“I wouldn’t, but I’d do my best to understand that it was her problem, not yours and not ours.”

“Sure, you would,” Nick said with a laugh. “After you removed her liver with your famous rusty steak knife.”

“Why, Nick, honey,” she said, batting her eyelashes, “you make me sound so violent and unrefined.”

“You’re both those things, but you’re my violent, unrefined wife, and I wouldn’t change a thing about you. Well, except for your sloppiness, your willfulness, your stubbornness, your need to mess with my stuff, your—”

Her fingers squeezing his lips ended his recitation. “You made your point.” She released his lips to kiss him again. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“I’ll be here waiting for you.”

“Good,” she said with a smile, relieved to have put their ship back on an even keel after a long day of rough sailing. She still needed to talk to him about what Darren had told her, but she would bring that up later when they were at home and had the ability to air it out thoroughly. As she walked down the hallway to Brooke’s room, she thought about how much time they’d spent in hospitals during their first year together and hoped the second year would be much less eventful.

She stepped into Brooke’s room, where a sleeping Tracy held Brooke’s hand from the recliner next to the bed. Sam tucked Norman in with Brooke, bent to kiss the girl’s forehead and stood upright to look down at her niece. She tried to imagine what Brooke had been thinking when she and her friend Hoda plotted to bust her out of school. Where was she planning to be in the morning when her parents set out to pick her up for the holiday?

Sam would really like to know the answers to these and other questions, but she wasn’t going to get any answers tonight, so she left them sleeping and returned to the waiting room, where Mike had joined Nick.

“Hey, Sam, anything new?” Mike asked.

“I brought Norman from the dorm room and tucked him in with Brooke.”

The mention of his daughter’s beloved stuffed animal reduced Mike to tears. Seeing her big, strapping brother-in-law in such a state broke Sam’s heart.

“I can’t deal with this,” he said softly. “Half of me wants to kill her, and the other half is bargaining with God to get her through this in one piece.”

Sam sat on the other side of him and put her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t blame you for feeling both those things because I feel them too. You know what I was thinking earlier? Maybe this will be the wakeup call she needs to get her shit together before it’s too late.”