“What about Eliot? He’s only eight. I’m not sure he’ll understand that his little sister is sick. And I don’t want him to be freaked out.”

“We don’t need to go into great detail, Ollie. Just the basics.” The basics. Another subjective word. How basic could we get when trying to explain to the kids that their three-year-old sister was dying? All she knew from her trusting perspective was that several times a week she got to play games with her new nurse friends at the hospital while hooked up to the dialysis machine. “I don’t want them being angry at us for not telling them sooner. It feels like we’re lying to them.”

“Since when have you felt bad about lying to the kids, Felicity? We’ve been doing it since they were born.”

I shrugged the implication away. It was date night; we weren’t supposed to be fighting.

“Speaking of the kids, do you think I should check on them?” The clouds darkened with a final warning. I was as ready to change the subject as I was to avoid the rain. “Maybe I should call Vera to make sure they’re okay.”

My phone was already out of my purse, my fingers swiping to dial. Oliver rested his hand on mine, stopping me.

“Hey, stop worrying. The kids are fine. We’re on a date. Let’s enjoy it while we can.” He grinned, creasing the face that wasn’t quite movie-star handsome, but close enough. A face I still loved waking up to even after two decades together.

“You’re right, Ollie. I can’t help it. I’m petrified something will happen to Sydney while we’re out and Vera won’t know what to do.”

“You worry too much, Felicity,” Oliver replied. “They’re probably just watching a movie and eating junk food. Besides, Vera’s a capable girl. She knows what she’s doing.”

“Yeah, I know. But have you noticed something…different about her lately?”

I couldn’t quite pin down what it was. Not the typical teen sullenness or mood swings or rebellion. It was something else. Something darker.

Oliver scraped his fork across his plate, scooping up the last morsel of his cheesecake. I pushed what remained of my tiramisu toward him to finish off. “No. What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. She just seems…quieter than usual.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? You’re always telling the kids to keep the noise down. When they do, you think something’s wrong. There’s no pleasing you, Felicity.”

“Not true. I’m easy to please, if you’d take a minute to bother trying.” In a mutter I added, “You have no problem pleasing everyone else.” I shouldn’t have said it. The jab was unnecessary when we were having such a good time on our first date night in months. Well, good up until now.