She glanced at Paul, seeming tentative. “It was just a thought I had that I said out loud in front of the wrong person,” she said with a smile.

“Or the right person,” Lizzie said. “Depending on how you look at it.”

“She’s like a dog with a bone when she hears about someone in need,” Jared said.

“Awww, isn’t he sweet calling his new wife a dog?” Lizzie said, setting off a new round of laughter. “Woof woof.”

“It’s a brilliant idea, Hope,” David said. “I can think of ten people right off the top of my head who would benefit from such a place, including Marion.”

“And we know the perfect person to oversee it,” Lizzie said to her husband, who frowned.

“I don’t know…”

“What don’t you know? Your brother is between jobs and looking for something new. What would be better for him than this?” To the others, she said, “Jared’s brother Quinn was an army medic and recently returned to civilian life. He was a GP before the army, so he could easily take on something like this, couldn’t he, David?”

“I’m sure he’s probably overqualified,” David said.

“See?” Lizzie said, her eyes flashing with excitement.

“Do you guys see what I live with?” Jared asked, his smile conveying his obvious affection for his wife.

“I know, I’m such a hardship,” Lizzie said, winking at him.

“If you’re serious about this,” Paul said, “the town is about to put the old school building on the market now that the new one is open.”

“Can we look at it tomorrow?” Lizzie asked.

Jared groaned again. “There go my plans to chill by the pool all day.”

“Can we?” Lizzie asked again.

“I’ll see if I can set it up,” Paul said, amused by her enthusiasm.

“Dog meet bone,” Jared said.

Lizzie let out a bark that had them all howling with laughter.

Much later, after the others had left, Hope helped Alex, Jenny and Paul clean up.

“Can you imagine if this idea of yours actually comes to fruition?” Alex asked.

“I didn’t mean to set Lizzie off on such a tangent,” Hope said. “I was just saying how nice it would be to have something like that here. Of course, I probably put myself out of a job with my big idea.”

“No way,” Jenny said. “If it happens, and that’s a big if at this point, they’ll need tons of people to staff the place.”

“True,” Hope said. “I just hope you guys don’t think I was overstepping by bringing it up.”

“Why would we?” Paul asked. “We value your opinions and ideas, and if this one comes to pass, we’ll owe you a huge debt of gratitude for finding a way to get Mom the care she needs right here on the island. That’d be a miracle to us.”