“Hope you know what you’re doing, big brother,” I say, and he shakes his head.

“It’s only temporary,” he says, turning to walk back to the barn. I walk back to the house, and the smell of banana bread fills the house. My mother looks up from the oven where she’s placing the muffins on the plate when I walk into the room.

“Mom, I swear by the time I go home, I’m going to have gained twenty pounds,” I say, putting down my laptop and walking over to the bowl that holds the muffins from this morning.

“You can use a little bit of meat,” she tells me and takes off the oven mitt. “Are you done for the day already?”

“No.” I take a piece of the muffin top and toss it into my mouth. “I am going to take a nap and then work after.”

“Did you not sleep well?” my mother asks with worry all over her face. “We should get another mattress for that bedroom.”

“I’m sleeping okay,” I say, “but Casey just agreed to take us out tonight.”

She smiles at me. “That sounds like fun. You guys going to go bowling?”

I shake my head and look down, then ask the question I’ve been dying to ask her for the past four days. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” She looks at me as I put the muffin down.

“That he didn’t marry her.” I wipe away a tear and look at her.

“Honey,” she says, coming over to me and hugging me, “you told me that you didn’t want to know. That what Jacob did with his life had nothing to do with you. Every single time I brought it up, even in passing, you changed the subject.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” I say. “Why wouldn’t he marry her?”

“Maybe he didn’t love her,” my mother says, and I shake my head.

“So he just wanted to have sex with her?” I let out a breath. “I’m going to go lie down.” Turning, I walk toward the stairs.

“Kallie.” I stop on the second step. “One of these days, you’ll have to have a conversation with him.”

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “Maybe, someday.” Turning, I run up the stairs and away from the conversation she wants to have.

The nap lasts twenty minutes, and I eat almost nothing for dinner, wondering how tonight is going to play out. Maybe going out isn’t such a great idea, but here I am, getting ready for tonight.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror. I left my hair loose, just curling it and then running my hands through it so it looks like a soft wave. I don’t put on any eye shadow, opting for just a touch of mascara.