“He was very calm for a person so young. I believe he means to be like your Will here. An emergency physician.”

Nora flushed at the phrase: your Will. Obviously, there’d been the hand-holding, and even before that, Nora and Will’s more lax approach to the secrecy of this whole thing. But looking at Marian and Emily now, she wondered if she ought to make some kind of . . . statement? Saying something out loud, though—was that too much, given that she and Will hadn’t had their promised conversation?

But Emily saved the moment, speaking first. “I might’ve noticed him come by some evenings. I only mentioned it to Marian.”

“I mentioned it to everyone else,” Marian said, wholly unashamed. “Corrine is thrilled, I’ll have you know. It’s taken her a lot of effort not to say anything.”

Nora cringed, embarrassed. Probably she’d seen them the night they’d come back from Garfield Park. She should’ve said something sooner.

Emily placidly worked her needlepoint. “I’ll tell you he’s hard to miss when he’s carrying a seven-foot pole up the walkway at almost ten o’clock at night.”

From behind her, Will made a noise—sort of a snort-guffaw. Emily had known since the shower curtain rod! That was . . . a while, then.

The actual whole time!

“I’m sorry!” Nora said, knee-jerk. “I mean, for not—”

“It’s your business,” said Emily quietly. “There’s no reason to apologize.”

Nora blinked at them in surprised silence, her brain still catching up to the stress of the last several hours, to the relief of having come back to Will’s waiting arms and her neighbors—these two and Mrs. Salas, at the very least—unbothered by the whole entire thing. She knew there was so much stress ahead, knew she still felt a rattle of nerves throughout her body when she thought of Jonah, but it felt good, for now, to have this part feel so easy.

Marian picked up a brown bag from the seat beside her and held it out to Nora. “Come on and eat your food. This man brought you a muffin that’s as big as a baby’s head.”

Nora took the bag, extremely wishing Marian had not compared its contents to a head of any kind, and then turned to look at Will, who was watching her, his expression a mixture of amusement and concern. When she moved to sit on one of the small couches across from Marian and Emily, he stayed standing, the lightness falling away from his expression.

“I’m going to go check at the nurse’s station,” he said. “To see if—”

“Will,” she said, patting the seat beside her, wanting him to feel as settled about things as she did. “Come on.”

“I tried to be careful,” he said quietly, when he sat down. “When I came over, I mean.”