“Yes.” She’d lost Armie. She couldn’t lose this fight, too. When she thought about it, she’d kind of been prepping her whole life for this. It was time to let Noelle understand exactly what was at stake for her. “Do you know I’ve never really helped anyone I truly loved? I got into nursing because I was good at it and it was a profession that would lift me out of the poverty I grew up in. I was surrounded by all these vibrant women who treated it like a calling. They talked about how they wanted to help all these people. I did get that, but I’m going to admit that I’m far more intellectual than emotional. Except about the people I love. I thought all those years ago I went into nursing to lift myself up, and when I found myself with a gun pointed to my head and my life on the line, all I could think about was that nothing I had done to that point mattered.”

“You’re talking about what happened in Dallas?” The anger seemed to have fled, but tears shone in Noelle’s eyes.

“Yes, I’m talking about that moment, that one excruciatingly long moment that seemed to mean more than all the others that came before it. The one that taught me I was helpless. But I was listening to the wrong message. Sometimes we don’t see things clearly until we’re on the other side of it. I would never have had what happened to my friend happen, but I can’t change that. All I can do is look for meaning, and here you are, Noelle.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

In all the misery she’d gone through agonizing over Armie, she’d found this one truth. “I mean if that day doesn’t happen, I don’t come here. If I don’t have that gun aimed at me, watching my friend die in front of me, I don’t question everything I’ve ever known about myself. I don’t make the illogical move to come to a crazy town where the brightest young lady I’ve met in a long time isn’t getting the treatment she needs. If I hadn’t grown up poor, I probably don’t become a nurse and I don’t end up here and I don’t meet your father. And you don’t walk. This is my calling, Noelle. You. Right here and right now. So don’t think you can sway me. Don’t think you can push me off. You will try. I will give you everything I have and even if you never walk, I will help you become independent so you can have the life you deserve.”