Page 6 of Before the Storm

Tara seemed unable to speak. Josie’s heart broke for her. She knew what it was like to have Bob Steiner slam a door in your face. But Tara didn’t.

“I feel like such a loser,” Tara rasped.

“Are you kidding me? You just planned an extraordinary Christmas Festival! Nantucket wouldn’t have had one without you!” Josie cried.

Tara closed her eyes and shook with tears. Her sobs echoed off the black windows, and Josie’s heart shattered over and over again.

She thought of Tara as a little girl, crying after a bike accident. She thought of their father blaming Josie for the accident, saying,You shouldn’t have been going so fast, Josie! Tara wants to keep up with you, and she just can’t!

You have to be mindful of your little sister! She looks up to you! She watches everything you do!

Josie’s eyes filled with tears, too.

“I feel like a fool,” Tara said.

“You shouldn’t,” Josie assured. “You’re the most brilliant woman I know.”

“I’m barely a woman. I should be getting ready to graduate from college. I should finally be picking a college major. I shouldn’t be pregnant with some guy’s baby.”

Josie’s heart felt squeezed. “Whose baby is it?”

Tara scrunched her nose. “His name is Donnie.”

“Donnie? Is he your boyfriend?”

“He is, or he was,” Tara said. “I didn’t tell him I was leaving town. We maybe broke up a couple of weeks ago, anyway. I’m not sure.”

Josie gaped at her. “You left college and your boyfriend all at once?”

“He would have freaked out about the baby.” Tara sighed. “He’s in a band. He dropped out of college. He wants to make music his career.”

“But he’s going to have a baby with his girlfriend!” Josie cried.

“He doesn’t want that.”

Josie sighed. “Do you have his number?”

“Don’t call him, Josie,” Tara said.

But Josie couldn’t just sit there. She couldn’t watch her sister’s heart break. She had to reach out to Donnie.

She couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie.

“What if Dad never talks to me again?” Tara whispered, her lower lip trembling.

“He will,” Josie told her. “You just need to rest! He needs to calm down! This time next year, it’ll be you and me and Mom and Dad and that little baby! It’ll be your baby’s first Christmas! We’ll have so much fun!”

But even as she said it, Josie sensed she was describing a future that wouldn’t exist.

Tara squeezed her eyes shut and let out another sob.

A moment later, the nurse entered with a tray of food. “The doctor says you need to eat,” she said, sidling up next to Tara.

“I’m just running to the bathroom,” Josie said. “Be right back.”

Josie sped down the hall to the pay phone at the far end, near the double-wide doors. Outside, the snow had intensified, blanketing the parking lot. A part of her wondered if she shouldcall their parents and beg them to come back.Your daughter needs you. Remember, it isn’t me. It’s the daughter you actually care about.Instead, she dialed her sister’s old apartment just outside campus.

To Josie’s displeasure, Tara’s roommate’s boyfriend answered—Steve.

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