“She’s going to heal with every hour that passes. She has staples closing her incision—they’ll come out in about ten days. The incision won’t fully heal for a month to six weeks. She’s going to be weak and fatigued. But she will get her strength back.” Maggie stopped walking. “And without that little fucker in her head.” She smiled.

“You like what you do, don’t you?” Finn asked.

“On days like today, I love what I do.”

“Do you remember the moment you knew it was what you wanted?”

“Exactly. Precisely. My stepfather, a neurosurgeon, took me to his big Chicago hospital on a Saturday night to see the carnage in the emergency room to teach me an important lesson about my poor driving decisions, such as speeding. He took me into the operating room. He had a young man on the table with head injuries and Walter got right inside his head, saved his life. I had scrubbed to go in with him but I was edging so close the scrub nurse kept moving me back and scolding me. But I wanted to see what Walter was doing. Walter expected me to faint or throw up or something, not try to assist with the surgery. He was magnificent. Walter is retired now but was one of the finest neurosurgeons in the Midwest. I knew in that moment what I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure I was good enough or smart enough but I was sure I wanted to try.”

Finn looked at her in some awe. “That’s very cool,” he said. “After today it’s going to be hard to just hand you a hamburger at the bar. Now that I know this you.”

“We had a good day, Finn. And thanks for being so brave and encouraging. I really think it helps.”

“She’d do that for me,” he said.

“You and your dad should get some dinner and head home. Trust me. I’ll take good care of Maia.”

* * *

Rob thought it might be for the good of all if he had an honest talk with Leigh and explained that he should get his head together before they got any more serious. He texted her in the morning and asked if he could buy her lunch and she jumped on the opportunity. My house? she texted back.

That was perfect. He had a couple of sandwiches made to go and was in her driveway at noon. He’d decided they’d sit at the table with their lunch and talk. Really, he was no good to her if he couldn’t even walk into a hospital and her life’s work was in a clinic. Okay, he was doing all right with the clinic, but what if she got sick? What if she had to be hospitalized and he had to do laps around the outside of the hospital for fifty minutes out of every hour?

He held the front door so she could enter. Before it was closed behind them, she was in his arms, their lips locked together.

“I take it Aunt Helen is away?” he said.

“Yep,” she said, her arms around his neck.

Thirty seconds later they were on her bed, naked and wrapped around each other, and he was making her moan with pleasure.

He’d had one wife and his share of women but never had he experienced anything like this. The second he touched her he bolted into action. Hell, the moment he realized they were alone, he was ready. He hadn’t been this spring-loaded since he was about twenty.

I’m screwed, he thought. Then he buried his face in her neck to keep from laughing out loud. Screwed indeed.

He knew you don’t make crazy love to a woman and then explain why you should back off a little. You don’t have that conversation on the phone. You don’t do it in a public place. So, since today was not the day to talk about it, he went after her with lust and power, then he held her with loving affection while she caught her breath.

He decided to rethink everything because the fact that he could deliver this pleasure to her made him feel like the world’s greatest lover. Of all the feelings he’d had lately that was way up there. She responded to him with such intensity that it filled him with testosterone pride. And when it was over she always said something about never having experienced anything like that in her life.

He feared he was going to find it impossible to back away. So he held her for a few minutes, told her how wonderful she was, then he took her again.

Lying satisfied in his arms, she whispered, “Oh God, please don’t let this ever end.”

He felt a pain in his chest.

They only had a few minutes left to talk and eat. He told her about Maia, told her Finn slept all the way home, exhausted to the bone. And then it was time for her to get back to the clinic because there were patients who needed her. She slid the other half of her sandwich into her purse to eat if there was a break in the action.

“This is an amazing diet,” she muttered. “Cosmo should write it up.”

* * *

Things around Timberlake and the Crossing quieted somewhat once Maia’s surgery was over and pronounced successful. It was looking hopeful that there would be no complications in recovery. She was still in the hospital and Helen had heard through Leigh, who heard through Rob, that she was doing well, though she had some issues. “I’ve heard she’s having a little trouble with balance and dizziness, not to mention pain and weakness, but that this is not considered scary. It may resolve itself. Or she might have to work it out in physical therapy, which will follow,” Rob had explained.

