THAT WEEKEND BROOKE started clearing out the second bedroom in her apartment. She had been using it as a home gym, though the room held more dust and boxes of junk than actual exercise equipment. She’d leave the heavy stuff for the guys coming later from the second-hand shop. Syd would be over in the morning to help her paint. She already knew the baby was a girl, so she’d picked out a beautiful pale lavender to color the walls.
As she stood there in the room with the built-in bookcase and arched windows—one allowing a beautiful view of a gold and red maple—she imagined the next five months when her baby would be here. She visualized diapers and other paraphernalia on the shelves, the eggshell colored crib in one corner, various stuffed animals decorating the room, and a gliding rocker in
