Deadlines & Red Lines by Stephanie Julian

Author:Stephanie Julian [Julian, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stephanie Julian

Seven

Hey Sissy! You home? Let me in!

Her sister’s text barely seconds old, Sugar swung open the door Monday morning, a smile spreading across her face.

Cookie was number three of five on the Donahue menu, as their dad liked to say. Sugar, being the oldest, followed by Candy, Cookie, Honey, and Taffy. Yes, those were their real names because, of course, that’s exactly what two wanna-be hippies would name their five daughters.

“Hey, what are you—Oh, Cookie. Seriously?”

“Surprise?!”

With a rueful smile on her face, Cookie put her hands on her huge belly and patted the mound that could only mean one thing.

Her nineteen-year-old sister was knocked up.

“Jesus, Cookie. What the hell happened?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you know how it happened.”

As she waved her sister through the door, Sugar had already started making calculations. The last time she’d seen Cookie had been six months ago. She’d come to visit before heading back to college. Her sister had to be at least eight months pregnant. Knowing Cookie, her due date was probably next week.

Biting back a sigh because she’d heard the tremble in her sister’s voice, Sugar took a few seconds to close and lock the door. And take a deep breath before she hyperventilated.

Focus. No need to freak out. Yet.

Sugar took another deep breath and hoped like hell she’d wiped all trace of the need to scream off her face.

“You’re right.” She turned to face her sister, who’d made her way to the couch and was in the process of lowering herself onto it. “Stupid question. Let me ask another one. Is there a father in the picture?”

“There was until about two days ago.”

Now tears formed in her sister’s eyes, and Sugar felt the weight of the world drop onto her shoulders. Because if there was one thing Sugar knew, when her sisters needed help, they didn’t go to their parents. They came to her.

The five of them had learned that lesson early. Their parents had perfected the art of hands-off parenting. Their mom had claimed Sugar came out of the womb with an old soul. By the age of ten, Sugar had figured out that was an excuse for her parents to hand over the care of her younger sisters to her. Sugar loved her parents and never doubted their love for their children, but they were never going to be candidates for parents of the year.

Sugar had been the one to get her sisters up for school and make breakfast before getting everyone on the bus and making sure they had lunch money or that Taffy had a bag lunch because of her food allergies.

It’d been Sugar who bandaged her sisters’ skinned knees and combed the tangles out of their hair after they’d run wild all summer. It’d been Sugar who’d driven Honey to the emergency room when she’d fallen and broken her arm. And when she’d finally decided to leave home two years ago, it’d been Sugar who’d bawled herself to sleep the first few nights in the city, alone

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