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“I took a day off. Mental health day.” I was sure that answer would only cause her more concern, but it was the truth. Dani and I both just needed the day with each other.

“You?” She hesitated and then quietly asked, “Everything ok?”

“Yea, just a few tough cases,” I assured her, releasing a heavy sigh that spoke of the weight I held on my shoulders.

“Guess what I did?” She sounded anxious, and I couldn’t help but push my own dreams on to her.

“Listed your house for sale so you could move back home?”

She laughed out loud. “Nebraska is my home, silly. I’ve lived here my entire life.”

“Except for the eight years you were in Oklahoma with me. That is almost a third of your life somewhere else,” I argued.

Haizley knew I desperately wanted her to come back. It wasn’t something I kept a secret. I missed my friend, and I let her know about it often. I had no shame and even told her I would keep asking until I wore her down.

“Sorry, hon, I’m a Midwest girl. But I did do something very un-midwesterner yesterday.” Her voice practically squealed as she waited for me to guess.

“Just tell me. You know I’ll never guess it.” I chuckled at her excitement.

“I got something pierced.”

Sitting up straight on my couch, my mouth dropped open like I was trying to catch flies.

“Your silence tells me your mouth is hanging open in shock,” she said, laughing at the way she knew she was right.

“What did you pierce?” I asked. Still in amazement that my best friend—the Thelma to my Louise; the Bert to my Ernie; the Ethel to my Lucy—had done something crazy, like getting something pierced. I didn’t even have something pierced, and I was the crazy one out of the two of us.

“I had my hood pierced,” she whispered, like she was afraid to say it out loud.

“WHAT?” I winced as soon as the shout left my lips, praying I didn’t wake up Dani.

“I know. Can you believe it?”

“No! You spread your legs for a strange man to put his fingers all over your va-jay-jay?”

“Oh, God no! The piercer here is a woman. And she came to my home. I laid on my kitchen table!”

I laughed out loud, unable to contain myself and the pride I had in my best friend for doing something so unlike her.

“On the table? Eww, I am never eating at your house,” I teased.

“I know. I keep looking at it wondering if I cleaned it enough. I might need to get a new one.”

It was good to hear her laugh. I missed her something fierce, but I knew she was where she needed to be, just like I was.

Or at least, I thought I was.

I hadn’t told Haizley about selling my practice. But if Danny and Dante did come home and take Dani back to New York, well, I might follow them. I loved this little girl like she was my own. And every little girl needed a mom.

Or at the very least, a really cool aunt.

Haizley and I talked for a while longer before she had to let me go for her next patient. She did all her sessions online. Her town was very small and from what she had said, there weren’t many people who would even admit they could use therapy let alone actually book an appointment.

Her talents and brain were being wasted in small-town America. But it’s who she was. Who she would always be.

I puttered around the house while I waited for Dani to wake up. Cleaning up her toys and doing the few dishes from breakfast and lunch.

After her nap, Dani and I went outside. We played in the backyard, absorbing the afternoon sunshine. Dani loved to wander around exploring the yard, searching for flowers, and collecting sticks and stones.