My pregnant daughter-in-law told my son she needed “peace and quiet” and that I had to move out of the four-bedroom house my late husband and I had paid off years ago.

hand dropped from his neck.

“What?”

“I’ve been paying it since college. You’re thirty-two, married, and about to become a father. I think you can handle your own insurance.”

He glanced at the living room, where Harper was waiting.

For once, I didn’t rescue him from the uncomfortable silence.

I opened my book and turned the page.

That was the moment both of them understood that the conversation that morning had changed something.

They had wanted me to understand that a baby was coming and life in the house would