Sitting on the porch swing with a lump in her throat the size of a rolled-up pair of socks, she looked away from her sister and counted backward. Six weeks. The first snowdrops had already started appearing on the hills outside of town the week they’d lost first their mother, then their father two days later. Her entire world had turned itself inside out within six short weeks. And now this. “When?” she asked Kate, forcing the word out and avoiding her sister’s eyes. Kate’s voice was almost inaudible. “Well, it’s nine months, right? That would make it sometime around Christmas.” “Some Christmas present, huh?” Jennie tried a smile, but her lips threatened to quiver, so she tightened her mouth again. “Oh, Jen, I’m so very sorry,” her sister murmured. Jennie’s unshed tears drained back down her throat as she looked up to see Kate’s eyes filling. Jennie reached to take her younger sister’s hand, then changed her mind and slid across the wooden slats of the swing to enfold her in her arms.
