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“And now Alyssa has gone so far away from me, I don’t know what to do to reach her. She just... She just seems like a different person than the kid I raised. I still love her so much.”
She closed her mouth and looked up to the sky like there were answers there before she seemed to get a hold of herself and remembered that Becky was still standing there.
“What do you have?” she asked, nodding at the container in Becky’s hands.
“Miss Clara said that Mr. Griff said you wanted the recipe, and so he gave you the recipe, but he also gave you everything that you needed in order to make it.”
“Everything?” Miss Kim asked, surprise in her voice as she walked closer to Becky and looked at the stuff in her hands.
“Yep. That’s what Miss Clara said.”
“Oh my goodness,” Miss Kim said, her hand going to her throat. “I can’t believe the generosity of the people in this town.”
“I heard it’s really good,” Becky offered, not really knowing what else to say but unspeakably relieved now that Miss Kim wasn’t crying anymore.
“Oh, it is! Haven’t you ever had a breakfast casserole?” Miss Kim almost seemed like herself again.
“No.”
“What are you doing today? Would you like to come into the kitchen and make it with me? We’ll cook it, and then we’ll eat. I bet Davis will really appreciate having a nice lunch like that. It’s more than he was expecting today, I’m sure.” She gave Becky a little smile. “He’s working with Matt and Luke on their farm today. I’ll have enough here for everyone. I’m going to text Miss Lana and let her know that I’ll provide lunch today.”
“I bet she’ll appreciate that. I heard the bed-and-breakfast was really busy.”
“You really get around,” Kim said as her fingers flew over her phone.
When a person didn’t have a house, they had a tendency to get around, but Becky didn’t mention that, of course.
True to her word, Miss Kim picked up the car seat, where Kathleen continued to sleep soundly, and walked back to the house with Becky.
Becky had never cooked anything from a recipe, nothing that didn’t come from a box, and so putting the tater tots and the eggs and the cheese all together was a new experience for her. Miss Kim almost felt like...a mother, as she patiently allowed Becky to crack eggs and explained each step as they did it.
Becky figured she probably couldn’t make it again, but if she did this a few more times, she could cook for herself. That dream of owning her own home might be a reality sooner than she thought.
“So you did tell me where you lived, but the address you gave me wasn’t an actual address,” Kim said in a conversational tone as they cleaned up the counters. The casserole was in the oven baking, and Becky’s stomach growled. Still, she was tempted to make a quick getaway. Because she didn’t want to talk about her home or her lack of it.
“My little sister lives with the family at the end of town.” She rattled off their name. That was more than she ever told anyone, and maybe she was wrong to be trusting Miss Kim.
“Your little sister lives with...” Kim was in the process of wringing out the rag she had used to wipe the counter slowly, and her movements were even slower as she turned the water off. “Your little sister lives with them. But you don’t?”
“No. When you’re in the foster system, you have a tendency to get split up.” She felt a little bit of an affinity with Miss Kim. After all, Miss Kim would understand how it felt to have your family ripped away. After her tears over Alyssa, Becky thought that she probably could understand Becky’s pain.
“So you’re in the foster care system,” Miss Kim said, in that slow, thoughtful way as though she were processing things.
Becky nodded, scrubbing the measuring cup in the sink before rinsing it off and setting it in the drainboard.
“So you don’t live with your biological parents, you live with foster parents.”
Becky didn’t want to lie. She’d lied enough over her life, and Rodney had told her how terrible lying was. That was some of the things that they talked about late at night when she popped into his room. He wasn’t super religious, but he had a code of ethics. A code of ethics because of his parents not having any code of ethics. That’s what he said anyway.
So, Becky didn’t say anything. There was no way for her to answer that question without lying.
“Becky. You know you can trust me, right?”
“I understood why you were crying over your daughter. That made sense to me. Because the most important thing to me in the world is to be with my sister. She’s the only family I have.”
“Right. Your sister is important to you the way Alyssa is important to me.” Kim paused. “And you would do anything for her.”
Becky nodded.
