« Your room is painted light green, » I told her. « We thought you might want to choose something else later, but we didn’t want it to feel too empty. »
She nodded.
Daniel, from the driver’s seat, said, « And if you hate green, we promise we can paint it any other color that you love. »
That got us no reply.
I twisted around in my seat and gave him a look. « No need to push. »
« Yeah, no pressure. »
Ava kept watching the road.
I told myself not to read too much into it. The first days are strange. First days are all shock and politeness and adrenaline.
Still, when we pulled into the driveway of the old brick house Daniel and I had bought the year before, I felt that nervous flutter all over again.
It was the deeper fear. What if we loved her with our whole hearts and she never feels safe enough to believe us?
