“I’m relieved,” she said. “Except that I’ll be bored. I might see if I can pick up a class or two from the junior college.”

“Maia, you’re ready. You could go. The doctor cleared you.”

“It feels too soon. I’m so nervous about being that far away from home. What if something happened? I mean, I know I’m not going to grow another brain tumor. At least, not right away. I’ll get an MRI every year, and Maggie thinks everything will be okay. But sometimes when I get nervous, I can’t find the right word. My concentration sucks and my cognitive skills are still recovering, which might be as much to do with the seizure as the tumor or surgery. So my confidence is still recovering. Big surprise, huh? I had a traumatic event. I’m not cleared to drive yet even though the cause of the seizure was the tumor and the tumor is gone. To be safe, I have to wait six months to drive. I could not have gotten through it without you.” She kissed his cheek.

“Hey, you were the brave one,” he said.

“I want to tell you something else. I’ve changed my mind about Flagstaff. I don’t want to be that far away. I’m going to try to get into CU. But I want you to know something—I’m not going there because you’re going to be there, not so you can take care of me. Your sentence is over, you’re free. I’m going there because it’s a good school. And it’s closer to my doctor.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” he asked.

“Oh God, no! But I’ve been a real load. I want to be a girlfriend not a ball and chain. You’ve been great but I don’t want to be your patient anymore.”

“Have I treated you like a patient?”

“Nah, you’ve been perfect.”

“You would have been there for me,” he said. “I think it’s just what people who love each other do.”

“I agree, and yes, I would have. But from now on our relationship isn’t going to be about my brain tumor. We’ll be together as long as we love each other, and if that’s forever, very cool. But be warned—I’m not going to die.”

“I knew you’d be okay.” He sighed. “Well, I didn’t exactly know it but that’s what I kept telling myself.” He grinned. “CU, huh? Like my dream come true.”

“Listen, you’re going to be up there a whole semester before I get there,” she said. “Maybe a whole first year if they don’t let me start after first semester. You’re going to meet girls...”

“No, I won’t,” he said.

“Yes, you will. Girls with hair on their whole head. I want you to remember that if you meet a girl you really, really like, I’m not going to die.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“I’ll be pissed but I won’t get sick or die.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’d be very surprised if I met anyone that special. And with you here, I’ll be home a lot of weekends.”

“You don’t have to. We can talk and text and you can tell me all about it and come home when you want to.”

“I bet I’ll want to,” he said, pulling her closer.

“I will miss you,” she said. “I’ll miss you more because I won’t be busy, but I want you to have a good time.”

“I’ll have to come home weekends to get help with schoolwork. Did I tell you I’m looking into science courses? Biology. Maybe premed.”

“Really? What brought that on? I thought you were a business kind of guy.”

“I just wanted to make a lot of money and I thought that was the fastest way. But when you had surgery... I was watching all those doctors—those surgeons and ER doctors—and I’m sorry, but they’re such studs. Even Maggie is a stud.”

Maia laughed at him. “Finn, she’s the biggest stud. She has her hands in brains for a living. And she’s so cool about it like she might as well be pulling out a splinter.”

“I know,” he said. “Don’t get excited, I’m sure I’m too stupid to be a doctor...”

“No, you’re not. It’s way better to try it than to avoid it because it looks hard. You don’t want to be forty and ask yourself for the rest of your life if you could’ve done it if only you’d tried.”

“That’s what I think,” he said. “My dad is going to shit a brick. Like he doesn’t have enough to think about without hearing that I’d like to be in college for about sixteen years... Especially when he’s got that baby.”

“Baby?” she said.

“Didn’t I tell you that I’m going to be a big brother again?”

“What?” she choked. “But your dad isn’t married!”

“That’s right,” he said. “My dad, the moral pillar of the community, knocked up the town doctor!”

“No way!” she screamed. She socked him in the arm. “You’re lying!”

“I am not. He’s trying to get her to marry him or at least live with us. College looks better every day. I mean, I like Dr. Culver—she’s cool. But babies are loud. And they puke like mad.”

