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She paused to catch her breath and realized they were catching theirs too. No doubt all were mentally calculating what such cuts might mean to their respective departments.

“Those of you who know me understand what a difficult decision it is for me personally to part with people I care about, people I’ve worked with every day for years. That’s why the main objective of this plan is to avoid forced layoffs. Instead we’ll be offering early retirement to all employees fifty-five and older with at least ten years service, and severance packages to everyone else based on salary and length of service. Nancy has all the specifics, and now I’m going to turn the meeting over to her.”

As Nancy spelled out the details, Anna studied the attentive faces of her executive and managerial staff, not surprised they seemed relieved her initial plan wouldn’t include involuntary terminations. Morale was low enough with the decline in sales. It was an attractive package, but one she hoped no one in the room would accept. It had taken a couple of years after the acquisitions to get all the right top-level people into place. Without them she was sure to find herself working long hours again.

With the baby coming she had more reasons than ever to want a competent management team. When the recession started she began working more frequently on the weekends, and that cut into her family time. At least Andy enjoyed coming to the dealership with her on Saturdays. She wondered if this new child would share their appreciation for cars.

Hal cleared his throat and gave her a peculiar look.

Anna straightened abruptly in her chair and wiped the errant smile from her face, realizing with horror that everyone in the room seemed to be awaiting her word. “Excuse me, could you repeat that?”

It was Roger Goforth, the service manager at the Palm Springs VW dealership. “I asked what happens if you don’t get fifty volunteers. It’s a tough time to expect people to give up their jobs.”

“I appreciate that, Roger. That’s why we’ve tried to make this a generous offer.” Indeed, she had pushed the package ten percent higher than Hal’s recommendation so she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about forced terminations. “But we don’t have a choice about these numbers. If we can’t hit our quotas throughout the company we’ll have to resort to layoffs, and those people won’t be eligible for severance because they’ll be entitled to unemployment.”

It sounded threatening when she put it that way, and by the fear on her managers’ faces they thought so too.

“Look, I know people are scared. But we have to present this as an opportunity for folks to take that step they’ve been thinking about, like going back to school or starting a small business of their own.” She was glad to see several heads nodding in approval. “Some people might want to feel like they have control over what happens to them, that they aren’t just sitting back waiting for whatever life hands them.”

After Nancy finished her remarks, Anna took a handful of questions. Then she adjourned the meeting and waited until all but her brother-in-law had left the room.

“What was that about?” Hal asked. “You looked like you were off in dreamland.”

“Guilty as charged.” It was no use playing dumb since he had caught her in a full-on smile, but she couldn’t tell their secret. “I was thinking how nice it would be once we get things back to normal here so we can get home to our families on the weekend.”

He looked at her sheepishly. “I have a confession to make. I’ve been sneaking out of here after lunch on Saturdays for the past month.”

“You straighten your desk and turn out the lights in your office, Hal. You call that sneaking?” Since joining her business four years ago he had become her right hand, the person she depended on most. That didn’t mean she expected him to work the same long hours she did. “My sister would kill me if you didn’t show up at home once in a while.”

“I’m surprised Lily doesn’t come down here and drag you home.”

“I’m a little surprised too.” Anna smiled again, thinking once their baby arrived, someone might have to drag her to work.

Lily cinched the backpack around her waist as Anna gathered the remnants of their picnic lunch. Andy had already started down the trail. With luck he would make it all the way back to the car on foot, sparing them the chore of carrying him piggy-back, along with his child-sized backpack. These mountain hikes were few and far between, but still one of Lily’s favorite ways to spend time together as a family. Even Anna, born and raised in Beverly Hills, had come to appreciate what nature had to offer.

Having Anna along on a Saturday hike was a rare treat these days. She had been spending more weekends at work, but seemed to be breathing easier now that some of her employees were coming forward to claim severance and retirement benefits.

