Free The Nesting Dolls by Gail Bowen

rolled her eyes. Lena opened the caterpillar box and shook out the puzzle pieces. Zack groaned when he saw them. “There must be a hundred pieces there,” he said.
    “There are ten,” Lena corrected, “and they’re big.”
    Mieka and I went into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on what she called our duelling chilies: mine,
con carne;
hers, vegetarian. We stirred, grated, chopped, and listened to Zack trumpet his success with the puzzle as the girls chortled. When the caterpillar was complete, my husband called me in. “Ms. Shreve, I’d like a picture of this.” The girls posed with him, and I snapped. “You’re a madman,” I said.
    “Victors always look a little crazed,” Zack said, then he slid the completed caterpillar into its box and turned to the girls. “We are now cooking with gas. Bring on the piano.”
    There had been plenty of groans and giggles from the dining room by the time Peter, our older son, and his girlfriend, Dacia, arrived. They said hello to Zack and the girls, then carried the plastic storage bins of lights and tree ornamentsfrom the garage through to the family room. They popped off the containers’ lids and began unwinding the lights from their newspaper cones, unwrapping the ornaments, and setting everything out on a trestle table by the tree. Mieka and I had just put Zack out of his agony by announcing that we were setting the dining room table so he had to either move his puzzle or scrap it, when Taylor and Isobel came bounding in, back from the concert. They were beaming, and the source of their pleasure was apparent. Delia and Noah were behind them, and Noah was holding the baby.
    “The girls thought you’d like to see Jacob again,” Noah said.
    “You bet we would,” I said. “May I take your coats?”
    Noah and Delia exchanged glances. “I think we’ll make this a quick visit,” Delia said. “We should get Jacob home. The sooner he knows where he belongs, the better.”
    Noah unzipped Jacob’s snowsuit, took off his toque, and carried him around so Jacob could inspect us as we inspected him. Isobel took Jacob’s small hand in hers and followed her father. “He’s a handsome baby, isn’t he?” she said.
    Indeed, Jacob was handsome, and in the natural light of the living room, his kinship with Delia and Isobel was even more obvious than it had been the night before in the gym. Jacob’s eyes were brown, so dark they were almost black, but he shared the Wainberg women’s milky white skin and their thick springy hair. Like Isobel and Delia, he was preternaturally alert, tense with the need to take in every detail and assign it a place.
    Jacob gave Zack and me a solemn gaze then, apparently finding us satisfactory, he smiled. The dimple Jacob displayed was winning and my husband was easy prey. When Zack held out his arms and Noah handed him the baby, Jacob settled right in.
    Noah held out a warning finger. “Hey, don’t get toocomfortable there, Jacob,” he said. “There’s serious bonding to be done and it’s supposed to be with Delia and me.”
    “Better get used to sharing him,” I said. “He’s a charmer.” I turned to Taylor. “Your sister’s in the kitchen. You know how she is about babies. If she doesn’t get to hold Jacob, we won’t hear the end of it. And Peter and Dacia will want to get acquainted too.”
    The girls came back, and Mieka was right behind them, drying her hands on a tea towel. “Peter and Dacia are walking the dogs,” she said. “But I’m ready for this baby. Hand him over, Zack.”
    When she bent to take Jacob, Mieka’s face clouded. She held him out, examining his face, then, still unsmiling, turned to Taylor and Isobel. “Would you two take Maddy and Lena into the kitchen and help them put some cookies on a plate for dessert?”
    “We can do that ourselves,” Lena said.
    Isobel placed her hand on Lena’s shoulder. “I think your mum has something to say that will be easier to say if we’re not