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Devyn swallowed. “The left one took the brunt.”

“Oh, God.” Jill started to squirm, which was alarming becauseDevyn wasn’t sure what damage that might do. She was out of her depth here andwondered if she should ring for the nurse to come back.

“Listen, don’t worry about that right now,” she said, scrambling.“You just rest and let me handle everything. I’m on top of it, okay?”

“But I’m the big sister,” Jill mumbled and closed her eyes,drifting off once again. It seemed the short conversation had taken up a lot ofher energy.

“Not today.” Devyn smoothed Jill’s hair softly. As she sat therealone in the quiet hospital room, she’d never missed their mother more. Shewished for her nurturing superpowers now and stared skyward with a heavy heartfor guidance. She needed tips to get Jill through this, to make her feel safeand protected.

“Is this a bad time?” a voice asked in a whisper. Devyn turned tosee a giant yellow chicken looming in the doorway. That had to be ahallucination, right? She squinted, recognizing the face that peered at herthrough the open orange beak. Elizabeth Draper. This time dressed as ahuman-sized barnyard animal.

“What’s going on?” she whispered back. “What’s with the outfit?”

Elizabeth glanced down. “Oh, you mean this? I just came fromdelivering a singing telegram to Genevieve at the post office. Do you rememberher from the field trips we used to take there in elementary school? She alwayslet us mail a postcard?”

Devyn did, and nodded.

“It’s her birthday today, and her coworkers wanted to surpriseher.”

“I’m sorry. With a chicken?” Devyn asked, trying to piece ittogether. She abandoned the whisper altogether. Jill could always sleep throughthe loudest of thunderstorms, a true gift.

“Yes. Well, it was that or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, youknow, fromGhostbusters?And then I have to figure out his singing voice, which is harder than itsounds.” She ran up the scale in a strange, low voice as a demonstration. “See?Just not quite there. I’m gonna work on it. So, as you can tell, my characteroptions are limited. I could do a clown, but who wants that walking into yourjob on your special day?”

“No one.”

Elizabeth pointed at her. “Exactly. How’s the patient?”

Devyn opened her mouth to answer but was distracted by the visualof Elizabeth attempting to walk into the room while maneuvering her giantorange feet. “She’s hanging in there. She woke up just a little while ago andwas herself and alert and asking questions.”

“That’s fantastic,” Elizabeth said, beaming. It really was a beam,too. Her smile lit up her whole face, and the beak surrounding it.

“It was really nice to hear her voice, if only for a few minutes.”

Elizabeth nodded and made a circular gesture. “Is it okay if Istick around a little bit? Even if she doesn’t wake up again for a while, Ithink she’ll know that I was here, and when people come to visit you, itmatters.” Cue the big, bright smile. It was like a ray of sunshine had landedsquarely in the room. On one hand, it was kinda nice. On the other, a littleirritating, given her work mode. She was in the zone, and not up for sunshine,rainbows, and chickens, as nice as Elizabeth was.

“I think that’s true, and you’re welcome to stay. I’m just goingto be working remotely.” She gestured to the corner of the room where she’d setup her laptop earlier.

“Thank you, and go right ahead. Don’t let me and my chicken-selfget in the way.” A pause. “I heard the other fourth-grade teachers stopped bybefore school.”

Devyn glanced up warily. “That must be where the smiley facecookies came from. I must have missed them while I was getting cleaned up atJill’s place.” She returned to her laptop.

“Hasn’t she just done so much with the house?” Elizabeth gushed.

Yes, gushed.

She was easily impressed, but this morning it was a bit much.Hopefully, Elizabeth and her good deeds would be needed elsewhere. Sheappreciated the help and all Elizabeth had done, but maybe space would bebetter today.

“It looks great.” She opened her email.

A horrible thought seemed to occur to Elizabeth. “Not that yourchildhood home didn’t look nice, too. I’m sure that it—”

“It’s fine.” Devyn held up a hand, attempting to tamp down herfrustration. “I translated you, and Jill’s made some great improvements.” Ah,look at that. There were several inquiries about Twenty-Four Walker, Wyatt’sbuilding, sitting right there in her inbox. Right on schedule. Apparently, wordwas out that she had the listing, and agents were hungry to get their clientsin the door first. She didn’t know how she was going to make this all work fromDreamer’s Bay, but she had to see if she could figure that part out. She rubbedher forehead, trying to ease out the creases that had been there for the pastthree days. She took a slow, deep breath and prepared to dig in.

“Good, because I wouldn’t want you to think I thought less of theoriginal house.”

Good God. She paused. “I don’t.” To keep from having to forcefurther conversation, Devyn turned away from Elizabeth and lost herself in herwork. In the middle of her broker email was one from Wyatt Lowe himself, with aseries of questions about her plans for a brokers’ open. He also wanted to knowabout her international contacts, of which she had hundreds. Not that she’d hadtime to reach out to any of them, given her current predicament. Nor was she inthe headspace of the go-getter she was known to be. This was going to be abalancing act.

“You’re not a fan of small talk. I can tell.”