She smiled to recall their first hike together, a short jaunt to the falls at Temescal Gateway Park. Anna had joked that no one should have to walk up a mountain when there were perfectly good four-wheel-drive vehicles to get you there. Now she was an old hand at hiking, decked out in sturdy trail shoes, knee-length nylon pants with zippered pouches on the side, a long-sleeved T-shirt with built-in sunblock, and her dark ponytail tucked through the opening of her favorite Dodgers cap.

“What are you thinking about?” Anna asked, falling into step beside her.

“The first time you came hiking with me.”

“I remember that. You made me sleep in a tent, and then you laughed at me when I fell out of the canoe.”

“Oh, the weekend at Kidz Kamp. Actually, I was thinking about the time it was just you and me and we went to Temescal.”

“When you dragged me twenty miles to that waterfall? I thought I was having a heart attack.”

“It was only three miles and I didn’t drag you…although I do remember you asking me to fetch the car for you. It’s hard to believe you’re the same person.”

“Ha! And when I met you, you were driving a hundred-year-old Toyota. Which reminds me, we put a brand-new X6 in the showroom the other day, white with tan interior. Had your name all over it.”

“My name? You’re the one who needs a new car.”

“No way. My Z8’s a classic.”

“A classic that holds only two people.” She almost laughed at the look of panic on Anna’s face. After her family, Anna loved that car better than anything else on earth. “You can’t put Andy and a baby in a two-seater convertible.”

“I don’t have to. We have your car for that.”

“But think of all the times you have to pick up Andy when I get hung up at work. What would you do if I called and said I was stuck in court? There’s no way you could put both Andy and the baby in your car.”

“But it so happens I own four car dealerships. In an emergency, I’m sure I could find something to drive.”

She had to admit Anna had a point, but having four dealerships wouldn’t help if she was stranded at home with two children and a Z8. It would take some time to bring Anna around to getting something more practical, a nudge here and there instead of a push all at once.

Andy had gone well in front but stopped to wait while they caught up. Four miles round trip was a long way for a five-year-old.

“Let me carry your backpack, pal,” Anna said, looping one of its straps over her shoulder.

Andy gladly relinquished his pack, which carried only a small canteen, a compass and the less popular remnants of his Halloween candy. Lily estimated it would buy them another half mile before he gave out and asked to be carried. At least by then they would be close to the car.

“Andy, are you having a good time?” she asked.

“Uh-huh. I like it when I get to pee outside.”

Anna looked at her and they rolled their eyes in unison.

“Don’t get used to it,” Lily said sternly. “You aren’t supposed to do that unless you’re with us and you ask permission.”

“Not even with Uncle Hal?”

“I guess you can do it if Uncle Hal gives you permission but no one else.”

“What about Grandpa?”

Lily could see they had opened a can of worms and there was no good way to explain to a five-year-old why some situations were okay and others were not. Besides, George never said no to any of his grandchildren. “No one else. Just your mom and me, and Uncle Hal.”

He made a face before skipping ahead again. If there was one thing about Andy they could count on, it was that he generally accepted the rules they imposed on him about his behavior. That was a blessing, especially considering his background in foster care. Unlike other children his age, he had never really tested the limits of his independence, so they were reluctant to rein him in unless it was absolutely necessary.

Anna squeezed her hand and bumped their shoulders together affectionately. “Maybe we’ll have a little girl.”

Lily chuckled. “And what makes you think she’ll be any different? I bet she’ll want to pee in the woods too. And besides, in a few months I’ll probably be running behind a bush with Andy.”

“I wonder how many more times you’ll feel like doing this,” Anna mused.

“Beth said I could keep up my normal activities. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even have the baby up here on this mountain.”

“Don’t even think such a thing.” Anna laced their fingers together as they slowed to a stroll behind Andy. “You have to go into labor in the middle of the night just like everyone else.”

“Lucky it’s me that’s pregnant, because you’d probably give birth in the service department.”

“At least she’d be covered under warranty.”

“We’d have to give her a German name, like Heidi.”

Anna gave her a sidelong look. “You really think it’s a girl?”

