Sister's Choice Read Online Free Page B

move in with you for that last month or so. We’ll see. But for the time being, you have to relax.”
    Hannah was up on the porch now, peering into the windows. “There’s furniture! Can we go in?”
    “Leave the door open for Alison.”
    Hannah disappeared. Jamie figured she would find the bathroom on her own, since the house was only about thirty-six by twenty-four feet without the porch.
    “I hope you like what Isaac and I bought to put inside,” Kendra said.
    “Having you furnish it made it so easy to just put all our stuff in storage. I’m grateful.”
    “You know, anything you need, anything at all, you only have to pick up the telephone.”
    Jamie stopped just before the porch. From inside she heard squeals of delight. “I know you. This place may be small, but it’ll have everything I could ever want.”
    Impulsively, she reached out and touched her sister’s arm to stop her from going inside. “We haven’t really had a chance to be alone and talk. But we’ll need to along the way. I have no qualms about this. I know I’m going to carry a healthy baby to term for you and Isaac. And I know you’re going to be wonderful parents. But there aren’t any manuals for our situation. I’m pretty sure it’s not in any of the guides I consulted when I was pregnant with the girls. So we have to feel our way, and we have to give each other space. Then, when the big payoff comes, we’ll be ready. All of us.”
    Kendra didn’t look at her. “It’s such a big thing, Jamie. You know how big it is, right? And if I’m scared, how must you feel?”
    “Well, if you come around to visit often enough, I’ll tell you. That’ll help us both.”
    “I wake up in the middle of the night now and wonder what we’ve forgotten to worry about. You’re right, there aren’t any manuals. What if we’ve forgotten something important, something so important we can’t get around it or over it?”
    “Then we’ll ask somebody for a road map.”
    “What if this comes between us?”
    Jamie put her arm around her sister’s waist. “And what if it binds us together in a brand-new way? Let me do this. Let me give you this. Just have some faith, okay?”
    “Maybe this is hormones?” Kendra and Jamie had both been subjected to months of strong hormones to regulate their menstrual cycles and prepare for the implantation. Kendra had provided the eggs and Jamie the perfect host environment and both of them had been poked and prodded almost beyond endurance. Neither had enjoyed the chemical part of the experience, and Jamie was still taking progesterone to improve the odds of implantation.
    “Maybe you’re just preparing for motherhood,” Jamie said. “I can guarantee you’ll worry all the time.”
    Alison threw the door open wide and stepped back out onto the porch. “Mommy, bunk beds!”
    “Oh, good, something new for me to worry about,” Jamie said. “Will Alison try to crawl up to the top bunk with Hannah and fall on her head?”
    “It’s the safest system money can buy. I did the research.”
    “See what a good mom you’ll be? So you concentrate on that, and let me take care of the little stuff.”
    “Like having the baby?”
    Jamie felt a rush of love for her sister and hoped they would stay this connected in the months to come. She squeezed. “Nothing to it, Ken. A piece of cake. I promise.”
    Silently, she prayed she was right.

2
    L ittle lives were not always shaped by big decisions, by moves across country or physical upheavals. More often, the lives of children were shaped by the small decisions, the mundane interactions, the patience required just to avoid leaving footprints on a little girl’s soul. That was when the true mettle of motherhood was tested. Jamie had told herself that from the moment she had become a parent. And from that very moment, she’d learned that following her own good advice wasn’t always going to be easy.
    Two adult-free days later, two days of hormones that made her skin