I pointed to a large, grassy path under a canopy of trees. “That way.”

  Since it was a weekday, the park wasn’t crowded. We passed a few people walking their dogs. No one looked at us twice or asked if we were lost.

  It took longer than I remembered to make it to the parking lot with the low stone wall overlooking Empire County and beyond. But when we finally did, Roman stopped and stared.

  “Wow.”

  “It’s pretty, right? You can see all the way to Vermont.” I pointed in what I hoped was the right direction.

  We found a spot with the least number of trees obstructing our view and sat on the wall, staring out at the Empire City skyline, farmlands, lush green fields, and trees. “I’ve always wanted to come up here to watch the sunrise.”

  “I bet that would be pretty.” Roman shifted closer and wrapped his arm around my waist. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.

  After a few minutes, he curled his free hand around mine and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “Was that okay? What we…what I did back there?”

  I lifted my head and met his concerned stare. “More than okay.” I touched my forehead to his cheek, my nose grazing the slight stubble along his jaw. “I wanted to do more with you. To make you feel good too.”

  He skimmed his fingers over my cheek. “I feel good. I really liked…doing that…watching you. I just wish we’d been alone.”

  “Me too,” I sighed.

  “Hawkins! Hayworth!” an angry male voice shouted our names.

  We whipped around. A furious Mr. Broom marched over the parking lot toward us. We both scrambled to get off the wall. I felt half-naked and silly in nothing but my bikini top and denim shorts.

  “Thank God.” Mr. Broom panted and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I’ve been looking all over for you two. The buses are getting ready to leave.”

  “Oh, sorry. We got cut off from the group on the trail and I wanted to show Roman the view from the overlook,” I said in an apologetic rush.

  Mr. Broom’s gaze flicked to the view behind us and he blew out a breath. “Well, okay. At least that’s all you were doing. Can’t blame you. It’s a beautiful view. You’re probably the only two students who’d appreciate it,” he grumbled, turning and motioning for us to follow him. “Two students were caught in flagrante delicto and it’s been a mess. So when I realized you two were missing…”

  Roman and I frowned at each other.

  “What the…?” he mouthed to me.

  “Sex?” I whispered back and shrugged.

  His shoulders shook with laughter.

  Like properly chastised puppies, we followed Mr. Broom all the way back to the buses.

  “Oh! I left my bag and everything by the pool!” I lunged toward the gate.

  “Vienna has your things,” Mr. Broom assured me.

  Sheesh. How long was everyone looking for us? My cheeks burned hot as we approached the buses. Kids hung out of the windows to heckle us and make obscene noises.

  Mr. Broom stopped in front of our bus. “Due to the circumstances, boys and girls are being separated. Girls on the left, boys on the right.” He stepped aside so we could climb the steps.

  “Great,” I muttered.

  Roman kept his hand on my back. I glanced over my shoulder and caught the defiant lift of his chin and rigid posture. It helped me lift my head and not worry about the whispers and stares as we shuffled down the aisle.

  Vienna bounced in her seat and waved to me. When we got closer, she pointed at the bench across from her where Stubby was holding a seat for Roman.

  “Thanks.” I slid in next to her, noting my tote bag stuffed on the floor under her legs. “Thank you so much for grabbing my stuff.”

  “I got you, girl.” She flashed a wicked smile. “Where did you two disappear to?”

  “We explored this cool cave and then walked down to the overlook.”

  “Uh-huh.” The skeptical lilt to her voice wasn’t lost on me.

  I leaned in closer to her. “Who got caught having sex?”

  She burst into giggles. “Diane and Brody.”

  “Oh,” I said, relieved it wasn’t Chloe and Jameson.

  Roman stretched across the aisle and brushed his knuckles over my leg. “You okay?” he asked in a low voice.

  My heart melted at the sweet way he always looked after me. “Better than okay.”

