He nodded. “Yep. Out of fifteen.”
“You seem to be getting a great response to your new stuff,” I said. It was not at all what I wanted to talk about, but my bravery had seemed to have taken a hiatus.
Beau said nothing, just watched me over the rim of his glass as he sipped. He had showered and changed, now wearing a black short-sleeve shirt that was taut over his muscular chest and a pair of faded jeans. His hair was still wet, and I wanted nothing more than to run my fingers through it. My outfit had seemingly gone unnoticed; Beau looked at me no differently than when I was in my work clothes.
“Tell me how you became a social worker,” Beau said.
“My mom was a foster kid,” I started, watching as his eyebrows lifted in response. “She aged out of the system and was just running wild. A lot of bad stuff happened, and she ended up in the hospital. My dad was a medical student and was doing his ER rotation when my mom was brought in. They weren’t sure she was going make it.” I stopped, thinking about poor Robbie and his mom.
I wondered if they had told him yet.
“My dad felt drawn to her, so he kept going to check on her. She, of course, pulled through, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. She’ll tell you my dad saved her life. She’s worked tirelessly through their whole marriage to raise money and awareness for adoption and foster kids. My dad always wanted me to be a doctor like him. After Lucia . . .” My voice cracked. It had been so long, but it was still painful to talk about.
“She was your sister, right?” Beau shocked the hell out of me by knowing something I hadn’t told him. He’d done homework on me?
I nodded. “I-I don’t remember much about her. I was just a baby when she got sick, and a toddler when she passed away. Sometimes I have dreams of her I think are real, but I just don’t know. It’s too painful for my parents to talk about. My dad was always worried losing Lucia would send my mom into a tailspin, but it didn’t. She wasn’t the same person anymore, the broken one he’d found in the hospital. She was the wife of Dr. Knight. Anyway, I always said I was going to be a doctor like him until I got into college. I felt a pull, a calling toward social work. It’s a tough job and is often very thankless. But I don’t regret it for a second.”
“Did he become a neurologist because of her?”
I nodded. “They had Lucia before they were married, only a year after they met, so my dad was still doing his residency. He decided to focus on neurology once she got sick. Now he’s one of the most sought after pediatric neurologists in the country.”
“Do you take kids from their homes?” Beau asked the question so quietly I almost missed it.
“Yes, sometimes I do have to do that,” I said. “But other times, I get to take them back home, too.”
“What has been the hardest case of your career so far?”
There was no way I could tell him everything I’d seen over the years. Most of it would be too painful for him to think about with his history. I found myself thinking of Robbie again. “There’s been so many, Beau. But this week, I’ve been so stressed out because I got a new little boy in and I’m so worried about him.”
“Why?”
I thought of Robbie’s big brown eyes and shaggy hair, his face angry and determined. “He’s nine years old and has been in and out of foster care his whole life. His mom had a drug problem, and he was born addicted. Since then, he’s been taken from her at least five times and then given back.”
Beau glanced down at the table, his fingers tapping a beat on the grain of the wood. He mumbled under his breath, but I couldn’t hear what he said.
“This time,” I started, but my throat closed up on me. I tried to swallow but I couldn’t past the huge lump that had formed. Tears stung behind my eyes. I couldn’t cry in front of him. I wouldn’t. Beau lifted his face and watched me, waiting for me to continue. “S-she overdosed. Her child had to call 9–1-1. That’s when social services got involved and found out his history. She died in the hospital. I don’t know if he knows yet that he has no one left in the world.”
“No other family?” For a second, Beau’s eyes seemed glassy, but when his eyes met mine again, it was gone.
I shook my head. “No father. We don’t have any idea where the mother’s family is. He’s a ward of the state now and is in the group home you guys will be visiting tomorrow. When I left him there, he hadn’t uttered a word. I’ve seen a lot of sadness, Beau, but this one is just hitting me too hard.”