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When I set her down, someone shouted congratulations and we both cracked up quietly. Then we stood there, still holding each other, my arms around her waist, hers around mine, the Toilet King pressed between us. I didn’t let go.

She didn’t let me go either.

“Head lice,” she said. “I was wondering how you were going to top kittens.” Her eyes moved to my lips. “You should check me too,” she said. “Just to be safe.”

“Wow. We’re checking each other for lice. I guess you could say things are gettin’ pretty serious.”

I felt her laugh against my chest.

“Are you sure you don’t mind coming to help?” I asked. “I know you didn’t want to spend time with the kids.”

“I got lice once in foster care before Maddy’s. It’s traumatic and humiliating, especially for teenagers. I don’t mind helping someone get it over with sooner.”

I smiled a little. If you would have told me a year ago that delousing my family would be a term of endearment for a date, I would have thought you were bullshitting.

You could have told me a lot of things a year ago that I would never have believed.

CHAPTER 28

EMMA

I dragged the lice comb down Sarah’s long locks.

She’d been sitting on the sofa when we came in, crying and hugging her legs. I thought maybe she’d prefer Justin or Leigh to do her hair and I would take Alex, but when we came in she scrambled off the sofa and barked “Emma” before stomping to the bathroom. So Justin started on Alex, and I took his sister.

She’d already washed her hair with the shampoo, so we got right to combing.

“This is so embarrassing…” Sarah said.

I shrugged, parting her hair. “Eh, it’s not that bad.”

Her face called bullshit in the mirror.

“Really, it’s not. Trust me, I’ve seen much worse.”

She looked away from me. “Yeah right.”

“I pulled a sock off a patient once and the foot came off with it.”

Her eyes darted back to mine. “No way.”

I combed down to the ends. “I’ve seen things that would keep you up at night. This is not one of them.” I made another part in her hair. “Not much fazes me. This isn’t even a particularly bad case. There’s hardly anything here.”

“This is so stupid. Who even gets head lice?” she said.

“I’ve had lice before.”

She blinked at me. “But… but you’re so pretty!”

I laughed. “Pretty girls can’t have lice? Trust me, they can. Lice are actually attracted to clean scalps, did you know that? It doesn’t mean you’re dirty.”

A flicker of gratitude moved across her expression, but then her face darkened again.

“How have you been doing?” I asked.

She sniffed, but she didn’t answer.

“My mom was gone a lot too,” I said, wiping the comb on the paper towel. “I was in foster care a couple of times, so I get it.”