Rita Mae opened the door but left her suitcase behind. “Oh, Lord!” She covered her heart with a hand. With the other, she pulled Jake into a half embrace.

Madison peeked in. “Something wrong? I was told everything had been prepared.”

“Wow, it’s huge,” Sherry whispered. With three steps, she had entered the room, which was more spacious than Rita Mae’s whole trailer.

When Rita Mae kept staring, Sherry whispered, “It’s fantastic.” And it was. A desk stood beside a queen-size bed at the wall. A huge window gave a view over the city, the skyline impressive. On the other side of the room was a closet three times the size of her old shower stall. Never ever would Rita Mae be able to fill it up completely.

Rita Mae let go of Jake, ran back into the hall, and grabbed her suitcase. Enthusiastically, she shoved one of two sliding doors of her closet open. “Oh my. All my things from the moving boxes are already in there.”

Madison wore a bewildered expression. “What did you think would happen when the guys from the moving company picked up your things?”

Jake jumped up and down. “Can I see our room now?”

Sherry caressed his soft hair. “Of course. But just if you stop jumping. You know what the doctor said.”

Pouting, Jake nodded.

Rita Mae opened her suitcase on the bed and dug into it with vengeance.

They watched her until Madison said, “We should go to see Jake’s room now.”

“Yeah!” Jake ran back into the hall.

He was so excited. Sherry was too. Well, nervous was probably a better description. But if Jake continued like this, he’d risk some bleeding, as the doctor had warned them repeatedly. In her sternest voice, she said, “Jake Franklin Miller, I told you not to run.”

Jake stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned back to her. Focusing on his feet, he mumbled, “Sorry.”

Sherry walked to him, went down on one knee, and searched his face while smoothing a loose strand of hair out of his handsome face. “I’m just worried. Right now, running and jumping is too dangerous.” He was looking so sad that she engulfed him into a tight embrace.

Madison looked away. “Opposite Rita Mae’s room is the guest bathroom. That’s what you’ll use.”

Sherry let go of Jake and stood. “Okay.”

Jake took Sherry’s hand. “And where’s our room?”

Madison took a few steps and stopped at the next door on the right. “That’s your room, Jake.”

He let go of Sherry’s hand as quickly as he had grasped it and opened the door.