“No idea, but I read they could probably tell us if we go for a second-trimester sonogram.” They had gone back and forth over whether or not to learn the sex of their child, with each changing her mind a half dozen times.

“I’m still not sure I want to know,” Anna said. “I kind of like the idea of being surprised, but then sometimes I think if I knew what sex it was, it wouldn’t be so abstract. People always say ‘the baby this’ or ‘the baby that’ like it’s a thing instead of a person. I hate that.”

Lily nodded along. “And I think it would be easier for Andy if he knew whether he was getting a brother or a sister. And speaking of Andy…”

He had tired of walking and was sitting on a rock to wait until they caught up. “These old bones won’t go another step,” he said dramatically, mimicking one of his grandpa’s favorite expressions.

Without a word of protest or cajoling Anna hoisted him onto her back and began to gallop down the trail. Lily adored how the two of them seemed to worship each other, and she couldn’t wait to see them interacting with the—she caught herself doing exactly what Anna said she hated—with his brother or sister. She fished her camera from her side pocket and snapped a photo, envisioning it in the rotation of the screensaver on her office computer.

By the time she caught up, Andy was already in the car and Anna was leaning against the front fender, arms folded. “What took you so long?”

“I’m a mere mortal, show-off.” She poked Anna in the stomach playfully. “I appreciate you hauling him all the way down here. I don’t think I could have done it.”

Anna grinned and glanced back at Andy, who was buckled in and ready to go. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said, her voice too low for him to hear. “You carry this one the first nine months and I’ll take it from there.”

“I knew it. I’m starting to show,” Lily said, running her hands over her belly as she twisted from side to side before the mirror in the master bath. “I wear those pants all the time and they’ve never been tight around the waist until today. Can you see it?”

Anna appreciated each and every opportunity to gaze upon Lily’s naked body but could honestly say she had never studied it with non-sexual motives. She focused on the tummy, which looked as flat and firm as ever. “Not really.”

“Oh, come on.” She turned in profile and rested her hands on her hips. “See there? It’s curved outward right below my belly button.”

“If you say so.”

“If I say so?”

The sharpness of the retort took Anna by surprise. “All I’m saying is I don’t notice it the way you do. As far as I’m concerned, you look terrific as always.”

“In other words, I won’t look so good once I get fat.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Lily snatched her robe from a peg on the back of the bathroom door and cinched it about her waist. “Not in so many words, but your meaning was quite clear, thank you. I look terrific as long as my stomach is flat, but not so much when it starts to stick out. Glad to know I have that to look forward to.”

Anna stood with her mouth agape as Lily stormed out of the bathroom. In slow motion, she cocked her head to see herself in the mirror, not at all surprised at the look of shock on her face. That wasn’t like Lily at all, neither the sudden anger nor the silly insecurity about her appearance. She couldn’t possibly think being pregnant would make her unattractive. That had to be a mood swing, maybe some kind of hormone eruption brought about by fatigue from their long day’s hike. The pamphlet Beth had given them had warned that her emotions would be all over the place during the first trimester.

She took her time brushing her teeth, hoping the few extra minutes would help Lily cool down. Then she donned her robe and drew a deep breath for courage just in case the tantrum wasn’t finished. Finding their bedroom empty she followed the source of light to the family room downstairs.

The room lived up to its name, since they spent most of their home time with Andy here, watching TV or surfing the Internet while he played on the area rug in the middle of the hardwood floor. His box of toys, mostly small cars and the erector set he used to build streets and towns, sat at the near end of the L-shaped sectional sofa. In the corner was a wide-screen TV, mounted above a cabinet that held dozens of children’s movies. French doors on one wall led out to the patio. Directly across from the sofa, one door led to a half-bath, another to the small office where she and Lily managed their mail and worked at the desk. The family room was also their main avenue for entering and leaving the house, since the door led across the uncovered driveway to the two-car garage. It was a cozy room, and perhaps would be too cozy once their family grew.