I take Lauren’s hand in mine. “Mom was the way she was because of Dad. Rhett isn’t like Dad. You’re also nothing like Mom, in case you haven’t noticed.”
She laughs at this and nods in agreement. Oil and water, my mother and sister are.
“Listen. If you don’t want to be like mom, then you are already halfway there.”
She burst into tears again. “I wanted to get married this summer.”
“Who said we aren’t getting married?” Rhett asks, rejoining us with a playful tilt to his voice.
“I can’t get marriedpregnant!” Lauren almost yells.
“Of course you can.” Rhett leans over the back of the couch and rests his hands on her shoulders. “There is nothing I would like to do more than marry you while you’re showing off a bump I caused.”
She looks up at him and then back to me, a laugh rising in her voice. “I might need you longer than a weekend.”
“We have a wedding to plan,” I tell her, knowing immediately that I’m agreeing to a week. At least.
“I think it’s going to be a girl.” Rhett kisses Lauren’s temple. “A little red headed Laur running around.”
“No. It’s going to be a little boy with a red pen, critiquing everything.”
“It’s time for you to go to bed.” Rhett flips out the lights. “And Hannah, it’s time for you to go to bed too. I still can’t believe you just drove the whole way here. I thought we would expect you tomorrow.”
“I would have walked here if needed.”
“I believe it.” Rhett helps us both up off the couch. “Now. Let’s get you Dorada girls to bed before I have to carry both of you.”
We reach the top of the stairs and Lauren turns toward her bedroom with her fiancé, and I turn toward the spare room where Winnie is sound asleep. Her cheek buried into the pillow and blonde curls splayed out every which way.
Six hours ago, I wouldn’t have believed you if you were to tell me I would end my night in Michigan. But I would have believed you if you told me I would be lying in bed, counting the miles between Tanner and me, like I usually do. This time, it’s just a hell of a lot less.
6
Iwake to the smell of coffee drifting through the warm cabin. Stretching out in the starchy sheets, I spot a basket of books on the little wooden chair in the corner.Where The Wild Things Arebeing one of them. I peel back the thin sheet and leave Winnie to sleep a little longer and go downstairs. It’s no wonder Lauren never left this place, I don’t know how I am going to either.
Rhett is reading a newspaper while he leans back up against the counter. He’s tall and handsome with dark hair and bright green eyes. He’s serious, quiet and if I had to go and pick someone for my sister, I couldn’t have picked better. He’s level and steady and so far, has proven to be as such, especially when Lauren isn’t.
“Good morning,” I say to him.
He picks up his head. “Mornin’. Coffee’s almost ready.”
“My hero.”
He directs me toward the mugs and once the pot is full, I pour us each a cup. I sip mine just as Lauren joins us, looking green.
“I am starving. But I don’t want to eat anything,” she announces to us without a good morning. I hand her a cup ofcoffee and sit with her at the table. “I don’t think I am supposed to have caffeine.”
“You’re supposed to limit it to about two hundred milligrams,” Rhett chirps from behind the newspaper. “But I’m not about to tell you to not have coffee. I know better than that.”
“How do you know I’m only supposed to have two hundred milligrams?”
He shrugs and tosses the newspaper to the side. “I’ve been doing some research. You’re also not supposed to have deli meat which is about all we have in the house at the moment.”
Lauren drops her head onto her folded arms. “How am I going to be able to write like this?”
“You’ll shake it,” Rhett tells her softly, rubbing her back.
Winnie comes teetering in a moment later with her blanket in her hand and squinty eyes.
