My smile was instant. Even though I was dozens of feet away, I could tell she was propped up on her toes, making sure I could see her. That made me chuckle. While I had taken after my father with my height, Jada’s petiteness had come through our mother. Even her big hair did little to add to her five-foot-two frame.

“Hey, baby sis.” I leaned over to embrace her. And just like I thought, she was on her toes.

“What’s up?” she asked in a voice that belied her size. Her height, was the only thing small on Jada. As she slid back into her seat, she added, “And when are you going to stop calling me your baby sis?”

“That’s what you’ll always be to me.” I hooked my purse on the back of my chair. “You and Lauren.”

From the time Lauren and then Jada were born, I embraced the role of big sister as if I were a decade older than both of them. We were much closer in age, only two years between me and Lauren and then two years between Lauren and Jada. But that was enough for me to boss them around when we were younger, though both of my sisters would say I’d carried that trait into my adulthood. Jada would say that, more than Lauren who was protected against my big sister tendencies by the barrier of the miles between D.C. and Dallas where she lived.

Jada rolled her eyes and I laughed. “Whatever,” she said. “I’m a grown woman, twenty-eight...and a half, in case you need to be reminded.”

This time, we laughed together and as the waiter came to take our orders, we studied the lunch menu...and the wine list, of course. The wine was the reason why Jada loved coming to this place whenever she hopped on the Acela for our monthly luncheons. It didn’t make sense to me that she would take a three-hour train ride from New York to eat at a restaurant that was right around the corner from where she lived in the city. The Brooklyn Winery, which was less than a mile away from her brownstone, was owned by the same people. But she fancied herself a wine connoisseur and it didn’t matter to me where I hung out with my sister. So the District Winery was always it.

I ordered the duck wings, with a side of fried brussels sprouts, while my sister told the waiter to bring her a salmon burger and then, we both ordered a glass of Pinot Noir.

“So, what’s been going on?” Jada asked once we were left alone.

I snapped the napkin at my place setting open and laid it across my lap before I sighed.

She said, “Oh, church drama, huh?”

“No, the church is fine, Jeremy is fine and the kids are fine.” I paused. “I can’t believe you won’t get to see them this time. I couldn’t even tell them I was meeting up with you because they would have tried everything to get out of going to school just to see you. They love their auntie Jada.”