“I know. It’s not like her.”

Stephanie, Abby and Grace came in, carrying covered dishes and bringing laughter and noise and chaos, which required Jenny’s full attention as she tried to steer them away from the kitchen to give Maddie some privacy.

“What’s going on?” Abby asked.

“Maddie’s having a rough day,” Jenny replied. “Syd is with her.”

“Hope everything is okay.”

“I think it will be.”

They arranged all the food on the dining room table next to the paper plates, napkins and plastic forks Sydney had provided. As they filled their plates, talk turned to their friend Janey Cantrell, who’d recently delivered her son two months premature in an emergency C-section.

“I talked to Joe this morning,” Janey’s cousin Laura said. “P.J. is doing well and off the ventilator, which is a huge step forward.”

“And how is Janey?” Grace asked.

“Recovering slowly, but doing better every day,” Laura said. “The doctors told her she needs to take it very easy for a month or so until she’s fully recovered. She lost a lot of blood.”

“She’s so damned lucky to be alive,” Stephanie said. “They both are.”

“No kidding,” Laura said. “I can’t even think about what happened without feeling like I’m going to break out in hives or something.”

Grace patted Laura’s arm. “It’s better if you don’t think about it.”

“Imagine your ex-fiancé saving your life—and your child’s—the way David saved them,” Stephanie said. “What a crazy scenario for all of them.”

“Thank God David was right there when she had the emergency and knew what to do,” Grace said.

“Seriously,” Jenny said. “A stroke of luck for sure.”

Maddie and Sydney came into the room and greeted the new arrivals. “Sorry to be such a basket case today,” Maddie said. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. “I feel like such a jackass for bawling all over you guys. Blame it on the hormones.”

“No apologies needed,” Laura said. “We all have those days. I feel like all I do lately is cry and puke. It’ll be a miracle if Owen shows up for our wedding.”

“Oh, shut up,” Stephanie said, laughing. “He can’t wait to marry you.”

“I can’t imagine why. I’ve done little more than breed and puke since he’s known me.”

“Apparently,” Sydney said dryly, gesturing to Laura’s rounding belly, “you’ve done a few other things, too.”

Jenny cracked up laughing along with the others and helped Hailey as she made a huge doughy mess of the roll she’d chosen from the table.

“I’m so sorry to dump and run,” Maddie said as she took a seat on the floor next to Jenny and Hailey. “Have you gotten to eat yet?”

“We’re doing just fine, aren’t we, Hailey?”