Sister's Choice Read Online Free PDF Page A

crawl and her breasts ache, Jamie summoned a new shot of serenity as she listened to yet another in the barrage of Hannah’s questions.
    “Our stuff comes today? You’re sure? Manny and Warren can find us?”
    Busy trying to tame her youngest daughter’s mop of curls, Jamie glanced up and forced herself to wink at her oldest. “I dropped a trail of bread crumbs. Don’t you remember? And they promised they’d follow it here.”
    “If you dropped bread crumbs, the birds ate them. We have lived here almost forever.”
    “Two days, Hannah, and the guys just left Michigan yesterday. I promise they’ll find us.”
    Jamie gently nudged Alison back into a sitting position, grabbed one last lock of hair and teased out the tangles with a wide-toothed comb. Alison, with her pink cheeks, green eyes and copper-colored hair, looked as if she’d just arrived as an exchange child from the Emerald Isle. Her father, Seamus Callahan, had bequeathed her everything except the curls. Those had come from Jamie’s father, Jimmy, an inheritance that Alison shared with her aunt Kendra. Jamie wondered if Kendra’s baby—if there was a baby—would emerge, as Alison had, with curls already plastered to its tiny head.
    “I wish we had a big truck.”
    Jamie tried to envision a real moving van creeping up their gravel driveway instead of the Ford Econoline with the two college students she’d hired to bring their personal belongings. “We’ll have a big van when we settle somewhere and they bring all our furniture.”
    “But you promise they will have our clothes and toys?”
    “I promise. I promise!” Jamie released her hold on Alison, who sprang to her feet and tackled her sister. Hannah, who was habitually braced for this event, caught her and pushed her back toward her mother.
    Alison had been as patient as she could manage. “I want to go outside!”
    Jamie nabbed her youngest daughter for a big hug. “We can do that. But it’s sunny today. You have to wear a hat.” She looked up. “Both of you.”
    Hannah rolled her eyes, but retreated to the pegs beside the back door, where hats and raincoats were hung. Alison followed at a gallop.
    Jamie waited where she was. The pegs were child-height. In fact, everything in the cabin had been planned with children in mind. The bedroom closet was sectioned so the girls could hang their clothes on the bottom rack and store more in cubbyholes on the side. The room had shelves along two walls, wide enough for toys and low and strong enough to perch on for play. The state-of-the-art bunk beds had a dresser and two cubbyholes for night treasures. On the porch, two rocking chairs scaled to a child’s shorter legs held special places.
    Jamie wasn’t surprised at Kendra’s attention to detail. The cabin was tiny, but Kendra had treated that as an asset. She had scaled down, carefully choosing just the right pieces to make the cabin feel like home. From the Egyptian cotton sheets to the All-Clad cookware, no effort had been spared to make staying there comfortable and easy. In the days since their arrival, Jamie hadn’t needed one thing that Kendra hadn’t provided.
    The cabin itself was extraordinary. Jamie had designed it as a class project oriented toward using readily available materials and fixtures that were commonly stocked at lumberyards and big-box stores. In theory, the design was geared toward do-it-yourselfers planning to put up their own vacation nest.
    Rosslyn and Rosslyn, Kendra’s builders, had taken her basic plans to an entirely different level. Quality materials and workmanship had been the rule here. The natural cherry cabinets had custom detailing; the counters were desert-sand granite. The lone bathroom, though small, had an etched glass shower surround and slate tile. She was particularly fond of the copper sink mounted on a handcrafted iron pedestal.
    She was sorry that she hadn’t been able to participate in the construction of the cabin, but there wasn’t much she