The early results are very encouraging,” the doctor says to me as we sit in the waiting room, alone. A Sunday morning news show is on the television set, talking about the best way to make a Disney vacation affordable. That was always Joey’s dream. We’d even qualified for a free vacation with Make A Wish, but by the time we got everything figured out, he was far too sick. I look up at the smiling face of Mickey Mouse and wonder if Joey will be well enough to make that dream come true.

It’s a dream for me, too.

Although when I think of it, I can’t help but think of walking around the parks with Max. Max, the antithesis of all things Disney. I can’t imagine him going from ride to ride in his three-piece suit.

And after he blew me off this morning? Joey’s dream not only has more merit, it’s much more possible.

Still, I can’t help thinking of our night together. I can’t regret it. It was too good, a perfect way to lose my virginity, with the sweet, caring, flawed Max I’d uncovered. If only his father’s Max, the egotistical, business-minded, money-hungry Max hadn’t come out. I thought of his skin against mine, the way we’d come together, and blink away the image as the doctor continues to show me test results. “That’s great. So great.”

The doctor pats my hand and then walks away, as my phone buzzes with a text. I see Max’s name and rush to open it.

I frown at the text.

It’s over. We can’t see each other again.

And just like that, we’re nobody to each other anymore.

I know that’s his father’s Max. I know he’s back on the hunt for the only thing he professed to love: His business. I never expected to change him. But after last night . . . maybe I’d hoped.

I’d more than hoped. It may be easy for him to be that close to a person and then turn them away. But it’s not for me. It’s like he ripped an entire piece of me away.

But I refuse to cry. I refuse to let this matter any more than he is letting it matter. I have more important things to care about, too. A family to raise. Eight people who depend on me to lead the way. And I’m not going to let them down.

I look down the hallway and see Cara and Calvin heading this way. After all, it is Calvin’s day to sit with Joey. They wave at me, and Calvin says, “Hey sis, what are you here for?”

Cara grins at me, her eyes sweeping over my soft pink dress, which, even rumpled from wearing it the previous day, is miles nicer and more formal than my usual sweats. “She must have a date with her doctor stud!”

I shake my head. “Actually . . . we . . .” Broke up? Never were dating in the first place. I just don’t have it in myself to lie anymore.

“Actually, you’re not dating a doctor?” she asks me.

I stare at her. “What?”

“I know that Max dude wasn’t a doctor,” she says, flopping down in the waiting room chair. “I wasn’t born yesterday. Why did you lie?”

Calvin starts to back up and point behind his back. “Whoa. Okay, it’s too early for girl drama. I’m out.” He turns on his heel and runs toward Joey’s room.

I turn to Cara, who’s still staring at me like I just killed her puppy. “Hey. Why did you lie to me about that project? I know you were with a boy?”

Her eyes widen. “No, I—” She stops when she sees my face. “All right, yes. But nothing really happened.”

“Who is he?”

She shrugs. “No one!” Then she smiles kind of dreamily and it all bursts out, like she’s been holding it in all this time. “Okay, his name is Eddie. He just moved up here from Georgia and he’s really cute and has the cutest Southern twang.”

“Well, you don’t have to keep him from me. Bring him home for dinner.”

She looks at the ground and digs her toe into the linoleum tile. “Maybe. Our house is such a disaster, though.”

“I get it,” I tell her. “Still, I want to meet him, at least.”

She exhales. “All right. I’ll bring him to dinner sometime this week, if that’s okay.” She blushes. “So, what about your stud?”

I shrug. “Nothing. I mean, no, he’s not a doctor. I met him in the city. But we broke up. So it’s nothing.”

“Really?” She pouts. “He was so cute. And obviously rich.”

“Yeah, well.” Try as I might, I can’t keep the sadness out of my voice. I shrug. “It’s over.”

“That’s just not right,” she says, shaking her head sadly. “Because of all the people out there, you deserve to be happy. And I really think a man—the right man—would make you happy.”

“Aw.” I reach over and hug her, her thick ponytail tickling my face. “That’s sweet. But really, I’m okay.”

And the more I say it out loud, the more I might start to believe it.