His breath jerked at the memory. They could have had the perfect life: Wall

Street for Jen; Broadway for him. Or rather off-off Broadway back then. Serious theater. He’d lined up a bartending job at night, too. He’d thought Jen was onboard.

But on the day after graduation, she’d met him in Boston Common with shadowed eyes and a forced smile.

“What’s wrong, Henny-Penny?”

Avoiding his gaze, she’d said, “I’m not good at beating around the bush, so I’ll just come out with it.” She’d finally looked at him. “I’ve taken the position with Fidelity here in Boston. I can’t leave my family. I can’t move to New York.”

He stared, frozen. “How could you make such an important decision without discussing it first—with me? We’re the two that count here.”

“I know,” she said softly, “but I couldn’t take the chance that you’d change my mind. I’m so torn inside. I want to go, but I just can’t leave Lisa to manage everything. The boys are a teenage handful and Emily…well, you know sweet Em. Still not the most confident kid on the block.”

Her generous heart. He loved her for it, but… “Sometimes, Jen, loyalty can go too far. Your big sister’s not alone. There are two adults in that house.”

Her mouth wobbled, and she reached for his hand. “Technically, yes. But Mike and Lisa…? I don’t know. Something’s not right between them. I can feel it. I’m uneasy. They leave notes for each other and don’t talk. Mike comes home late often, and I think he’s out with his team, hitting some clubs. He never used to do that. He and Lisa…”

She paused, and he saw her gasp for breath.

“…seem to be living two separate lives in one house. I don’t know what’s happened or what’s going to happen, and I-I just can’t leave my brothers and sisters now. They’re too young. They need me.”

Silence pulsed against his ears. “Have you spoken with Lisa directly?”

“I can’t,” she whispered. “Lisa’s so private. She thinks she’s protecting us. And really, their marriage isn’t my business. Mike’s been very good to me. To all of

us.” She shrugged. “It’s just…he’s gone so often during the season, and now he’s gone at night in the off-season. All I know is that Lisa’s got too much on her plate.”

“All marriages have tough times. They’ll work it out.”

“Maybe so,” she admitted, “but I know what I see and feel. Threads are fraying--

again. She rose from their bench and gazed into the distance. “The timing is wrong for us. But maybe we can find some weekends to visit. It’s a short flight, right?” She faced him again, her eyes welling. “Maybe when the kids are older, I’d feel better about leaving them. Please, Doug, please don’t argue with me.”

Damn! Was she just going to fold like that? She was twenty-two now, a college graduate. An adult.

“What about us, Jen? An occasional weekend is not a real life! You’re entitled to your freedom.”

Her chin had come up, the threat of tears gone, her violet eyes now almost sizzling black. “Am I really? After everything she’s given up for us--me and the little ones? I-I can’t leave her to cope alone. I’m the next oldest. I love them, and I…owe them!”

His blood ran hot, but his stomach knotted in cold fear. If he was going to lose this argument, he wouldn’t go down easy.

“Can’t leave them or won’t? Tell me, Jen, for how many years does the accident reverberate? For how many years is it allowed to control you? You’re the math genius, so what’s the answer?”

She froze for a moment, then cupped his cheek. “You already know the answer,”

she whispered. “Deep inside…that place where truth lives.”

He flinched now as he recalled her words. His words. He’d used them on her after reading that essay, the one that had blown him away.

Now the tears ran down her cheek as she spoke. “I’m so sorry, Doug. I’m sorry for us both. But my family has to come first. The Delaney siblings either stick together or fall. That’s what I’ve learned. If we’d been separated back then, after the accident…well, we wouldn’t have survived, not as a family.” She kissed him

quickly. “It won’t be forever. Maybe one day, you’ll be able to write again in Boston. We’ll talk on the phone. We’ll visit on weekends.”

He knew she was grasping for a thread of salvation, but he was, too. “I love you, Jen. Don’t disappear on me.”

Then she’d kissed him and run off, leaving him to stare in disbelief.

He rubbed his damp forehead as the image of a racing Jennifer, long hair flying, remained in his mind’s eye. The emotions remained, too. Love, disappointment, anger, frustration—he’d wanted to smash something. Writing a scene, he’d discovered, was a hell of a lot easier than living through one.

Patting the manuscript on his desk, he collapsed into the chair in front of the computer.

He’d called Jen every Sunday in the beginning. She flew down once, met a couple of his friends--other writers. He’d hoped to change her mind, convince her to take a chance in the Big Apple. “You could have stayed in Boston,” she’d countered. But that wasn’t true. Not with his hard-won residency with Playwrights’ House—an opportunity of a lifetime.

The visits became fewer, the phone calls less frequent. Busy careers. Busier lives. Both trying to make their marks.

But dammit! Five years in limbo was long enough!

He tapped the keyboard and composed an email to his friend, editor Steven Kantor. The man was doing him a favor by reading a manuscript not for publication. Steve wouldn’t earn a dime, even if he loved it. But maybe that’s what goosed the editor’s curiosity. He knew Doug’s plays—his emergence as a serious playwright—heck, the guys had been friends for five years, hitting New York at about the same time, both craving success and working non-stop.

“If you wrote it,” Steve had said, “it won’t be a time-waster. Just send it when you’re ready. Maybe I’ll learn something.”

A compliment like that couldn’t be bought. Doug gifted him with tickets to any Broadway show he wanted.

He skimmed the manuscript pages one more time. Then, attaching the electronic file to his email, he took a deep breath and hit Send.

It was time to let Jen go. Or find her again.

##

One month later—Boston

On a late Friday afternoon in May, Jennifer Delaney hung up the phone—

hopefully the last call of the day—and walked to her office window, amazed, as always, at how lucky she’d been. A wonderful career, great friends…not to mention the stunning view of Boston Harbor.

The huge investment firm where she worked suited her to a T. Helping to manage funds and advising clients about risk soothed their money worries as well as her own. Sighing, she acknowledged how ridiculous that seemed now.

Her checkbook, her personal investments were sound. She wondered why childhood scars were so hard to heal.

Losing loving parents at sixteen…unspeakable pain. But she’d survived. Her older sister and brother-in-law thought she’d thrived. Her younger siblings thought she was cool. Maybe she was! Regardless, they’d had each other’s backs from the beginning of those rough days and always would. She couldn’t imagine her life without them. Her life was good. Calm. Balanced. Like her checkbook.

“Just the way I want it to be,” she murmured.

Her phone rang again. Shaking her head, she raced back to her desk. “Jennifer Delaney speaking.”

“How are you, Henny-Penny?”

That voice. The receiver slipped from her hand and hit the floor. That warm voice. That nickname. Once upon a time…