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“We were. Trey told me you’d found her portrait. Seeing it? It’s like time stopped. They’d like that you put her in here. This was one of her favorite rooms, too.”
“It felt like the right place.”
“Because it is.” She surprised Sonya by linking their hands for a moment. “She’d never hurt you.”
“Do you… Do you think she’s here?”
“We’ll talk sometime. I’ll help with the coffee. I know how everyone likes it.”
Since she felt she had to leave it at that, Sonya sliced cake.
And considered the idea of post-dinner in the music room a perfect choice when Anna sat down to play and dragged a clearly reluctant Trey with her to add his voice.
Anna stopped abruptly, and with wide eyes, pressed a hand to her belly.
Seth had already shoved up from his chair when her face lit up like the sun. “I felt him move! I felt the baby move!” Though she gripped Seth’s hands, she looked at her mother. “Mom.”
“You’re okay?” Seth pressed his hand over hers. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Too early for you to feel,” Corrine told him as those steel-blue eyes went damp. “Right about on time for Anna.”
“It’s normal?” Trey gripped his sister’s free hand. “It’s a good thing?”
“It’s a normal, lovely thing.”
“When do I get to feel him?”
“A few more weeks, Daddy.”
Because it seemed like a family moment, Sonya slipped out. She’d give them a few minutes, and get the dishes started.
She walked into the kitchen and found it spotless. The dishwasher hummed, the sink sparkled, and when she checked the fridge, shefound the leftovers—a fraction of what she’d feared and expected—efficiently tubbed.
“I—oh jeez—I appreciate it. You didn’t have to do all this.”
She still stood, at a loss, when Trey came in.
“No way you’re this fast on KP.”
“No, not me.”
“Well, okay. I think everyone’s going to head out. I was going to stay and give you a hand with all this. But no need for that.”
On cue, the tablet played “Stay.”
She heard the nerves in her own laughter. “Somebody likes having you around.”
Yoda came in, danced, whined.
“Oh, you want to go out. Of course you do. Give me one minute.”
“I’ve got him. Mookie’s going to want to go out with him. And when I say they’re about ready to head out, it always takes a while for them to actually get out.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Seth, be a good boy and take the cart back to the kitchen for Sonya. Ace and I should take our old bones home. As Corrine said, we’ll leave the younger generation to help with the cleanup.”
“It seems someone from what must be a much older one already took care of that.”
