My Forever Read Online Free PDF Page B

one knows, and you didn’t know I was Mormon?” He seems amused.
     
    I’m glad I didn’t offend him with my reaction. Or if I did, he’s hiding it well.
     
    “Maybe I blocked it out,” I answer honestly.
     
    “That would make sense. I don’t think most of the people you go to church with have the proper understanding of what we believe.” He seems a little more guarded than before , and I’m sad.  His legs come up between us and his easy, relaxed face disappears.
     
    “I wouldn’t be surprised.” I feel often that my dad has things a bit backward. I stare at my feet, a little unsure of how to continue or if he’ll even want to.
     
    His eyebr ows pull together just slightly. H e’s thinking. “Your dad is the pastor there, right?”
     
    I nod.
     
    “I expected you’d be…”
     
    “Better?” I laugh.
     
    “No, no. You have a different feeling about you than what I’d expect. It’s nice.” He’s more relaxed again , and I realize how tense his reaction made me as my shoulders start to slump back down.
     
    My heart swells at the simple compliment. It’s the best one I’ve gotten in… a while. “Thank you.” I feel happy, inside, in a way that I haven’t in a long time. We’re quiet for a moment, smiling at each other. I look down at my lap. Are we having a little moment here? Then I laugh internally. Right. Michael and the stupid girl who got herself knocked up.
     
    “ God works in mysterious ways…” H e opens his eyes wide and tries to joke a little to dispel the tension. It’s not bad tension, just intense.
     
    “Let’s hope so because right now? I don’t see a good way out of this.” Even if there is one, I have less than nine months to figure it out.
     
    “Hey
,
Dani?” He waits until I look at him. “I was adopted. It’s a good thing, okay? I know I’m with the parents I was supposed to have. Does that make sense?”
     
    “Yeah.” I think I feel something like relief— it just takes me a moment to recognize it because it’s completely unexpected. Relief isn’t supposed to come in any form until this is all over.
     
    “Well, I can tell you what I know about the process of my church.” He looks through his thick lashes at me.
     
    “Okay.” It feels good. It feels like I’m moving forward, toward a solution. With my head being full of chaos, it’s what I have to go on. I try not to think about what my dad would say if he knew I
was
sitting with a Mormon boy in the hallway discussing options for my unborn baby. Th e thought almost makes me laugh. But not quite .
     
    “You with me Dani?” Michael asks, noticing my far off expression again.
     
    “Yep.” I’m still smiling.
     
    “Imagination running off with you again?”
     
    “A bit.” I redden. I hate it when that happens.
     
    “Good. I wish I had that.” He watches me for a moment and then continues. “So, if you want to adopt, they have you fill out all of this stuff that you, a possible birth mother, would get to look at. Pictures, family histories, all kinds of stuff.”
     
    I nod.
     
    “I think they help you get set up with health care and all of that.”
     
    “How do they filter out the adoptive families?”
     
    “Well, they need to be recommended by their bishop,” he explains.
     
    “Wait.” I stop him. “What’s a bishop? Like in Catholic church?” The term is only slightly familiar.
     
    He shakes his head. “No. Okay, let’s see… the easy explanation.” He thinks for a moment. “The bishop kind of oversees what happens in our ward. Our ward is the group of people I meet with on Sunday. ”
     
    “So, like my dad’s the pastor.”
     
    “Kind of, except the bishop has lots and lots of helpers. He has two direct helpers or counselors and then we have other organizations that also have leaders…”
     
    “Who pays for all those people?” I’m shocked. My dad’s the only one, well except for my brother and sister who are practically at his beck and call.