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She wanted to tell Marie about Lia But why put a damper on her friend’s joy? Especially since the only evidence she had that anything rong was her own sense of foreboding

Still, she couldn’t help but ponder the practical ramifications of their new responsibility while she drove the two of the in her reserved spot in the s to be a proble, two-car families—she put a smile on her face as she followed Marie out of the car

“Let’s go in the front door,” Marie said, her grin bubbling over as Gabrielle pulled out her key and turned toward the private back entrance off the parking lot “Let’s be like landlords checking up on our business tenant”

Even at thirty, Marie had a playful, girly streak It was one of the things Gabrielle loved about her “You are the business tenant,” she reh

They were in partnership, she and Marie and Liae their odd little fa, the investment, the asset, it was that fact that put the smile on Gabrielle’s face

“WHAT’S TAKING THEM so long?”

“They’re co around the front”

“Janice, watch your ain”

Standing behind the counter of Marie’s quickly decorated coffee shop, Lia to Janice in the cacophony of voices around him

Janice’s mother Clara, a ninety-five-year-old wohter in apart up the chocolate Hershey’s Kisses that Grace had had a couple of wo them away in the covered compartment beneath the seat of her walker The old wo chocolate

Marie was known for buying chocolate and purposely leaving it lying around just to watch the elderly wohty-year-old resident who baked everythe residents of the building, was still tying balloons to chairs Knowing everyone well froirls, Lia that was to have been in lieu of dessert after the fancy lunch that was supposed to have happened that day

The lunch, of course, hadn’t happened And the party would have gone on, with or without hiirls He careat If not, no big deal Was that why it worked so well?

The realization, on this day of standing up as a man, didn’t sit ith him At all He loved Marie and Gabrielle more than anyone else on earth They were his sisters in his heart He looked out for them Felt protective of them

And, he supposed, he used them, too Like a brother used sisters

To whine to