Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

Hannah was bursting with the chance to talk to jenny, but she played along. "You know how I am in the
kitchen..."
Jenny laughed and stood to hug them. "Tanner says the baby's beautiful. Looks just like jade."
"You haven't seen her?"
jenny tapped Ty's tennis shoe with her own. "Ty has, lucky guy Got to wear a gown and a mask and scrub
up like he hasn't done for a year or more."
Ty chuckled, and Hannah thought he looked tired. He'd probably been more worried about jade than
anyone knew. Hannah smiled at him. "What's she look like?"
"She's so tiny."
Matt patted Ty's back. "She'll grow How's your mom?" "Good. I got to see her, too. She told me she feels
a lot better now that Madison's out."
They all laughed, and when the room grew quiet, Hannah
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267 motioned to Jenny. "Can we talk to you a minute? Out in the hallway?" The slightest sense of alarm
filled Jenny's eyes. "Everything
okay?"
"Yes." Hannah glanced at Matt. "We want to tell you about a
phone call that came this morning."
Jenny's expression went blank, but she followed them to a
quiet place in the hallway. "What phone call?"
"Mrs. Parsons called..."
The expectancy in Hannah's voice caused a knowing look to
cross Jenny's face. "No, Mom. No more sisters. I told you, it's too
hard."
"Hold on." Matt placed his hand on Jenny's shoulder.
Hannah's insides melted at the compassion in his eyes. "Not a sister...a
brother. A baby brother."
"What? You're serious?" Jenny's face went pale. "I'm going to
have a brother?"
Hannah reached for Jenny and pulled her close so the three of
them were huddled together, much as they'd been that awful
morning when they said good-bye to Grace. "Remember the baby
I told you about, the little boy at the hospital whose mother died?"
"You prayed for him and held him while the doctors tried to save her."
"Right. Mrs. Parsons ran the check on him, and he's legally
free for adoption. Today! She's bringing him home this afternoon."
Jenny looked from Hannah to Matt and back to Hannah
again. She let loose the sweetest ripple of laughter. "Wow, I don't know what to say You guys and the
Eastmans having babies on the same day? Isn't that kind of like a miracle?"
Hannah laughed. "I hadn't thought of that." She looked at
Matt. "We need to tell Tanner."
At that moment they spotted him trudging down the hallway,
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wearing the scrubs he'd worn for the delivery. He saw them waved, his face taken up with
sizeenormous could only mean one hed over Hannah. A smile
g: Jade and the baby were doing well.
Hannah crooked her arm around Tanner's neck and hugged