The graduation ceremony took place and Finn walked with his class. “Apparently he’s a lot more excited about Maia coming home than about graduating, even though his grandparents came all the way from Florida,” Helen said. “Such adorable young kids going through something this dramatic—it’s so terrifying.”

“Not if it turns out good,” Sully said.

“I might write about it,” Helen said. “I’ve never written about a brain tumor before. And I have such good resources. What Leigh can’t tell me, Maggie can.”

“I finished your book, by the way,” Sully said.

“Did you enjoy it?” she asked hopefully.

“I don’t know if enjoy is the right word. There were times I had to put the book down before I couldn’t sleep at all!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!”

“I better read another one right away.”

“Well, if it’s painful for you...”

“It’s not painful, it just makes my heart pound sometimes,” he said.

“They’re not scary books,” she said. “I mean, they’re mostly not scary.”

“Helen, there was someone hiding in that woman’s closet while she was in bed! I had to check the goddamn closet before I could turn off the light!”

Helen laughed.

“Let me ask you something. Just how many ways do you know how to kill people?”

“Pfftt,” she said. “With Google it’s endless. I just hope no one close to me dies mysteriously and law enforcement looks at my browsing history.”

“Your what?” Sully asked.

“Something crossed my mind,” she said. “I know you’re going to resist this idea but maybe we should get you up to speed on the computer. I know you use a computer for reservations and daily business, but little else. And don’t you think it’s time for a phone...?”

“I got a phone. I got two phones. One in the store, one in the house. And I got an answering machine, too!”

“When you offered to take a picture of the elk, what did you plan to use?” she asked.

“A camera!”

“You’re not really hooked up, Sully. I’m leaving the day after tomorrow. When am I going to call you? Either in the morning while Enid and Frank listen to your conversation, or at night when you’re in bed. If you have a proper phone I can call you anytime. I can text you. Hasn’t Maggie kicked up a fuss about you not being able to send or answer texts?”

“I got a phone!” he said. “If she wants me, she calls me. I live in a goddamn campground.”

“Tsk, tsk. I didn’t mean for you to get all pissy.”

“I had one of those little flip phones for a while. It had belonged to Frank, I think. I hated it.”

“That’s because it’s a terrible phone!” Helen said. “If you have a proper phone, we can communicate when I’m out of town.”

“Day after tomorrow?” he said.

“Just as I told you.”

“Are you staying for dinner tonight?”

“Would you like me to?” she asked.

“I have white fish, potatoes, asparagus and a couple of tomatoes. You can invite Leigh, of course. I love that girl.”

“I’ll call her and ask if she’s interested.”

“And will you have dinner here tomorrow night?”

Helen laughed. “Sully, I think you’re going to miss me.”

“Aw, you already know I will.”

“I’ll shop for tomorrow night’s dinner,” Helen said. “But I might have lunch with Leigh tomorrow, since I’m leaving for almost a week. I’d like to catch up.”

“You two see each other all the time!” he said. “You live together.”

“We don’t actually see much of each other, since I’m always out here and she’s always working,” Helen said. “When we lived in different places we talked every morning and evening. Just for a few minutes, but we’d connect every day. When I come tomorrow, I’ll bring you a couple more books. You don’t have to read them, especially if they disturb your sleep.”

He shook his head and just chuckled. “I can’t figure out why your mind wanders to such places. You’re such a sweet person, but Lordy, do you have a twisted side.”

“Nonsense, I’m the kindest person I know. My first objective is to make the reader wonder. I love a good puzzle, don’t you? My second objective is to make the reader love the characters, sometimes even the bad ones. And the third objective is to make them stay up very late to find out what happens next. I’m not ashamed of the fact that it sometimes causes a little insomnia.”

* * *

Helen and Sully had dinner alone both nights. Leigh was keeping the later clinic hours the first night, and the night before Helen was to leave Leigh was at Rob’s house for a small graduation celebration while his in-laws were in town. It included Sid and Dakota and a couple of Finn’s friends. Leigh had offered to ask Rob if Helen could come along but Helen declined. “I’m afraid my calendar is full. I’m going to pack during the afternoon and I offered to make Sully dinner in the evening, but I won’t be out late. I have an early start.”