I didn’t know if she was asking me, but I nodded my head anyway.

Anika tucked my hair behind my ear and then took her hand back, and I almost told her to keep going—to keep playing with my hair, smoothing it out and touching me. But I didn’t.

“That was a lot for you to keep all to yourself,” Anika said, and I was worried for a second that she was going to tell me off for sneaking. But instead the next words out of her mouth were “I’m so sorry, Winifred.”

I sat up a little and frowned at her. She smiled back, but sadly, so it didn’t reach her eyes.

“I’m sorry that you didn’t think you could come to us sooner—to your dad or me—and talk about it. That’s a very big secret to keep, all locked up inside. . . . But I’m glad you felt like you could talk about it today with Luca. And I just want you to know that I’m here, if you want to talk some more.”

I nodded, but before I could say anything else, Anika’s eyes got wide, and she smiled—for real that time.

“The baby’s kicking,” she said.

I looked down at her belly as she lifted her T-shirt up, and sure enough—even with just the light from my lamp and the hallway coming in—I could see where the skin on her stomach seemed to bounce, just a little bit, from the movement within.

“Do you want to feel?” she asked me.

I didn’t speak, just reached my fingertips out to the spot where the kick had been. But then Anika gently took my wrist and laid my hand flat.

“He reaches for the warm spot where your hand is. . . .” she explained.

Soon enough there was a shove against my hand, and I snapped it back as Anika laughed quietly.

“It’s okay, he’s just saying hello,” she said, and I put my hand back.

We sat like that for a little while, me feeling him kicking and Anika smiling. After a few minutes Drumlin stopped, and Anika said he’d probably gone back to sleeping.

I slipped down in my bed again and watched as Anika heaved herself up and moved to the door.

But just before I switched off my bedside lamp, I called out quietly to her.

“Yes, Fred?”

“Do you think it’s a good thing?” I asked. “That they’re bringing those people here?”

Anika had the door halfway closed, but she paused at my question.