  It was too noisy to talk much. I spent the rest of the trip back to school staring out the window, listening to the chatter around me. More than ever, I didn’t want to go home. I wished I was back in the cave with Roman. Just the two of us. Alone and together.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Roman

  The buzz from my day with Juliet lasted until I returned to the home.

  I pushed open the bedroom door and found Pip curled in a ball on the floor.

  “What’s wrong, Pip?”

  It wasn’t unusual to find him huddled in the corner of our room or even wedged into our tiny closet after school. On those days I knew he’d either had a rough day or I was about to whoop someone’s ass in this house for picking on him.

  He glanced up at me with red tear-streaked cheeks. “Where were you?”

  “We had that field trip today. The buses got back late. Why? What happened?”

  “Nothing.” His gaze darted to the open door. “Evie. Stay away from her, Roman.”

  I crouched down next to him. “What do you mean?”

  He wiped his cheeks and stared at me with glassy eyes. “I overheard her talking to Janet. They want to get you in trouble, so you get sent away. Squire’s in on it too. But Evie, man. She’s pissed you have a girlfriend.”

  Shit. I thought Evie had finally gotten bored with me and latched onto Squire. Figured they’d both leave me alone if they were busy with each other. I should’ve known two unhappy souls couldn’t comfort one another. It was more fun for them to spread the misery.

  I swallowed hard. I hated lying to people I cared about. “I’m not going anywhere, Pip.” I had no business making that promise. I had no control over my life or what happened to me.

  “But you are. Once you graduate, you’ll have to move out. Then I’ll be here all alone.”

  It wasn’t like I hadn’t considered that before. As much as I worried about where I’d end up, I also feared what would happen to Pip once I moved on.

  “We gotta bulk you up a little, kid,” I teased, reaching out to squeeze his bicep.

  He shrugged away from me. “I don’t wanna bulk up. I just wanna be left alone.”

  “I know.” Damn, I felt inadequate. What would Juliet say? Somehow, she always made the shitty stuff in my life seem fleeting.

  He turned his hopeful, puppy eyes on me. “Maybe I can come with you? Like, you could adopt me.”

  “Shit, kid. If I thought they’d say yes, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  At least that seemed to comfort him. I held out my hand and helped him up off the floor.

  “How’s Juliet?” he asked.

  I’d finally relented and shared a little about her with Pip. Nothing important. I liked Pip and would do what I could to protect him, but I didn’t trust him not to betray my secrets if things got rough. He just wasn’t made of strong enough stuff to lie for me, and it probably wasn’t fair to expect him to, either.

  “She’s good. We had a lot of fun today. Fletcher Park is pretty. You’d like the view.” I didn’t share any of the R-rated details. Everything about those stolen moments with Juliet belonged to me alone.

  “You think…” he gazed at the small bedroom window, “you’re gonna marry her after you get out of here?”

  “Once I have a job and can afford to, yeah, I want to marry her,” I admitted.

  His eager puppy dog eyes returned. “Maybe the two of you could adopt me? A married couple would have a better chance.”

  Damn he was smart. The gentle pleading in his tone almost undid me. By the time Juliet and I were settled, he’d be aging out of foster care himself. “That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?” I carefully sidestepped the question and clapped his shoulder. “Come on, finish your homework. You have to set the table tonight.”

  He groaned but got to work.

  My body and mind clashed with the desire to seek out Squire and punch him in his smug face for plotting with Evie. I’m not proud of it, but I wanted to shake some damn sense into Evie as well. I was sure she arrived with baggage and damage of her own that led her into making stupid decisions. And while that was sad in its own way, my sympathy ended where her problems started to interfere with my life.

  Pip and I went downstairs early. I wanted to talk to counselor Mike about my options for finding an after-school job. And Pip had talked Judy, the counselor we’d dubbed “house mom,” into buying cloth napkins he wanted to fold into swans. To bring some culture to our dinner table, he’d said. Judy was too amused to say no, and I’m pretty sure she’d used her own money to purchase the napkins.

  Pip and his napkin-swans saved my ass.

  “Help!” a voice I recognized as Janet’s screamed from the top of the stairs.

