Zadie looked up. Through the window, she could see Finn heaving a suitcase out of the trunk of her car. She didn’t look taller, but she looked self-assured, happy. Most of their weekly phone conversations had revolved around her new college life: the friends she was making; the culinary merit of various dining halls; which professors asked their students to call them by their first names and which professors had sticks up their tweed-clad butts. It came as no surprise to Zadie that her sister was thriving there and, aside from an unfortunately timed echo in her dorm’s laundry room, Finn’s gift had given her little trouble. As far as the rest of the student body was concerned, she was just a normal eighteen-year-old.

“Maybe a little taller,” Zadie answered, which was met with a playful glare from her aunt.

Moments later, Finn burst through the front door, and both she and Nora let out short squeals like two piglets getting their tails pulled. “My college girl!” Nora said as she smothered her daughter in a bear hug and then proceeded to spin her in circles. It made Zadie dizzy just looking at it.

After staggering away from her mother, the Tilt-A-Whirl, she gave Jenna a quick squeeze before saying, “Where’s my baby niece?”

The little Star—now known as Wren—lay wriggling in Zadie’s lap. At present, she was three months old and roughly the size of a husky cat. It wouldn’t be long, Zadie thought, before she was big enough that her spunky kicks and punches would start to inflict actual pain. She would gladly take her little one’s blows, however, because she’d never been more in love with anything in her life.

Finn sat down on the couch next to Zadie. “Can I hold her?”

“Yeah, of course.” Zadie placed her baby in her sister’s arms.

Wren peered up at Finn with watery blue eyes, a bubble of spit forming in the corner of her mouth as she flashed a gummy smile. “Hey there, Wren! I’m your aunt Finn.” Finn turned back to Zadie. “Oh my god, Z. She’s got to be one of the top five cutest babies ever!”

“She takes after her grandma,” Nora said, sitting sidesaddle on the arm of the couch.

Zadie rolled her eyes and tried to hide a smile. “Mom tries to take credit for literally everything she does.” Then to Nora, “I’m going to start writing your name on all of her diapers.”

“It would be an honor,” Nora said, winking at her granddaughter.