Sister's Choice Read Online Free PDF

would have done differently. Kendra and the Rosslyns had made the cabin their own with subtle modifications and creativity. In the big picture, that meant Jamie’s plans were adaptable and therefore a success. Photos of the cabin, along with the blueprints, would take priority in her portfolio.
    Someday—which seemed like a long stretch into the future at that moment—she really would need a bigger and better portfolio. She would hang on to that thought in the months to come.
    The girls screeched to a halt in front of her. All morning, she had promised a walk to the old orchard at the edge of the property, and she knew if they waited much longer, they would end up dragging themselves home, moping and sweaty. Since she was counting on the walk to tire them out, not transform them into heat zombies, the time had come.
    “Okay, let’s scoot,” she told them. “Let’s see who can spot the first bluebird.”
    Outside, she drew in a deep breath and almost tasted the humidity. Maybe June had just established a foothold, but no matter what the calendar said, summer had arrived. Despite the heat, the excess of hormones and her unusually short supply of patience, the morning seemed almost idyllic, a long breath expelled after years of combining school, work and parenting.
    Jamie was not by nature a worrier. She was sure she had done the right thing by volunteering to carry a child for her sister and by bringing the girls to Virginia. She had her whole life ahead of her, years in which she could do exactly what she wanted to. Nine months was not a long time in the scheme of things. The time at the cabin would be a transition, a chance to take stock, to look over possibilities and make the best choices for their future.
    But the reality of what was in store was already beginning to set in. She adored her daughters, would walk barefoot up an erupting volcano for them, would swim the length of the Shenandoah. But the uninterrupted stretch of time alone with them, the confines of the cabin, a community where she and the girls were complete strangers? She just hoped that in addition to her daughters’ eccentric, charming companionship, she could find an accepting adult or two to converse with from time to time. Over the next year, she and the girls were going to need all the friends they could muster.
    The girls took off for the orchard willingly enough, watching for flashes of blue along the route.
    “I’m going to run!” Alison ran ahead, and Hannah allowed her a head start, then took off after her. Jamie followed behind, hauling a mesh bag with a Frisbee, bottled water, a picnic blanket, granola bars and The Marvelous Land of Oz, which she was reading out loud.
    The trip to the apple orchard was short. The small orchard might once have been productive enough to help feed Leah Spurlock Jackson, Isaac’s grandmother, and his mother, Rachel. Now, however, the trees were in the final stages of decline. Some had died with their roots still planted in the earth; others had fallen. Here and there, a carpet of dried blossoms indicated that some had struggled to bloom in May, but Jamie saw no indication of fruit. Her knowledge of gardening was limited to a philodendron that the girls had watered to death, but she wondered if any of the old trees could be saved.
    She spread a blanket on the grass, then took out the Frisbee, but the girls wanted to explore.
    “I will collect flowers,” Hannah announced. “There are enough to share with the animals who live here.”
    “I’m sure the squirrels and chipmunks will approve.” Knowing where the flowers would go for the return trip, Jamie opened her water bottle and drank a couple of slugs to prepare.
    “Do you think Black Beauty left when the cabin burned down?” Hannah asked.
    Jamie remembered Black Beauty well, but she was impressed her daughter did, too. He—or possibly she—was a gargantuan black rat snake who had lived under the old cabin and nearly scared Jamie to death the