“Aw, you’re so sweet. You, Julia, Mom, Gram and Laura… Everyone has been so good to me. I mean, I’m a nurse. I know how often this happens, but when it happens to you…”
“It’s totally different.”
“Yeah. And Shane has been so incredible. He’s my rock.”
“I’m glad you have each other to get through it.”
“Maddie called when she heard the news and was so sweet sharing her experience losing a baby. We talked for an hour. Everyone has been so nice.”
“The good news is, when you feel ready, you can try again.”
“I know,” Katie said with a sigh. “It’s just different now that I know what it feels like when it goes wrong. Before that happened, it was just this abstract concept that happened to other people, so I didn’t stress about it. But now… Hopefully, it’ll be different next time.”
“You and Shane are so strong and solid together. You’ll be fine no matter what happens.”
“That’s what he says, too. That we’ve got this, no matter what.”
“And he means it. You know that.”
“I do. I got lucky with the best husband ever, and he’s proven to me so many times that he truly loves me. I’ve even decided if we’re never able to have children, we’re still the luckiest people in the world because we have each other.”
“You’re going to have kids. I know it.”
“You do?”
“I feel it. In my bones, and you know how my feelings are usually spot-on about things.”
“I do know that. You’re clairvoyant.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I just have a sense for things and people.” Cindy recalled the reason she’d asked her sisters to come over. “Although it doesn’t always work as well as I’d like it to.” When it came to Jace and the information he’d shared, there was a blackout where her intuition usually was found.
“I wish Julia would get here so you can tell us what’s going on,” Katie said.
“It’s nothing bad. It’s just a situation. I need your input.”
“If there’s one thing Lawrys have plenty of to offer, it’s input.”
Cindy laughed hard at that. “Truer words were never spoken.”
Their family group chat was nonstop all day, every day. Cindy had to make time to catch up every night before bed because she always wanted to know what was happening with them.
If she told her brothers about the “situation,” they’d flip their lids. Owen, protective eldest, would be there in two seconds to tell her he would not allow a felon to live with her, and John, the former cop, would be looking for ways to send Jace back to prison on the next ferry. The news about Jace wasn’t going anywhere near their group chat.
Julia came rushing in the front door, her face flushed from the heat and the natural glow she got whenever she performed. She juggled the pizza box, the bag containing the salad Cindy had ordered and her dog, Pupwell, on a leash. He let out a happy squeak when he saw Cindy, who had a treat for him every time she saw him.
She picked up the dog, gave him a hug and said, “Does my sweet boy want a bone?”
Pupwell’s happy yip made the sisters laugh.
“I swear he understands every word we say,” Julia said, helping herself to a glass of wine. “What’s up around here?”
“That’s what I’m waiting to hear, too,” Katie told her fraternal twin. The two of them looked nothing alike. Katie was as blonde as Julia was dark. Cindy fell somewhere in the middle, her hair a darker shade of blonde than Katie’s. Her sisters looked more like Cindy than they did each other.
“I have a crush,” Cindy said.
“Ohhhh, yes!” Julia fist-pumped the air. “Is it the sexy bartender at the Beachcomber? Jace, right? I told Deacon after the last time we were there that you liked him.”
“And you say I’m the clairvoyant one,” Cindy said to Katie.