Jillian sipped her tea, despite the boiling temperature. “I have time.”

After tea, considerable answers from Jillian, a sponge bath, and change of clothes, Dani took out her phone and dialed her aunt’s number. Trudy Timmons was only twelve years older than Dani, a surprise! baby for her grandparents. She’d been more of a sister to Dani than she’d ever been to Dani’s father, and was one of the few people Dani trusted absolutely.

Still, her hands shook slightly as Tru’s “ring-back” song played. She loved Tru, but her predilection for the BareNaked Ladies after all these years was deeply concerning.

As soon as All Star stopped playing, she sighed, “Hey, Tru, what’s the damage?”

“Oh, hon, you don’t want to open the conversation that way.”

The corner of Dani’s mouth lifted. While she’d never been in Wisconsin long enough to pick up the regional accent, she always found it comforting in Tru. That “doncha know?” tone meant home to Dani. It meant Gramma’s apple crumble and riding the orchards with Grandad. It meant staying up all night giggling over magazines with Tru. It meant she was loved.

“Hi, how are you? How’s Grandad? Is his hip still acting up? How’s the weather? What’s the damage?”

Trudy sighed on the other end of the line. “It’s bad, hon.”

Dani’s heart sank.

Her father had been born John Mason Nilsson III in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. But by the time he’d met her mother on a cold desert night in 1987, he’d changed it to “Journey Windsong.” He’d missed the hippie era by about twenty years, but Journey was a big proponent of free love and free spirits and well, anything that was free. He’d never quite figured out that what was “free” for him usually ended up costing someone else—usually his parents.

While Trudy had been a much-cherished baby, Gramma Nilsson had spent several decades spoiling her golden boy. As much as Dani loved her grandmother, it was not a mystery as to where Journey got the impression that there would always be people just waiting to hand him whatever he wanted, all while he proclaimed that he didn’t need to work for a living because “the universe would provide.” When Dani was twelve, she asked Gramma how she felt about being called “the universe.” Dani got grounded for the weekend.