Maia groaned and slumped down on her lounge. “Oh God. What if that was us?”

“I can’t even think about that. If I think about it, I might never have sex again.”

Whoever lives true life, will love true love.

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

15

MAGGIE WAS IN the garden behind Sully’s house, filling a basket with lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and zucchini. While she was in there, she pulled a few weeds here and there. Her dad wandered over as he was prone to do. He leaned on the fence.

“We had a good year,” he said. “Good crop.”

“Yes, you did,” she said.

“Elizabeth napping?”

“She gave up morning naps, doggone it. She’s at home playing with Sam. Connie and Cal are in charge of this playdate. I go to Denver Wednesday very early, but I’m home Friday night.”

“You work hard,” Sully said.

“I work part-time,” she answered with a laugh. “But there are cases I get that take some serious commitment, with surgeries that can last for hours.”

“I know,” he said. “You amaze me and everyone around me.”

“Thank you, Dad,” she said. “Helen coming out today?”

“She comes almost every day. Sometimes she has what she calls phone business. She usually stays in town for that—working with her editor or agent or publicist. Or accountant,” he added with a laugh. “I think our Helen is pretty well fixed. She says she had to scrape by while she was teaching and raising Leigh and it turned her into a tightwad.”

“Good for her,” Maggie said. “Maybe she can relax and enjoy her senior years.”

“I doubt much will change for her as she gets older. She says campground owners and writers just keep going till they drop.”

“Do you ever think about retirement?”

“Nah. I pretty much only work about half the year, anyway.”

“How are your new hours working out?” Maggie asked, sitting back on her heels in the garden.

“I should’a done that years ago. When Helen cooks or helps me cook, she sets the table. For thirty-five years I been getting by with a plate and eating on the counter in the store. Helen puts a candle or two on the table, even if the sun’s still up. She bought some placemats and cloth napkins. I never bothered with that stuff. It’s like going to the restaurant.”

“You and Helen are getting pretty close,” she said.

“Pretty close. I wanted to talk to you about something. I haven’t said anything to anyone so don’t you. I asked Helen if she wanted to get married.”

“Dad! That’s wonderful!”

“She said no, of course,” he said. “Well, what she said was why bother to get married? Makes no difference to me. I just like it when she’s around. I like the idea of her living here. I told her if that old house isn’t in good enough shape, she could have it fixed up any way she likes. It prolly needs it by now.”

“It needs a lot, Dad,” Maggie said. “I think that’s a very good idea.”

“I have one worry I want to talk about. I’m getting kind of old. Helen is ten years younger.”

“You’re in very good health,” Maggie said.

“That’s another thing about Helen. She makes me want to be in decent health.”

“God bless her,” Maggie said, standing and picking up her basket. “Since you never seemed to give a rat’s ass before.”

“I ain’t particularly worried about dropping dead. That wouldn’t be much trouble. All I’d need then is to be buried. After reading about half a dozen of her books, Helen knows how to dispose of a body...”

Maggie laughed in spite of herself.

“But here’s what I’m worried about. I need a favor from you.”

“Shoot.”

“If something unexpected happens, I want to be sure Helen isn’t left taking care of a sick old man or invalid. That would be awful. There’s a little money set by for my old age. Cash money and some bonds. The bulk of what I’m worth is what I’m standing on. You could hire someone to run the camp or sell it. After Helen is done living here, that is. That’s assuming I’ll wear her down and convince her to move in with me. You can’t offer a woman a home to share, then snatch it out from under her when you stroke out or drop dead. I don’t know how that gets handled, Maggie.”

“Well, luckily I married a lawyer and since he’s been here he does a lot more family law than criminal defense. If he doesn’t know the best way to handle all that, he’ll find out. The big question is, what do you expect me to do?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “If I’m sitting in a wheelchair drooling on myself, I’d prefer you take me up on the ridge and just push me off but I bet you’d find that distasteful.”