  The girl screamed for help once or twice a week, so no one exactly jumped to attention.

  Mike groaned and nodded at Judy as she power-walked by to see what the emergency was.

  Thuds and bangs bounced over the ceiling above our heads. A few minutes later Judy rushed down. “Where’s Roman?”

  I leaned over and waved at her. “Right here.”

  “What’s going on?” Mike asked. “We’re in the middle of something.”

  “How long has he been down here?”

  Mike shrugged and glanced at the clock. “I dunno. Twenty or thirty minutes.”

  Her mouth flattened and she marched away without explaining.

  Panic tightened my chest. “What’s going on?”

  “Don’t know,” Mike answered.

  I swallowed hard. I wasn’t a tattletale. Snitching on other kids always seemed wrong. But this was self-preservation. “Listen, when I got home, Pip was upset.”

  “He’s always upset about something,” Mike said.

  “Yeah, I know, but this was different. He said Evie and Janet were talking about getting me in trouble.”

  Mike rolled his eyes. “That girl is always up to no good.” His jaw settled into a grim line. “I clocked you in when you got home from the field trip, Roman. You’ve been with me for the last half hour. You’re good, kid. Besides, I know you wouldn’t mess with either of those girls.”

  “I wouldn’t.” I hesitated. “I have a girl at school I’m into. Evie’s jealous.”

  His face transformed into a broad grin. “Yeah? Good for you. Just don’t get her into trouble.”

  I assumed that was code for “don’t get her pregnant,” especially when he slipped a handful of condoms out of his desk drawer and passed them to me.

  “Uh, thanks.” I shoved them in my pocket and looked away.

  I coughed to cover up the awkwardness. “So, what are my chances of being allowed to get an after-school job?”

  “So you can work with your girlfriend?”

  “No. She doesn’t have a job.”

  He nodded. “I can talk to Ms. Simpson and see what she says.”

  My overloaded caseworker wasn’t easy to get in touch with, but she’d probably answer Mike’s calls quicker than she’d ever answer mine.

  “Your grades are good,” he added. “You haven’t caused any trouble at the house. She might approve a couple hours a week somewhere.”

  A couple hours a week wasn’t going to earn me nearly enough money to do what I wanted, but I had to start somewhere.

  Screams ricocheted through the house, followed by shrill curses. Mike jumped to investigate. “Stay here,” he ordered.

  Left alone in his office and having no interest in involving myself with whatever drama was unfolding in the rest of the house, I eyed the phone on the desk. I’d love to give Juliet a call. Had her number memorized from the day she wrote it on my arm. My secret phone was stashed upstairs in my backpack.

  The yelling and swearing grew louder and I craned my neck to peer out into the hallway.

  Judy wrestled a crying and struggling Evie down the hall with Mike following behind them.

  “Roman did it!” Evie screeched.

  I jumped out of my chair and ran to the doorway. “What the fuck is she talking about?” I shouted at Mike.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. We got it handled, Roman.” He nodded to his office. “Stay put for a few minutes, okay?”

  My heart thundered as he closed the door.

  Evie was trying to set me up for who the hell knew what.

  Fear rolled through my stomach as I staggered back to my chair. Obviously, I hadn’t done anything wrong. Mike knew that.

  But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself everything would be okay, deep down a voice whispered reminders of all the times I’d been let down and betrayed before.

  Chapter Twenty

  Juliet

  My cell phone rang and I leaned over to scoop it up off my nightstand. No one but Roman, Vienna, and sometimes Uncle Dex ever called.

  I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered anyway. Uncle Dex frequently used different unknown numbers.

  “Hello?”

  “Juliet? It’s me.”

  “Roman.” A happy sigh followed his name. We’d spent the whole day together and I still couldn’t get enough of his voice. “What’s up?”

  “I’m not sure.” Tension radiated over the line, wiping the dreamy smile off my face.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m not sure. When I got home, Pip was babbling about Evie trying to set me up and now there’s some commotion. My name was thrown around. I’m worried.”

