Bringing Baby Home Read Free Page B

their wedding, which was scheduled for next spring. But, in typical Grace fashion, she couldn’t resist being an active part of Kate’s recently decided upon nuptials, as well. “Practice makes perfect, right?” she’d told Liz on thephone a few days ago. “By helping to plan Kate’s wedding, I’ll know what mistakes to avoid.”
    Grace. Liz missed her—everyone did. Especially Kate.
    “Here’s her flight information,” Kate said, handing Alex and Liz copies printed from the Internet. “Did I tell you she’s having a costume made for Maya? Just like ours. Grace insists Maya will be ready to dance at my wedding. How? Are you teaching her, Alex? Because I sure as heck don’t have time. And I know Liz is too busy.”
    “Liz is always too busy, aren’t you, Liz?” Alex asked. “Too busy for anything fun.”
    Liz looked across the table at her older sister. As kids they’d shared a special bond. But the past few years had been difficult. So much had happened in both their lives that neither seemed able to talk about.
    “I wouldn’t make much of a teacher, even if I had the time,” she said. “Do either of you want to try my new tea? I’m calling it Woman Power. It’s better than coffee, Alex. And a heck of a lot better for you than soda, Kate.”
    Kate made a face. “I gave up sodas weeks ago, remember?” Kate’s life had turned upside down when her ex-husband was released from prison on parole—just in time for his ex-wife’s engagement to another man.
    “Good for you. But you should try this. It has maté in it. A little pick-me-up without coffee’s acid.”
    She poured them two cups and added a squeeze of honey from a bear-shaped vessel. “Where’s Mom?” she asked.
    “Airing out Claude’s place. She hired a cleaning crew. Same people who did Romantique after the county boys got done with it,” Kate answered.
    Their paternal uncle had lived next door until Grace’s hubby-to-be busted Claude and several other family members for their illicit business dealings with old family friendCharles Harmon. The house was now empty, but with family coming to town for Kate’s wedding, every bed would be needed.
    “So, it’s official? The Sisters of the Silver Dollar are dancing at your wedding?” Alex asked Kate.
    Liz and her sisters had danced for their father as children, scampering after the coins he’d tossed their way. As they grew up, they’d taken the craft more seriously, incorporating the old steps into their routines. The name stuck, but the girls hadn’t danced together since their father, Ernst, passed away. Until recently.
    “Well, you know Grace,” Kate said, sipping her tea. “Um, this is good, Liz. I told you your mint tea is a huge success at the restaurant. Maybe not being able to do physical therapy for a living is a good thing. Herbal remedies might be your true calling in life.”
    Her sister’s praise was nice to hear, but Liz hadn’t given up the thought of being a physical therapist completely. P.T. wasn’t her first love, but it paid well. Starting her new tea business, which she’d decided to call Tea for Me, with a “T4Me” logo, was a terrifying leap of faith, but she’d really had no choice when every other avenue seemed closed to her.
    Liz would never go back to WorldRx, a Doctors Without Borders kind of group. She’d been midway through her second six-month stay in Bosnia when she was brutally attacked and left for dead in a snowbank. When a patrol found her, they’d rushed her to the E.R. where she usually worked. The doctors sewed up her cuts, applied ice to her bruises and gave her drugs to protect against pregnancy and disease. But nothing had eased the sense of violation so traumatizing she’d spent three weeks in a farmhouse a mile from her station, refusing to return to her post untilthe men who attacked her were caught. An impossible task in a place devastated by war. As a friend later told her, “War doesn’t bring out the hero in everybody.