Red_Roses_and_Black_Dahlias_-_Macy_T

“The only cake recipe in this book is a tres leches cake.” Sofia smirked
at us.
“You don’t have to look so smug!” She just laughed at me and shook her
head. Sofia slowly made her way to us and kissed her sister on the forehead.
That seemed to soothe Valentina’s ego a little bit.
Then the birthday girl surprised me and got on her tip-toes, laying a sweet
kiss right on top of my lips. I stared, shocked at her boldness, especially
when Valentina was right next to us and clearly saw everything if her agape
mouth and stunned eyes were any indication.
“Huh… you two just kissed.” Heads spinning in her direction, both me
and Sofia stared at the little girl I held tightly in my arms.
Her eyes were blurry with tears as she took us in. I frowned, bringing my
head closer to hers, worried about the tears but she blinked them all away.
“We did.” Sofia answered quietly and calmly. “Does that freak you out?”
I could see she wanted to know how Valentina felt about what she just saw
and about us being together.
We hadn’t really discussed telling her about us just yet, but we hid it from
her in fear she would babble to my sister during her weekly play dates with
my niece, or God forbid, to Callie whenever she came around to check on us
and give us news on our case. The final decision should be falling next week.
It looked positive, but who knew what could happen until then. CPS workers
had come over several times in the last month, to check the house, to
interview us and Valentina, to see how she felt about living here with us.
So because of all of that, we just figured it would be easier not to tell
Valentina.
“I don’t know. I mean, I do think it’s gross because boys have cooties and
you shouldn’t kiss them—” I cut her off.
“It’s absolutely true, boys have cooties and you shouldn’t kiss them until
you’re at least thirty. Possibly older.”