“I’m not stubborn. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh. Sure you don’t. That’s why you’re literally being stubborn right this second.”

I squeeze her against me affectionately. “That was a joke just for you. But what about you? Have you ever broken a bone before?”

“I haven’t.” Hannah falls quiet for a moment as she twirls her fingertips across the surface of the water. “But Casey broke his arm once when we were younger.”

My heart tightens at the mention of her brother. She hasn’t talked about him much, and I want to make sure that I’m here for her now that she is.

“What happened?”

“He saved me.”

“From what?”

Hannah chuckles and shakes her head against my chest, her eyes still shut. “It was crazy. We had this neighbor when we were younger who had this kind of out-of-control dog. It was a golden retriever named Cookie, and she seemed like the sweetest dog in the world—until she got angry.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what got into her, but one day, Casey and I had just gotten off the school bus and were walking home from the bus stop. Our neighbors had this huge fence in their yard that kept Cookie away from everyone, but that day something must have really pissed her off because she soared over the fence and came charging right at me.”

“Jesus. Just totally unprompted?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t even looking in her direction when it happened, but thank god Casey was paying attention. He must have heard her barreling toward me or something, and he jumped between us to use himself as a shield. We fell over together, and I landed on his arm and broke it.”

“Wow, so he saved you just for you to break his arm in thanks.”

Hannah laughs. “He definitely didn’t take it that way. But yeah, that’s the gist of it. I’m just glad he was there when it happened. I don’t even want to think about what might have happened if he wasn’t. But he was always like that, always looking out for me.”

My heart aches listening to the potent mix of love and pain in Hannah’s voice as she remembers her brother. Obviously, I never met him, but he must have been an amazing guy if he had such an impact on her. I don’t have any siblings, so I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to lose one, especially at such a young age. But it just goes to show how strong she is, and how strong her whole family is. Sure, they still have their difficult times with it like Hannah’s told me, and they probably always will, but it seems to me like they’re handling it much better than most people.