Leah had always loved that bracelet, even before it was hers.

With a pathetic sniffle, she started the car and pulled dejectedly out onto the street. She had combed the deli, scoured the sidewalk, torn apart her purse, shook out her clothing, searched the car. Someone must have taken it. There was nowhere else it could be.

She approached the stoplight at the end of the street, still fighting tears, when suddenly it hit her.

Leah bolted upright in her seat. “Oh my God,” she said to herself, slamming on the brake before making an outrageously illegal U-turn in the middle of the intersection. The orchestra of horn blasts only served to amplify her urgency as she sped down the road that would take her back to her old house.

Traffic had started to pick up, making the ride back to the house twice as long as it should have been. By the time she pulled onto her old street, it was already dark. There were still no parking spaces on the road, so she pulled into the empty space in front of Catherine’s driveway again, throwing the car in park and not even bothering to turn it off before she jumped out. She ran to the gate and unlatched it, flinging it open as she bolted across the tiny yard.

Leah knocked on the door, standing up on her toes so she could see in the tiny window along the top of the door. After about a minute of silence, she knocked again, this time a bit more forcefully.

Still nothing.

Desperate and having no shame, she walked to the window on the side of the house, cupping her hands around the side of her face and pressing her nose against the glass. The house was completely dark.

“Damn it,” she whispered, walking back to her car and plopping inside before she slammed the door closed behind her. She reclined the seat and cranked up the heat, fully intending to wait there until Catherine returned.

Forty-five minutes later, she was starving, she had to go to the bathroom so badly she thought she might cry, and it had begun to snow. The lights were still off in the house, and no one had returned. Was it possible that Catherine had already turned in for the night? If that were the case, she would feel like a complete moron waking the poor woman up and dragging her out of bed for something that might be a lost cause anyway.

Whatever the case was, Leah knew she couldn’t stay there any longer.

With a frustrated sigh, she sifted through her purse and pulled out an old receipt and a pen, leaning on the dashboard to scribble a quick note to Catherine.

Catherine,

I think I may have lost my bracelet in your house. It’s really important to me, so if you find it, could you please give me a call?

She signed it with her name and her phone number before throwing the pen somewhere on the passenger seat and exiting the car.

Leah walked quickly through the side yard, blinking back the snowflakes that peppered her vision as she opened the screen door and closed the note inside before running back to the car.

Twenty minutes later, she had just merged onto I-95 when a loud bang nearly forced her heart out of her chest. She gripped the wheel firmly, glancing in her side-view mirror; she couldn’t see anything that she might have collided with, and it definitely didn’t feel like the car took a hit.

Just as her body began to relax back into the seat, the car began to pull awkwardly to the right.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Leah groaned, putting her blinker on and fighting her way through the traffic over to the shoulder. She put the car in park and crawled over the console, opening the passenger door and hanging her head outside as snowflakes clung to her hair and eyelashes. Sure enough, the right front tire was completely flat.

She collapsed back into the car, pulling the door closed behind her and covering her face with her hands.

Lucky day, indeed.

“Christopher, I swear to God, if I see your hand near this plate again, I’m chopping it off and making it the centerpiece.”

“Those are some tough words from someone who can’t even kill a spider,” her brother replied, reaching around her and grabbing another piece of salami off the plate of antipasto Leah was arranging.

She tried to grab his hand, but he was quicker, taking a step back and holding up the stolen piece of meat like Rafiki holding baby Simba in the opening sequence of The Lion King.

Leah tried to suppress her smile. “You’re a moron. We’re eating in like twenty minutes. Stop acting like an animal.”

He shoved the salami in his mouth as he leaned toward her, growling rabidly and chewing with his mouth open.

“Oh my God,” Leah said with a laugh, pushing him away. “Alexis! Come get your husband out of the kitchen before I kick his ass!”

A minute later, Alexis appeared in the doorway, folding her arms over her swollen belly and trying to look stern. “Christopher, leave her alone.”

“Yeah, Christopher, leave her alone,” Leah echoed.

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender before turning to leave. He darted his hand out quickly, swiping a piece of ham on his way out.

Leah rolled her eyes while Alexis sighed. “I swear, when people ask me if this is my first child, I’m always tempted to say no,” she said, looking over her shoulder at her husband.

Leah smirked as she drizzled the balsamic vinegar over the salad.

“What can I help you with?” Alexis asked.

“Nothing. Go sit. I’m almost done in here.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. Sit. Rest. Your days of sitting and resting are numbered,” Leah said with a wink, grabbing the wooden spoon from the counter.

Alexis leaned over and kissed her cheek, discreetly pulling a piece of cheese from the plate between them, and Leah quirked her brow.

“For the baby,” Alexis said innocently, popping it in her mouth before she went back out to the living room.

Leah laughed as she brought the salad and the antipasto out to the table and uncorked two bottles of wine. She glanced at her watch before wiping her hands off on her mother’s apron and loosening the strings.

“Hey, Sarah?” she called.

“Yeah?”

“Can you come in here for a sec?”

A moment later, her sister’s head popped around the corner. “What’s up?”

“Can you just watch the sauce for a minute? I’m gonna go upstairs and change.”

“Yup,” she said, coming into the kitchen and pulling herself up onto the counter, swinging her legs from side to side like a child.

There was only a three-year age difference between them, but Sarah had always seemed so much younger to Leah. Physically, they were complete opposites: Sarah was almost pixie-like, standing at five-foot-one, while Leah towered over her at five-foot-seven. Sarah’s hair was long and straight, a warm caramel color that showed hints of red in the sunlight, while Leah’s was a chocolate brown, falling just past her shoulders in subtle waves. Their only similarity was their eyes: large and deep green, surrounded by a fringe of thick lashes.

Leah nudged her little sister playfully. “Is Kyle coming later?”

“Yeah, for dessert.”

“You know, a guy who comes to spend Christmas with a girl’s family after dating her for only two months means business.”

“Well, duh. I mean, who wouldn’t want to hold on to this?” she said, gesturing at herself.

Leah burst out laughing, throwing the apron at her sister before running upstairs to the bedroom that had been hers as a teenager. Her father had moved them all to Bedford shortly after their mother’s car accident. Leah had been about to start seventh grade at the time, her brother about to begin high school, and their father had told them he was moving them for the sake of their education—that the city schools were in bad shape, and he wanted them all to attend a good high school. But even at twelve years old, Leah knew the real reason.