m glad for the break from the other two Starlees as they try to narrow this down.

“Starlee,” Ms. Peterman says as I shade on my paper with a thick stick of charcoal. I look up and see an office courier at the door. A slip of paper in her hands. I gather my things and take the paper.

“Do you know what this is for?”

“Standard counselor meeting, I think. We’ve been pulling kids all day.”

“Counselor meeting?”

“Yeah, to go over your GPA, test scores, and college choices.”

“Oh, right.” A panicky feeling worms up my spine. I’d been avoiding all of this since my mom was fishing around about it a few weeks earlier.

I walk in the office and the secretary is on the phone. She points down the hall to the counselor’s office. I knock on the door and Mrs. Addison answers. “Starlee, come in.”

Her desk is filled with files, brochures, and paperwork. A stack of books rests on top of a shelf. Her diploma in a big, black frame. Light blue and gray pom-poms sit next to a woolly mammoth with the school logo stitched on the front.

“Take a seat,” she says, pointing to one of the chairs in front of her desk. I do and study the woman before me. I haven’t really been in here before, other than the day I transferred from my home-schooling program in North Carolina. She’s young, with her hair pulled back in a now-messy ponytail. I get the feeling it wasn’t that way when she started the day. She pushes a stray piece of hair off her face and smiles at me. “So, let’s talk about the future.”

“Okay.” I smile trying to hide my nerves. This wasn’t part of the homeschool life.

“I see that your grades are really good and you took the SAT last month and did pretty well. Have you picked out any schools or turned in any applications yet?”

“Well, my plan had always been to apply to Emory in Atlanta. I had an interest in their public health school—you know, since they work closely with the CDC. I mean, that was my plan before…”

She frowns. “Before what?”