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over on to the bed to relax. She didn’t mind being pregnant, mostly she enjoyed it. But by the beginning of the ninth month, she was easily tired.
    Around eight thirty, the phone rang.
    “Hi, it’s me. I just had to call and ask if you’re feeling as weirdly thrilled as I am that Emma’s back in Juneberry.”
    “I haven’t thought about how I’m feeling, Christina,” Samantha confessed. “I feel like Emma’s coming back is an answer to prayer. One minute she was in Juneberry, and the next she was gone.”
    Samantha propped an extra pillow against the headboard and lifted her feet up on the bed.
    “Maybe this is our chance to find out why,” Christina said, always optimistic.
    “We can only hope,” Samantha laughed. “I keep thinking back to all the things we did and how close we all were. I just can’t believe how quickly time flies and how everything changed. It never made any sense.”
    “I know, and I’m sorry she’s coming back under these circumstances, but I’m glad she’s back just the same. How’s her dad doing?”
    “I guess he’s doing lots better. I’ve been worried about him though too. I think it’s their estranged relationship that’s taken the toll on him.”
    “They talk sometimes, right?”
    “Yes. He’s been up there to visit her a couple of times, and they talk on the phone around the holidays, but they’ve been living with a bubble in between them ever since high school. I think she just decided one day to cut herself off from her past. Speaking of high school, do you think Michael knows she’s in town?”
    “I doubt it. Bo hasn’t mentioned anything to me.”
    “Hmm, I don’t know why,” Samantha said, “but he’s been on my mind today too. You probably know him better than I do these days, but I’ve wondered what he’ll think of her coming back. He’s such a good guy. I’ve always thought the world of him, wondered why he never married. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but … do you think it might have something to do with Emma?”
    “You’ve really put a lot of thought into this!” Christina laughed.
    Samantha got up from the bed, laughing too, and waddled down the hall.
    “Well, I knew Michael a lot better when he and I were in school together. I know he had feelings for her back when she was a senior and he was just out of high school. Then they dated that summer before she went back for law school, so it’s not all my imagination.”
    “I don’t know if Michael’s marital status has anything to do with Emma,” Christina said. “I think, like a lot of us, he’s just busy.”
    Samantha turned off the globe ceiling light in the bathroom, snapping on a small night-light next to the mirror. She turned off three lights left on in Beth’s room before making the return trip to her bedroom.
    “We knew each other as kids, that’s the way it is in a small town, you know. I talked with him a lot that summer when they were so in love. I know how special she was to him.”
    “Do you honestly think he’s still carrying a flame for her?”
    Both women were silent for a moment.
    “That would be very romantic,” Christina said.
    “There’s a lot more to true love than romance, Christina.”
    Samantha shut off Jim’s closet light and closed the doors. She sat down on the bed to rest again.
    “Yes, but if he’s kept a candle burning just for Emma all these years, that’s the kind of thing most women would melt over.”
    “If he still feels that way, I hope she doesn’t hurt him.”
    “What, like not return his feelings?”
    “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves here, but yeah. None of us has spent any significant time around Emma in twelve years, and after a couple of days in Juneberry, we might not see her again for another twelve.”
    “By then, we’ll all be well into our forties,” Christina joked. “Talking about Weight Watchers and wrinkle cream.”
    “Some of us aren’t waiting until then to think about it.”
    They both laughed