Sister's Choice Read Online Free Page A

best of all. Are you sure you want to stay here? You have so many other options.”
    Jamie had considered all of them. She’d thought about moving somewhere new to begin a job in an architectural firm. Staying in Michigan and finishing the last of her course work. Moving here. Moving to Arlington to be near Kendra and Isaac while she was pregnant with their baby. She knew if she did the latter Kendra could help with the girls and be active in every part of Jamie’s prenatal care.
    In the end, she had discounted most of them. The first two options had seemed cruel. Jamie wanted her sister and brother-in-law to witness and participate as their child grew. And trips to and from Michigan, or anywhere else, would tire all of them unnecessarily, particularly if the first in vitro procedure didn’t work.
    The last option, moving to Arlington, had presented a different set of problems. Jamie’s relationship with Kendra held promise, but so many things could still go wrong. The phrase “nipped in the bud” had been coined for situations like this one. She wasn’t sure their relationship would blossom if it was fussed over and cultivated with too much vigor. So in the end, she had chosen to be near, but not too near. She hoped she’d done the right thing.
    Jamie shooed the girls in the direction of their new home, and they took off to explore, Alison’s short legs working double-time to keep up with her sister’s.
    “We’ll give it a try, Ken, but I think we’ll be comfortable. You forget, at this age the girls don’t take up much space. I’ll take the loft, they can take the bedroom.”
    “That’s what I thought you’d do. But you’re not afraid that climbing stairs will be a problem if…” Kendra fell silent, as if she was afraid that by speaking her greatest desire out loud, it would never come true.
    “You’ve got to trust me. I have the most amazing pregnancies. A few steps up to a loft will mean nothing. And I wouldn’t let Alison sleep upstairs with Hannah. She’d swing from the rafters.”
    “At least they’re sturdy rafters.”
    Although Kendra was trying hard to make light of things, Jamie heard her sister’s fears. Everything in her life was changing, and so much of it was out of her control. As children, Kendra had been Jamie’s only reliable caretaker. Kendra, who was thirty-seven to Jamie’s twenty-nine, had been forced to grow up too soon and assume responsibility for her little sister because nobody else in their unstable family had any interest in doing so. So after a lifetime of being in charge, letting go, when so much was at stake, was alien and frightening.
    “I know you’d like to watch over me, and wait on my girls hand and foot,” Jamie said. “I understand that. But we have to have our own life separate from yours and everything else that’s happening. Just don’t worry. I promise that you and Isaac will see lots of us over the next year. By the time this is finished and you’re changing diapers, you may wish we’d stayed in Michigan.”
    “That’s not remotely possible.”
    “When the baby comes, Ken, the girls and I need to have other things going for us. I want them to see this as a gift we gave you while we were going about our ordinary lives. I don’t want the next months to be all about the pregnancy. If they are, it’s going to be too hard for them—” she paused “—and me to move on the way we’ll need to.”
    “I can see that.” Kendra released a deep breath. “It’s just that things could go wrong out here.”
    Jamie thought about all the things that had gone wrong when Kendra had lived on this property. “You should know.”
    “Touché.”
    “I promise we won’t burn the place down. We’ll scare away varmints, and if we have a problem with trespassers, I’ll make sure to report them. I’ll have a telephone. We have neighbors. I have a car. There’s a hospital nearby, and a rescue squad. And being pregnant’s not an illness. Maybe we’ll