“That’s good,” Hannah said with a sigh. “He certainly deserves to be happy after everything he’s done for others from the time he was far too young for the responsibility that was put on him.”

“On that we agree.”

A short time later, a nurse came into the waiting room. “Family of Grayson Coleman?”

Hannah jumped up, but Emma hung back, intending to take her cues from Hannah.

“Are you coming?” Hannah asked, waiting for Emma before she followed the nurse.

“Yes,” Emma said, elated to have had this unexpected chance to talk to Gray’s mother and to clear the air with her. “I’m coming.”

Grayson came awake in a brightly lit room, and for a minute, he couldn’t figure out where he was. At the sight of a nurse looking down at him, the story came flooding back to him. His father. Bone marrow. Surgery.

“How’re you feeling?” the nurse asked.

“Fine.” That much was true, and they’d told him to expect to feel fine until the pain block wore off. Then he would be achy and sore and probably fatigued for a few days before he bounced back. No biggie, he’d thought then, and now he was glad it was over. He was eager to get back to New York, to be with Emma and Simone and to figure out a way to be with them all the time. “It went well?”

“The doctor said it was textbook. He’ll be in to talk to you shortly. You have some visitors. You feel up to seeing them?”

“Yeah, sure.” His mom had told him she’d be coming. Izzy or Noah must’ve come with her.

“I’ll go get them.”

Grayson thought his eyes were deceiving him when his mom walked in with Emma. “Where’d you come from?” He held out the hand that wasn’t tethered to IVs and monitors.

She took his hand and bent over the bed to kiss him. “All the way from New York.”

“You’ve been keeping secrets from me.”

“Only the good kind.”

He was so damned happy to see her.

“How’re you feeling?” his mom asked, her face pinched with concern.

“Fine. Just groggy from the drugs.” He returned his gaze to Emma, unable to look anywhere but at her when he’d been missing her so much since leaving her three long days ago. “I can’t believe you’re here. Where’s Simone?”

“In school at the moment, and then hanging out with my dad for the weekend.”

“We’ve got the whole weekend?” Grayson asked, feeling better by the minute to know she was here for a few days.

“We sure do.”

“My own private-duty nurse,” he said with a teasing smile, loving the way her face lit up with embarrassment.

“Not in front of your mother,” she said sternly.

“Yes, Grayson,” Hannah said with unusual amusement. “Not in front of your mother.”