She especially wasn’t going to think about those hours that she’d sat in the hospital waiting room while her father had been in surgery, waiting and waiting to hear if he’d survived it. And she definitely wasn’t going to think about that day last year when her dad had appeared at her front door, let himself in with the key she’d given her parents when she’d bought her house, pulled her into his arms, and let her cry for an hour. And then managed to get her on the road to pulling her life back together. No, she couldn’t think about that, either, or she’d cry. And she couldn’t cry now, she had to hold it together, for everyone in the hospital, for Ben, for her mom.

She let out a deep breath, and Ben looked over at her. Oh God, please let him not ask her if she was okay, because she wasn’t sure she could pretend to be okay, but if she told him she wasn’t okay, she knew she would fall apart, and she couldn’t, couldn’t fall apart.

“Glad we made it here,” he said. “If I say so myself, driving was a brilliant idea.”

She appreciated his effort to make her laugh, even if she couldn’t quite do it.

“It absolutely was,” she said.

Their knuckles brushed together as they walked through the automatic doors of the hospital.

“Hi, I’m looking for my dad,” Anna said to the bored-looking woman at the information desk. “Phillip Rose?” The woman barely looked at her and turned to a computer.

“Rose, like the flower rose?” she asked in a monotone.

“Um, yes,” Anna said. “Like the flower.” How hard was it to spell “Rose,” anyway? Were there that many variations?

She waited as the woman typed into the computer. And waited some more. How many Roses could there be in this small hospital? How many people could there even be? Why was this taking so long? Anna kept a pleasant look on her face, even though she could feel her heart beating, faster and faster. She felt her breathing getting shallow, so she tried to do the deep-breathing technique she’d learned, but it felt like there was something sitting on her chest.

Ben put a light hand on her back. She leaned into the gentle pressure, and he kept his hand there. She could breathe a little better.

Suddenly, the woman shook her head.

“No Rose here.”

No. That couldn’t be possible. She knew this was the right hospital. Maybe they’d had to move him to a different hospital?

“He came in through the emergency room. Earlier today. Or I guess it was yesterday now, but he—”

A deep laugh stopped her. She looked up, and there, coming down the hallway toward her, were her parents. Laughing and chatting with each other like they were strolling down the street on the way to a restaurant on a Saturday night, not like they were walking through a hospital on the way out of the emergency room.

“Dad? Mom?”

They both looked at her, and her father’s face broke out into a grin.

“Anna, baby, what are you doing here?”

Before he’d finished talking, she’d made it to him and pulled him into a hug.

“Dad! You’re okay! I was so worried.” Don’t cry don’t cry she couldn’t let herself cry.

“I told Christopher not to tell you we were here. I knew you would do something like fly down here,” her mother said.

She hugged her mom, too.

“Shouldn’t you know by now that Chris and I tell each other all of the important things? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just tell us all of the important things, too? Tell me now, what happened?” She turned to her dad. “Are you okay? Really?”

He patted her on the shoulder.

“Really, Anna. I’m okay, I promise. Just a little spot of heat exhaustion—I foolishly hadn’t been drinking enough water out in the desert, and then I stopped to help someone change a tire, and well, the next thing I knew I was here. But don’t worry. They checked me all out and gave me an IV full of liquids and I’m as good as new.”

Anna looked at her mom.

“Is that true?”

Her mom pursed her lips, but nodded.

“Yes, Anna, it’s true, we swear. You’re such a suspicious child, you always have been. This is like when you found out about Santa Claus and grilled us about everything else. But we told the truth then, didn’t we?”

Anna smiled at the memory. She’d been seven. Her mom had sworn her to secrecy, she’d said her brother still believed, and she didn’t want Anna to ruin it for him, or for any of the other kids in her school. That had been one of the only secrets Anna had ever kept from her brother.

But her parents did have a habit of keeping important things from her. To “protect” her, or so she “wouldn’t worry,” et cetera, et cetera. She might be a thirty-two-year-old woman with a successful career who owned a house and had been on the cover of many magazines, but her parents still thought she was a child. Her mom looked like she was telling the truth right now, though.

“I remember,” she said to her mom. “You’ll call the doctor at home, right? And make sure he gets checked out then?”

Her dad rolled his eyes, but her mom nodded.

“I promise.” She gave Anna another quick hug. “Now. As wonderful a surprise as it was to see you, it’s been a long day, and I’ve got to get to bed.” She narrowed her eyes. “You do, too, young lady. What did you do, charter a plane to get here?”

Anna shook her head, then realized she didn’t know how to answer this question. Her mom would kill her if she knew she’d jumped in a car with a virtual stranger and had him drive her here. Especially without telling anyone.

Okay, well, her mom might have a point with that one.

“Um, I flew into L.A., then drove from there,” she said. Yes, that thing she should have done.

Her mom looked around the lobby, and her eyes landed on Ben, a respectful distance away, scrolling through his phone like he hadn’t been paying attention. Though Anna was pretty sure he had been.

“Is that man with you?” her mom said in a low voice.

Something close to the truth was probably the best move here.

“He drove me here. From the airport.” She just didn’t say which airport.

Her mom nodded.

“Of course. Your driver.” Anna opened her mouth to correct her mom, then closed it again. “Do you have a place to stay, or do you want to come back with us?”

Anna knew that if she went back to her parents’ hotel with them, she would break down in tears, and no one needed that tonight. That could wait until she was safely alone.