“The bread is a little bit pale,” Iris said critically, looking at the slices that Sammy was buttering.

“It’s fine,” Sammy said, making sure to layer it on thick because if there was one thing she knew, it was that life was short and butter was delicious.

But Sammy hadn’t made the French bread today so she felt appreciative of it and not critical in the least. She knew that it was much harder to take a neutral view on bread when you were the one responsible for trying to get the rise, bake and color that you wanted.

“It’s delicious,” Sammy said, taking a pinch off the loaf.

“You’re a bread slut,” Iris said.

“Yep,” Sammy agreed. “But luckily for you so is everyone else in this family, so no one is going to care. Not one way or the other. No one is going to have any opinions beyond the fact that it’s delicious.”

Iris smiled and turned her focus back to the oven, where the meatballs were currently browning.

Iris was pretty in a very unassuming way. She never wore makeup or anything like that, but she had clear, pretty skin, amber-colored eyes and an easy smile. Her hair was dark and straight, and she often kept it clipped up high, out of her way, out of her face.

Sammy sometimes wondered if Iris did anything that wasn’t strictly necessary. She was deeply practical, and the only place where flourishes seemed to exist in her life was with her baking.

She knew that her relationship with Ryder, her relationship in the family in general, was sometimes strange to Iris. But the two of them had grown close, in spite of the fact that being close to the same age meant that Sammy had somewhat usurped her position as older sister, and had done it in a way that Iris didn’t always approve of.

Sometimes Sammy thought Iris seemed a good ten years older than she was, rather than two years younger.

And the idea of telling Iris that she was going to leave did not appeal. So on that score she was very glad that she had decided to take Ryder’s deal.

Her stomach clenched.

She had agreed to stay, which would mean doing this whole baby thing here.

But when she thought about it... Of course she should stay. Of course she should raise her baby here.

Oh, eventually she wouldn’t be in Hope Springs. But...she loved it here. And these people had been her family. Her child would have better than a mother and a father. He would have the entire clan here. And that was something that most people didn’t get.

It wasn’t a traditional family, but it was a wonderful one.

“You’re quiet,” Iris said.

Sammy couldn’t decide if that was a simple observation, and inquiry, or an expression of gratitude.

“Thinking,” she said.

“About?”

“Does it...” She hesitated before she finished the sentence, but she had started. There was no going back now. “Does it bother you that Pansy is getting married?”