Winter White by Jen Calonita Read Free Book Online Page A

only living relatives. Things went downhill pretty quickly for this woman, and, well, tonight, your cousin is coming to live with us. Permanently.”
    Her dad looked relieved, but Mira wasn’t. Her hands went numb. They had a cousin who was coming to live with them? Permanently? Who? The news was too big to comprehend. She stared at her water glass again. She could almost hear the ice cracking.
    “We’ve never met her before?” Hayden asked as if he’d heard Mira’s thoughts.
    “No,” Mira’s mom said softly. “None of us have, actually.” She looked at her husband pensively. “This is a huge commitment. We know that. I wish this was happening differently, but this is the way it is. We knew about your cousin’s situation last winter, but her home life was more stable then, so there seemed to be no need to rush things or upset anyone.” Her mother played with her necklace as she stared out at the water. “We thought there would be time to meet her, introduce all of you, and then discuss her moving in with us. But her social worker feels the home situation is deteriorating quickly, and last week it became apparent that the situation needed to change right away. Thank God Lucas has connections.” Mira’s mom smiled at him.
    This was getting weirder by the second. Something didn’t add up. “I don’t understand,” Mira said, trying to piece the story together. “Doesn’t this girl have any other family? You’d think she’d want to live with people she knew.”
    “We’re not doing a very good job of this, are we?” Mira’s dad said nervously, looking at Lucas, then at her. Her dad cleared his throat. “It’s complicated, but the girl’s mom died when she was ten, there is no dad in the picture, and the grandmother is in her eighties. Her health has steadily worsened since the diagnosis a few years ago. She’ll be moving into a nursing home immediately.”
    “It’s us or foster care,” Mira’s mom said grimly. “There is no one else. Her social worker says she’s a good kid. She’s on the swim team and she lifeguards, but her life hasn’t been easy. She takes care of her grandmother, works, and goes to school. We could really change the course of her life,” she added, getting that glint in her eye she got when she found a new pet project.
    “Why does she have a social worker?” Hayden asked.
    “The situation she’s in, mainly,” Mira’s dad said, and tapped his fingers on the table. “It’s… not good. She was raised in Harborside.”
    “Harborside?” Mira repeated, surprised. The Butterflies sometimes did holiday toy drives for kids in Harborside. They had the largest trailer park in the state, and there were always stories on the news about break-ins and occasional gunfights. The area was less than savory. She knew people who visited the Harborside boardwalk, but Mira’s parents never let her go there. Was her cousin as rough as the town she was from? Oh my God, was she going to have to hide her wallet under her bed at night? Mira’s face reddened. She couldn’t believe she’d just thought that. “How is she related to us again?”
    “She’s a distant cousin.” Lucas surprised her by answering for her dad. “On your dad’s side.”
    “Which cousin?” Mira pressed, wanting to picture people in her head.
    “She’s my third cousin’s daughter,” her dad told her.
    “And who is that?” Hayden was apparently confused, too.
    “It’s Tracy’s girl, right, Bill?” Mira’s mom said.
    “Is that the one with the lazy eye?” Connor asked, and Mira’s mom gave him a stern look.
    “Tracy’s the one with the thirteen cats,” Mira reminded them. “She’s the one who lives in Oklahoma City, and her house smells like mothballs, remember?”
    Hayden laughed. “Oh yeah. We had to stay there for the family reunion because there were no hotels for twenty miles. You kept sneezing because you were allergic to the cats.”
    Mira laughed, then stopped abruptly. “Tracy