  He didn’t talk a lot about the home when we were together, but he’d mentioned Pip often enough. And Evie had confronted me once or twice at school—although I’d never told Roman—so I knew who she was and what she was after.

  “Roman, what are you going to do?”

  “Nothing I can do right now. If something happens…If I get sent away again. I want you to know—”

  “Don’t. You’re not going anywhere. Please,” I added. A tear rolled down my cheek. I couldn’t stand the helplessness or the injustice of his situation. “Let’s look for a place together now,” I blurted.

  Silence.

  “Juliet, I’d love that more than anything, but—”

  “Maybe Uncle Dex can loan us some money.”

  “I can’t take money from your family, Juliet. A job offer is one thing, but—”

  He had his pride. Having everything else out of his control, I understood it. To a certain extent.

  In the background there was knocking. “I gotta go, Juliet.”

  The call ended.

  I didn’t dare try calling him back and risk getting him in trouble.

  All night I worried and wondered what was happening.

  Roman

  I’d seen a lot of legitimate issues get swept away or ignored during my time in the system. So the attention Evie got for her false allegations shocked me into silence at first.

  Then I came out fighting.

  “I wasn’t even here when she claims whatever happened, happened!” I roared. “Did you talk to Janet? I guarantee she’s involved too!”

  No one cared.

  I still had to be questioned.

  Interviewed.

  Examined.

  Questioned again.

  What pissed me off the most was that somehow Janet and Squire skated out of the whole mess. I had no doubt they helped concoct this idiotic plan and encouraged Evie to go through with it. While Evie had been a source of annoyance since I moved into the house, I’d never suspected she was this downright devious.

  “For the last time, I got home late from our school field trip,” I explained to my caseworker. Ms. Simpson did not seem pleased she’d been dragged out of her house after business hours. I couldn’t blame her, honestly. But I didn’t want her to somehow blame me and block me from getting a job or something.

  “Why so late?” she asked, tapping her pencil against her yellow notepad.

  “It was an all-day field trip. You approved it,” I reminded her.

  “So someone can confirm you were on this school trip?”

  Guilt, because I’d snuck off with Juliet, crowded my conscience. Mr. Broom had caught us far away from where we were supposed to be. But because he trusted us, he’d let it slide. And now I might be dragging him into vouching for me.

  Thankfully, the moral compass I’d developed over the years spun in its own direction. I swallowed hard but kept my voice and gaze steady. “Only my entire class, the principal, and the six teachers there to supervise all of us.”

  Supervise was a bit of a stretch since I’d spent a good portion of the afternoon making out with Juliet.

  “All right, I’ll call the school tomorrow.”

  How embarrassing.

  “Ms. Simpson,” Mike finally piped up. “Roman’s been a good resident. Haven’t had a single disciplinary problem with him since he got here. Evie has had multiple infractions. I’ve caught her lying on several occasions. And I personally spoke to Roman when he came home today, so I can confirm the time.”

  About time. I wondered when Mike planned to pipe up on my behalf. Ms. Simpson’s face unwrinkled a bit.

  “Very well.” She slid her pencil into her briefcase and pulled out a stack of paperwork. “I still need to write up a report and have you both sign statements.”

  Great. Not like I had homework or wanted to eat dinner or anything.

  “While I have you here, Ms. Simpson.” Mike pasted on a phony but polite smile. “Roman expressed some interest in finding a part-time job after school. I think it would be a benefit to him.” He lowered his voice as if I might be too tender to hear the next part. “It would be good for him to get some job experience since he’ll be aging out of care next year.”

  She blew out a long breath and stared at me until I wanted to squirm in my seat.

  “Your grades are good, Roman,” she finally said. “I was planning to discuss this with you at a later time, but if you continue to do well in school, I might be able to get you into a program that will help you transition out of foster care. Tuition for a state school or trade school would be covered and you’d have a stipend for living expenses as long as you’re enrolled until you turn twenty-one.”