It happened after breakfast.
Nora had eaten her toast with the focused efficiency she brought to meals when something more interesting was waiting on the other side of them the fox book, a puzzle, the particular project she'd been working on all week that involved cutting pictures from old magazines and arranging them in a way that made sense only to her.
She disappeared to her room with the single minded purpose of someone who had places to be.
Which left Julia and Daniel at the kitchen table with their coffee and the particular quiet of a morning that had already held more than most.
Daniel was turning his cup in his hands that thinking gesture she knew now.
"You don't have to," he said.
"I know." Julia looked at her coffee. "I want to."
She'd been deciding since she woke up. Si
