Mrs. Everything

by Jennifer Weiner

Time, she thought, as she gripped the phone in one numb hand. She needed time, as much as they could give her. Time to make sure that she’d done everything she could to make things right with her sister. Time to make Kim believe that she was a good mother. Time to convince Melissa that doing the right thing belatedly was better than never having done it at all. And Lila . . . well, eternity might not be long enough to solve Lila’s problems. But couldn’t God at least give Jo long enough to make a start?

Mayflower Coffee Shop, where the paper menus read, “As you travel through this life, Brother, Whatever be your goal / Keep your eye upon the doughnut, And not upon the hole,” or

didn’t hurt so much, because her father loved her, and she could carry his love, like a glowing coal in the center of her chest, feeling its warmth even in the face of her mother’s fury.