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expected.” She patted
the sofa beside her. “Want to talk about it?”
    Brett put Jake down next to the blocks and
dropped onto the couch. He ran his hand back over his hair. “She
thinks she’s going to take Jake away.” He rammed his fist against
the arm of the couch.
    “What about the new adoption application you
started with Susan Green?” Tina asked.
    “That’s going ahead, in theory at least,” he
answered sarcastically.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Nothing, nothing at all.” Brett got up and
started pacing the room, picking up Jake’s things as if getting
ready to leave.
    “Brett!” Tina raised her hands as he passed by
as if to shake him.
    He slumped on the couch in resignation,
waiting for her cross-examination. While he might be able to get
the roughest of day laborers to back down with a look and a growl,
he’d never managed to get Tina to give an inch once she’d set her
chin in determination. Not that he hadn’t tried and tried hard over
the years.
    “Tell me about it,” she said
gently.
    “I blew it,” he said as if that explained
everything.
    “Come on,” she prodded. “What do you
mean?”
    “After a shaky start, it seemed to go okay.”
He told her about Molly arriving early before he’d had a chance to
get his house in some semblance of order and about Humphrey’s
exuberant greeting. “Molly was a good sport. She took everything in
stride.”
    His sister nodded. “That sounds promising.
Then, what happened?”
    “Molly asked about the new adoption
application and about a lot of stuff she thought Susan had told me.
Maybe Susan had.” He shook his head. “You know how I was those
first couple of weeks.”
    “Me, too,” Tina said. “Kate was my best
friend.”
    “Yeah, but you’ve got Amy and your parents,”
Brett said, rejecting her sympathy. “Jake’s my only family now, and
I could lose him, too.”
    Tina ignored his jibe. “So, what did she
say?”
    “Something about the case not
being handled according to
procedures .” He emphasized the last three
words. “And that Thayer House should have reassumed custody of Jake
when I told Susan about Kate and David.”
    “Um, hmmm.”
    “I might have gotten a little defensive when
she mentioned Thayer House taking custody of Jake.” Defensive. He’d
all but thrown her out of his house.
    “I’ll bet you did,” Tina said with a superior
smile. “I have seen you act a bit hastily on occasion. Now, did she
actually say Thayer House has to take custody?”
    “No,” he admitted. “Yesterday, she said she
had to discuss the case with her supervisor.”
    “Okay. And she called you this morning and
asked you to come in and talk with her.”
    “Yeah.”
    “What did she say this morning?”
    “To make it short, she said that Thayer House
and Korean Child Welfare think placing Jake in foster care while I
reapply for adoption would be in Jake’s best interest.”
    “That sounds like general procedure to me,
Tina said slipping into her attorney persona. “Did you ask about
being appointed as Jake’s foster parent?”
    “No, I didn’t know I could. She also said
they’d have to put Jake on the Waiting Children List until I was
approved for adoption under the new rules.”
    “I was afraid of that. Absent extenuating
circumstances, they have to list Jake as available for
adoption.”
    “Absent extenuating circumstances.” Brett
hated it when Tina turned attorney on him. What he needed was a
sympathetic friend, not an attorney. “Susan Green seemed to think
the circumstances were extenuating enough,” he argued.
    “Maybe your new caseworker will, too, once she
starts the case study and gets to know you better.”
    “I don’t know about that. I get the distinct
feeling the adoption would go a lot smoother if I weren’t
single.”
    “Is that right?”
    “Yeah. What do you say, Tina. Wanna get
married?” He managed a feeble smile.
    “Sorry, you’re too late. Been there, done
that. I like my