I couldn’t speak.
“Jo?” The concern in her voice nearly made me cry. “Can you hear me?”
I cleared my throat. “I’m here.”
“What’s the matter?”
I slept with my boss. But I posted his mother’s recipe for pierogi on my blog, and I lied to him, and now he’s acting like I released a sex tape.
“I just wanted to say hey.”
“Hey back at you. No crackers, Daisy. Mommy’s making dinner.”
“I hungry now, Mommy.”
“Sorry. You’re busy,” I said. Meg was always busy. She had twins. Not to mention she was visiting our mother in rehab and shoveling out the goat barn on a regular basis.
“A little,” Meg admitted. (“I starving to deaf,”Daisy said in the background.) “I’m doing the books for Carl Stewart now. And I’ve got to work the farmers’ market again tomorrow.”
“Who’s Carl Stewart?”
“He was a couple years behind you in school? He took over his parents’ farm.”
“Oh. That sounds like fun,” I offered.
“So much fun,” my sister said dryly.
I held the phone, reluctant to let her go. “How’s Momma?”
“No, Daisy.”
“Meg?”
“Sorry,” my sister said. “You know Momma. God forbid we make a fuss.”
“A fuss about what?” Silence. “Meg?”
“She doesn’t want you to worry.”
A sickening feeling settled in my stomach. “Meg! You can’t say something like that and thennottell me. I’ll only worry more.”
Meg sighed. “Okay. But you can’t let on I told you. She has to have an operation on her back. On the twenty-third.”
“Oh God. Is she going to be all right?”
“I think so. The doctor says so. Apparently she has a pinched nerve in her spine. The surgery is supposed to relieve the compression. But you can’t tell Beth and Amy.”
“Of course not.” Bethie felt horrible enough already about missing Christmas with the family. Any more stress, any more pressure, any excuse to come home, and she’d crack like an egg. And Amy couldn’t afford the airfare. I frowned. “You said the twenty-third?”
“That’s the only time the OR was available. I guess they have a lot of surgeries scheduled before the end of the year.”
“That’s right before Christmas.”
“I know.” My sister sighed. “Listen, sweetie, I have to go.”
“Meg...”
“I’ll call you later.”
