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me?”
    Nan flushed and replied, “Of course not. I just don’t discuss my personal life with them.”
    Leisa laughed. “They’re your family! How can they not be involved in your personal life?”
    “You’d be surprised how easy it is.”
    “But,” Leisa sputtered, “but you have a brother and sister!”
    “Believe me, siblings are over-rated,” Nan said sardonically.
    “You wouldn’t think that if you didn’t have any,” Leisa sighed.

    By Sunday afternoon, all the arrangements were made. Nan was lying on the couch reading while Leisa flipped through television channels from the recliner with Bronwyn snoring next to her. Leisa finally settled on a football playoff game. She turned the volume down and said, “I think I’m going to go to work tomorrow.”
    Nan slowly lowered her book. “Why?”
    Leisa stared at the television. “I feel like I’d rather keep busy. I don’t know what I’d do, just waiting for Friday to get here for the funeral.”
    “I took the week off to be with you,” Nan reminded her.
    “I can’t remember the last time you took a week off,” Leisa said.
    Nan sat up, swinging her feet to the floor. “We could go somewhere for a few days if you’d like.”
    Leisa looked over at her. “I don’t feel like going anywhere, and I don’t want to be away if Jo needs anything. I just need to stay busy,” she repeated. “It might be a good time to catch up on all the old files you never have time for,” she suggested as Nan stood.
    “Or it might be a good time for you to deal with your feelings,” Nan said pointedly as she started to leave.
    “Are you angry?”
    Nan stopped, her head bowed as she said over her shoulder, “No, I am not angry. I just think it’s a strange time for you to be at work. And I bet Maddie will think so, too.”
    “Where are you going?” Leisa asked as Nan headed down the hall.
    “To re-schedule some of the people I canceled.”
    In the office, Nan punched her computer keys with angry jabs, despite what she’d just told Leisa, as she entered her password to check her e-mail. Ten new messages. Clicking her way through them, she stopped abruptly at the sixth message. There it was again.
    “Leave me alone,” she whispered through clenched teeth as she hit the delete button.

Chapter 4
    MARIELA SAT IN THE playroom, cutting shapes out of construction paper. She was singing to herself, using a glue stick to fasten the colorful bits of paper to the aluminum paint can. Leisa sat down next to her.
    “That’s really pretty,” she said, brushing a loose strand of black hair off Mariela’s forehead.
    “They’re flowers for my mama,” Mariela said. As Maddie had predicted, Mariela had slowly begun interacting with people, occasionally playing with the other children, but still often preferring to be by herself. The paint can was always with her.
    “That’s a very nice thing to do.”
    Leisa looked up and saw Maddie watching from the far side of the room. Leisa went over to her.
    “Should we do something?” she asked.
    Maddie considered for a moment before she answered, “Not yet. This is probably the most normal relationship she’s ever had with her mother.”
    They stood side by side watching Mariela continue decorating the can of ashes.
    “Have you ever felt like you wanted to take anyone home?” Leisa asked tentatively. “For real, to adopt?”
    Maddie looked down at Leisa. “Are you saying you feel that way about Mariela?”
    Leisa shrugged. “I’ve never felt this way about any of the others. There’s just something about her that –” Her throat was suddenly too tight to finish.
    Maddie put an arm around Leisa’s shoulders. “Come to my office.”
    Wishing she had kept her mouth shut, Leisa accompanied Maddie downstairs. Maddie closed the door of her office and sat behind her desk as Leisa took the other chair.
    “How long have you been thinking about this?” Maddie asked.
    Leisa plucked a loose thread off her jeans and twisted it