I heard a joyful shriek and turned just as three little figures broke from beside a pillar.
“Mommy!”
Hazel reached me first.
June wrapped herself around my leg.
Rose collided with my bag and demanded to know whether I had remembered the book about whales.
I knelt and gathered all three into an untidy embrace.
Their curls brushed my face.Three sets of arms held on as if I’d been gone three months instead of two nights.
When I finally looked up, Nathaniel was standing absolutely still.
His eyes moved from one face to the next.
All three girls had the dark gray eyes that ran through the Whitcomb family.
Hazel tilted her head exactly as Nathaniel did when thinking.
“Emily,” he said slowly.
“Who are these children?”
“My daughters.”“How old?”
“Four.”
He looked toward the departure board, then down at his own hands.
I could practically see the dates arranging themselves in his head.
