“I think this is everything.” Amanda placed Gretchen’s bag on the couch just inside the front door. “I’ll leave you all to get settled. Text me a list for the store later, okay?”

Gretchen hugged Amanda tightly before letting her leave. She’d be lost without Amanda. “I’ll talk to you later.”

The front door shut behind her, and silence fell in the house. A television played in the distance. She noticed small differences: the decor was a little darker, the pictures were new, and the wall separating the kitchen and living room was gone. The space felt so much bigger.

“Once Caleb came along, we wanted to be able to watch him at all times, but we wanted to stay firm on not eating in the living room.”

“I love it.”

“You were so happy with the result.” Jax picked up her bag and started toward the back of the house. “I’ll bring this to your room.”

“Same room?”

“Yeah,” Jax said over her shoulder. “We moved my office upstairs so the nursery would be next to us, and there’s a spare bedroom up there, too. That’ll be my room.”

Gretchen knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier to handle. Jax would be sleeping in a different room. Great. She walked past Caleb’s room and stopped. Gone were the elephants and giraffes and other stuffed animals crowding a rocking chair. Now the walls were covered with clouds and airplanes, and his crib had been replaced by a racer bed. Her baby was gone.

“I think the cruelest part of all this is not remembering my son growing up.” Her eyes burned with sadness. “What was his first word?”

Jax swallowed hard. She was just as emotional as Gretchen. “Dada, believe it or not.”

She laughed through her tears. “Get out.”

“I think it’s just a sound babies make, and people think they mean their father. At least that’s what we told ourselves. Mama was next.”

“Are there any videos?”

“I’m sure we have a ton saved on the Mac. Once you’re settled, you can go through everything.” Jax placed the bag on the bed and left the room without another word.

Gretchen took off her jacket and opened the closet to her left. Every hanger was taken up with drab work clothes—blouses, dress pants, skirts—each duller than the last. She used to hang her jackets in there. She tried the other closet across the room and frowned. What used to be Jax’s closet now held her outerwear and shoes. Reality sucked.

Caleb came bouncing into the room. “I colored for you. It’s a frog.”

She smiled. “I can’t wait to see it. Go help Bug with whatever she’s doing, and I’ll be right out, okay?” She thought he was going to argue by the way he stared her down, but he smiled and bounced out of the room. She sighed in relief and sat on her bed. The bed used to be against the opposite wall, and the comforter was new, but the room still felt like home.