The first response to a loved one’s good news should leave room for their happiness.

First reactions carry whatever you were already holding. Caution, a comparison to your own situation, a practical worry about what this means, and any of those can arrive before the gladness does. The other person hears the first sentence most clearly. Good news needs a beat of unmixed welcome before it can survive the reasonable questions.

Let your opening line be pleasure and nothing else, even if a concern is already forming. Ask them to tell you more about it. The questions will still be available in ten minutes, and by then they will land as interest rather than as doubt.