Jake came over and sat in the chair opposite her.

They stared at each other.

When his scrutiny became unbearable, she asked, “What?”

Jake’s gaze flew to his knees. “M…Mom said you’re a friend and…and that we’ll move in with you.”

“Yeah, and?”

The boy’s knees bounced up and down.

When the boy remained silent, Madison said, “You want to ask something, so shoot.”

Jake looked up at her, then down again, tears in his eyes.

A lump formed in her throat. Okay, maybe she could have worded that a little bit nicer. She remembered all too well how intimidated she had felt when Grandmother Eileen had berated her during most of her childhood. Not that it felt any better nowadays when the witch talked down to her.

She took a deep breath and said the first thing that came to her mind. “Don’t be afraid. Just ask.”

“I…I didn’t imagine them to be like you, but…” Keeping his head down, he looked up at her shyly. “Are you an angel?”

Madison snorted. “Why the h…Um, why would you think that?”

The boy blushed. “Well, Rita Mae always says that when you wish for something very, very much, sometimes God sends down an angel to make it happen.”

The answer felt like a punch in the stomach. “And…” She cleared her throat. “What have you wished for?”

He swallowed. “Mom was always sad, and Rita Mae told me it was because she worried so much. She didn’t tell me, but I’m sure it was because of me. Because I was sick so often. And then I prayed to God so that he would send us an angel to make me healthy.” He looked up to her and then hastily down again as if afraid of her. “And that Mom doesn’t need to work so much anymore, oh, and for the leak in the trailer roof to be repaired.” He beamed at her. “But a real apartment is even better.”

The lump in her throat and the fist in her stomach formed one huge knot and stole her breath away.

“And then,” he continued, “you came. And Mom said you paid for the doctors and the medicine and now we get to live with you. So I thought, you might be an—”

The door opened, and a nurse entered with ice cream in her hand.

Jake jumped up, Madison totally forgotten. “Oh, great! Thanks, Nurse Flea.”

Relief washed over her at the distraction. She wouldn’t have known how to answer him. Madison had never been good with kids; she didn’t even like them. Not now, and not when she had been a kid herself. Not after losing all her friends when she’d moved in with her grandparents.