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neighborhood. He’d given up on his itchy shirt collar and had his temple resting against the window, watching the mailboxes flash by.
                  “They’re supposed to be.” She could hear the unusually sweet sound to her voice and knew she was being gooey with her baby: overcompensating for his father’s sins.
                  “Is Daddy coming?”
                  She swallowed. “Probably not.”
                  Her old childhood home – the brick box with blue shutters and door – was planted for spring, Beth’s flowers overflowing their beds and spilling onto the front sidewalk. A plastic Little Tikes red and yellow car under the flag pole meant Willa had been “driving” that morning. The drive and curb were full of cars – Mom and Dad, Jo and Tam, Mike and Delta, Jordan and Ellie, Walt and Gwen. Jess parked along the street in front of Ellie’s new Explorer and gathered a deep breath as she killed the engine and disengaged her seatbelt.
                  Her three younger siblings had always been the ones with romantic troubles. And now they were all married, with babies in hand or on the way, and she was about to walk into the house the only woman whose husband had a mistress.
                  Her stomach rolled over.
                  Tyler had finally gotten big enough to take off his seatbelt, unlock his door and let himself out – he’d been four when he’d mastered that – and he scampered off toward the house while she was still gathering her composure. She wished, for a moment, as she watched him bound across the yard, that he was still small enough for her to carry. She wanted something in her arms aside from the two carefully wrapped presents she tucked under her arm and toted up to the house.
                  Dad met her at the front door, Willa in one of his meaty arms. “Hey, sweetheart!” His voice was too loud and too friendly against all her ragged nerves.
                  Willa lifted her tiny hand in a wave, a smile splitting her face that was frighteningly like Tam’s. “’Essssie!” she greeted, because she hadn’t mastered J sounds yet. Likewise, Jordan was “Ordie”.
                  Without her own daughter, Jess loved keeping Willa for Jo during the days, trying to impart even the smallest touch of femininity onto the tomboy-in-training. She was a sweet, busy kid, always laughing. Lately, being Mommy and Aunt “Essie” had been better than being Mrs. Beaumont by far…and there she went back to one of the many root sources of her current predicament.
                  “Hi, pretty girl,” she reached up and smoothed a wild wisp of black hair that had come loose of Willa’s barrette. She flashed a fast smile up to her father. “Hi, Dad.”
                  His gaze went over her shoulder and out across to the car before he asked the question she’d been dreading. “Where’s Dylan?”
                  “He couldn’t make it.” Which wasn’t a lie.
                  Inside, the house was tumultuous with voices, all of them loud and celebratory. Ellie’s dress was black and tucked in all the right places, she’d even worn heels for what it was worth, but she was very pregnant with twins. Tam’s hair was shorter than Jess had ever seen it and for once, he hadn’t pulled his tie all the way loose. Jess took a deep breath in the threshold of the living room, then she painted on a smile and launched herself into the fray.
                  Hugs and hellos were traded. Ellie loved her necklace and Tam pretended he’d actually wear the watch Jess gave him. Her numbness pervaded, only the tiniest flicker of emotion breaking through to rake its claws across her mind every so often, until Walt put his too-big arm around her shoulders and towed her into the dining room.