We stopped outside Josh’s room. Nate brushed a finger across my cheek, his eyes creased with concern, but he didn’t speak. He was doing that cop thing he did where he waited for me to fill the silence. He was much better at this game than I, and he knew it.

“My parents were picking me up from a friend’s house. My dad had been drinking. He had a stressful job and he maybe didn’t cope with it very well. My mom was mad at him for driving when he’d been drinking, but he wouldn’t listen. When my dad got something in his head, there was no changing it. Anyway, he got a call, and Dad said we had to go get Ben. He was driving too fast on this tiny rural road. I don’t remember much about the crash, to be honest. Just afterward. My mom…”

I gulped, hating the memory, wanting to push it away. “She died on impact. I got my dad out.… I had no way to get help, so I just sat there with his head on my lap. He died like that. We waited for what felt like hours, and nobody…” My voice trailed off and I took a shaky breath. “Dr. Palmer saw the smoke from the car. He called the police and took care of me. He saved my life.”

Nate tipped my chin up so I was looking at him. His eyes were filled with such tenderness it brought tears to my eyes.

“I watched my dad die, Nate,” I whispered.

“Josh is going to be okay.” Nate’s voice was firm. “We’ll get him this treatment.”

“We can’t even afford to buy a new couch.”

“We’ll find a way.”

I pulled the paper I’d tallied our bills on from my purse and thrust it at him. “How are we going to afford five hundred thousand dollars for this treatment? We barely have enough money to pay rent each month.”

Most doctors didn’t start earning a full-time salary until ten years after they graduated, and most primary care physicians earned barely more than what they had in medical school debt. Money had never mattered to me before. I only ever wanted my own family and to help people. But now, money was all I could think about.

Nate barely glanced at the paper.

“I’ll get a loan,” he said. “I have a buddy at the bank who’ll help. We’ll get on a payment plan with our insurance, and I’m sure my mom will help.”

“She can’t help! The rent we pay her covers your dad’s care. Otherwise she wouldn’t even be able to afford that.”

“We have our pensions.”

“It isn’t enough!”