Chapters (37)
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- BEFORE
- AFTER
- ONE THOUGHTS ON SUN HATS
- TWO TIME FOR CAKE
- THREE TWELVE MONTHS
- FOUR PSYCHIC KARAOKE
- FIVE A SECOND SLEEPING BAG
- SIX SIX MONTHS
- SEVEN THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE PANCAKE
- EIGHT SIX MONTHS
- NINE FOLLOW THE MUSIC
- TEN THE STARS ARE BRIGHTER IN THE DESERT
- ELEVEN SIX MONTHS
- TWELVE EVERY STAR HAS A SONG
- THIRTEEN PSYCHIC KARAOKE
- FOURTEEN ONE MONTH
- FIFTEEN A WELL-TRAVELED HAT
- SIXTEEN JOEL VS. THE VOLCANO
- SEVENTEEN TWO WEEKS
- EIGHTEEN HOUSE OF MEMORIES
- NINETEEN IF TREES COULD TALK
- TWENTY THREE DAYS
- TWENTY-ONE SEARCH PARTY
- TWENTY-TWO NOT THE SAME ZADIE
- TWENTY-THREE WAVES OF SMOKE
- TWENTY-FOUR THE DAY OF
- TWENTY-FIVE THE SKY IS FULL OF BIRDS
- TWENTY-SIX NEST
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- EPILOGUE
- TWENTY-EIGHT A SONG ABOUT A BIRD
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Ruth Emmie Lang
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
Zadie nodded. She’d known this day was coming, but it still stung. “So you’re taking them up on their offer, then? To adopt you?”
Finn looked surprised. “Oh! No … I told them I love them and that I’ll always be in their lives, but that I couldn’t do that to Mom … or to you.”
A lump formed in Zadie’s throat. “Really? You said that?”
“Unfortunately you’re stuck with me,” her sister said with a smile.
Defying every aloof instinct in her body, Zadie scooped her sister into a hug. She wanted to tell her how much it meant to her that she’d chosen them, how much Finn meant to her, but she’d spent all her emotional energy on the hug itself. Instead she cracked, “And to think I was so close to getting rid of you.”
“Ha! You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”
Zadie pulled back, quickly brushing a rogue tear from her cheek.
“What about you?” Finn asked. “What are you going to do now?”
“I think I might stick around here a little longer. I have some things I need to work out.”
“With Mom?”
“Yeah. Well, and there’s this other thing…”
Finn waited.
“I’m pregnant.”
“I was wondering when you were going to tell me,” Finn said, her tone unexpectedly blasé.
“You knew?”
“It wasn’t hard to guess. You’ve looked nauseated ever since we left Texas.”
“Oh, I thought I was hiding it well.” Zadie should have known she couldn’t pull one over on her sister.
“Does Dustin know?”
“Not yet.”
“What about Mom?”
“She knows.”
Finn smiled, eyes bright. “I’m so excited.”
“Me too.”
How many lies would she tell? Zadie wondered. How many drafts of the story of this world would she write before there was one good enough for her baby? And what if her child could see into future? Then it didn’t matter how many lies she told, her child would discover the truth eventually. Nora had kept secrets. Maybe she could try being honest.
EPILOGUE
TWENTY-EIGHT A SONG ABOUT A BIRD
“She’s here!”
Jenna turned away from the window toward her sister, who was bounding down the stairs two at a time. Nora’s hair—which she had recently dyed a vibrant shade of purple—had been pulled into a messy bun, and her clothes, which had once hung off her too-thin frame, now clung to the muscles she’d built loading trucks at the tuna cannery. She hurried past Jenna to the window. “She looks taller. Don’t you think?”
“Looks the same to me.”
“Don’t you think she looks taller, Zadie?”