“Your phone rang, but no one talked when I answered,” he said and laughed as Rose blew raspberries into his neck. She put him down, and off he went back outside.

“That’s weird. Probably just a wrong number.” I shrugged and put my phone in my pocket. “Okay, Rose, I’m not judging your attempt at baking. It actually looked good.”

“I know, weird. Help me make sure it doesn’t burn. So, want to talk about it?” she asked as she opened the fridge and pulled out a Diet Coke.

“Nope,” I said as I stuffed a ranch-dressing-covered baby carrot into my mouth.

“I didn’t think so. But I’ve talked to Luke, and I think you should give him a chance. He thought he was doing the right thing. We all understand where he was at. And we’ve all forgiven him, so none of us will give you any crap after you forgive him and get back together and get married and have more cute babies.”

“You’re so sure that I’ll forgive him, then?” I was kind of freaked out that my family had not only forgiven Luke so quickly, but they all seemed to think we would be getting back together. I got up and headed to the fridge in search of something to drink.

“Duh, it’s Luke. Luke and Lily are like peanut butter and jelly. And I was always the pickle on your sandwich.” She laughed.

“You’re not my pickle, Rose, you’re my best friend, and I’ve missed you so much.” I hugged her around her neck, swinging her side to side, and she hugged me back, wrapping her arms around my waist like she always did. We pulled apart just as our brothers started filing through the French doors at the rear of the kitchen.

I grabbed Rose’s hand. “Aw, back inside so soon? Rose and I wanted to play catch with you guys.”

“Yeah,” Rose added, “we wanted to play too.”

Then we said in unison, “Forever and ever and ever.” Then we laughed as our four tall macho brothers turned around and ran back outside.

Mom, who had just entered the kitchen from the living room, got mad at us. “Rose, Lily, stop scaring your brothers. I never have all my babies together, and you just ran them off with your scary twin act.” We used to go all Shining twins on them regularly, and they would always run off, much to our amusement.

“You have to get over it because we’re not all together. Holly isn’t here.” Rose laughed. “Woman, you have so many kids that you can’t tell when one is missing?”