LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter One

      “Just remind me one more time why I agreed to do this!” Allie Todd growled at her sister Karen Pirelli.

      Karen didn’t answer. She was gripping the steering wheel of the minivan so hard that her knuckles were white. Her shoulders were hunched, her forehead was pleated and those little sounds coming from her mouth were probably prayers.

      The road—track—they were driving on probably wouldn’t have been in great shape even on a dry summer’s day. At the end of a brief January thaw, after several big snowstorms already this winter, it was slushy and slippery and positively frightening.

      “Can’t be much farther,” Karen muttered, peering ahead. “Connor said—”

      She broke off. They’d come out of the dark pine woods into a cleared space that in summer would have had room for several cars. It must have been plowed a couple of times this winter. There was dirty snow heaped up in lumpy, untidy banks on two sides. But it hadn’t been plowed recently.

      On the third side, there was the track that Karen had just negotiated, and on the fourth—

      Karen slammed on the brakes. Worst thing you could do on a snow-slippery road. Allie could have told her that, though if she’d been driving herself, she would probably have panicked, as Karen had, and made the same mistake.

      The minivan suddenly embarked on a skating career. It swirled elegantly in one direction then the other, before it came finally to a stop about two inches from the sharp, four-foot drop down to the sheet of lake ice.

      Karen told Allie shakily, “I owe you one, okay?”

      But Allie shook her head. “No. That’s one thing you’ll never have to say to me, Karen. You know that.” She cleared her throat to get rid of the sudden huskiness in her voice, then added, “I shouldn’t have complained about coming up here.”

      “No,” Karen argued, “ I shouldn’t have asked you to do this, when I know it’s so hard for you to—” She changed tack quickly. “And anyway, I know you’re not much of a cabin gal.”

      “Just how primitive is it going to be, did he happen to say?”

      “No, he didn’t.”

      They both sat in the front of the minivan, peering out across the white lake to the snow-covered island in the distance.

      Karen slumped her arms onto the steering wheel and groaned, still looking sick.

      “Are you okay?” Allie demanded uselessly.

      “I’m fine.” She took a shaky breath. Then she took another one. “I meant to tell you on the way up, but you were sleeping. I’ve got some news. I—I’m pregnant, Allie.”

      “Oh, Karen, that’s wonderful! That’s just so great!” Allie said, her voice fogging again.

      “I know.” Karen smiled, relief evident in her face. Allie understood at once that her sister hadn’t been confident about how she’d receive the news. “John and I are just so thrilled,”

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