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life the way it, just Amy and me. But I would like
to meet the woman who could slip a ring on your elusive
finger.”
    Brett thought of his frequent and fleeting
romantic entanglements. “You’re right. Marriage would ruin our
perfectly good friendship.”
    Tina laughed. “But, seriously, what’s next.
I’ll help any way I can, legally or otherwise—short of marriage,
that is.”
    “I’m not sure. What I do know is that no one
is going take Jake away from me temporarily, or otherwise, without
a good fight.”
                                                                                                         

Chapter Four
    Molly hesitated at the door. She was late for
the weekly staff meeting, and it was all Brett’s fault. If she
weren’t so wrapped up in his case, she wouldn’t have lost track of
the time. If she hadn’t been replaying yesterday in her mind on the
way to the meeting, she wouldn’t have bumped into the mail bin in
the hall and scattered her case files all over the floor.
Hopefully, she could slip into the conference room without
interrupting the meeting.
    Charles motioned to her. Good, he’d saved a
seat. Molly slid into the chair next to him.
    “Did I miss anything?” she
whispered.
    Charles shook his head.
    Flipping her pad to a clean sheet, Molly
focused on the woman speaking, the senior director of adoptions and
foster care.
    “Before we start our case discussions,” the
director said, “I have the announcement we’ve all been waiting
for.”
    The roomed buzzed with
anticipation.
    “Korean Child Welfare has given Thayer House
the official go ahead to begin accepting adoption applications from
single parents, as of January 1.”
    Molly’s heart leapt with relief. One obstacle
down, two to go. If only it could be as easy to keep Jake out of
foster care and available for adoption until approval came through
on Brett’s new application. Molly had gone over Brett’s application
carefully and couldn’t see any good reason why he wouldn’t be
approved. But—
    “Hey, girl, that’s your ticket,” Charles said,
giving her a thumbs up sign.
    “I sure hope, so,” Molly replied, buoyed by
Charles’ enthusiasm.
    “Folks.” The director waited while the room
quieted. “I don’t have all the details yet, but I can try to answer
any questions you have about the policy change. Or should we move
on to our case discussions?”
    Apprehension rippled through Molly. Being new
to the job, she hadn’t brought up a case for discussion before. Did
she want to lay Brett’s situation out before everyone and risk
censure for how she’d handled his case so far? She took a deep
breath and cleared her throat, “I have a case that will be very
much affected by the change. In fact, the whole adoption hinges on
it. . . ”
      Molly left the staff meeting
with her prayers answered and her self-confidence restored.
Everyone seemed to be behind her. The director had advised her to
complete Brett’s home visit report today so it could go out Monday
with the regular bi-weekly packet to Korea. Several of her fellow
caseworkers had encouraged her to include a recommendation that
Jake remain with Brett until his new adoption application could be
processed. Maybe she wouldn’t be risking her job, after all, going
to bat for Brett.
    She dropped her case files on her desk. They
could be filed later. What she needed to do now was call Brett.
Reaching for the phone, she noticed the flashing light. Instinct
told her the message was from Brett. Molly punched in her voice
mail code.
    “Molly, this is Brett Cahill.”
    At the sound of his deep voice, the tempo of
her heart picked up. She listened in a state of half dread, half
jubilance while the message continued.
    “I want to apologize for storming out on you
yesterday. I see where you’re coming from. You have to do your job.
I can deal with that.” His