By the time the girls left the following Saturday, they’d toured the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory, visited the Von Trapp family lodge, and skied twice more with Aidan. He joined them for dinner every night and took them to his favorite Mexican restaurant in Burlington on their last night. The only thing that marred their otherwise outstanding visit was the nasty cold Clare came down with mid-week.

Ever since the conversation with Jill, Aidan had been tortured by thoughts of what she’d been through. He hoped she’d tell him about it herself, when she was ready. Until then, all he could do was show her how much she—and now her girls—had come to mean to him.

Aidan arrived at the house about an hour after the girls left. The door was locked, so he used his key and found Clare asleep on the sofa in the living room. He went upstairs for a blanket and brought it down to cover her. When he tugged it up around her, one big blue eye opened.

“Hey,” she said, her voice reduced to a croak.

“Oh.” He winced. “Sounds worse than yesterday.”

“Mmm,” she said, choking on a cough.

He felt her forehead. “You’re burning up. Have you taken anything?”

“Not yet. Can’t move.”

“Do you have any Advil or Tylenol?”

“Upstairs bathroom.”

He went up to get it, and by the time he returned a minute later, she had dozed off again.

“Clare,” he whispered. “Wake up. Come on, you need to take something.”

She woke up long enough to swallow two pills.

Aidan carried her upstairs to bed. She never stirred when he pulled the blankets up around her. He kissed her forehead and went downstairs to get some work done while she slept.

She was still asleep two hours later, so he decided to go to McHugh’s to get her some soup. He took the truck so he would only be gone a few minutes. When he got back with chicken soup and get-well wishes from Diana, Clare wasn’t in her bed. He gasped when he found her crumpled on the bathroom floor.

“Clare!” His heart pounding with fear, he shook her awake. “Clare!”

“What happened?” she asked when her eyes finally opened.

He checked her for injuries. “Did you faint?”

“I must have. I had to go to the bathroom.”

“Shit, you’re really sick. We should get you to a hospital.” He knew she was susceptible to pneumonia after her coma. How he knew and why he knew were his own secrets.

“No!” Her eyes went wide with fear when she grabbed his arm. “No hospitals, Aidan, please.”

A week ago he would have argued with her, but now he understood. “Okay, honey, don’t worry. No hospitals. I’ll take you to my house.”

Clare groaned. “Why can’t I just stay here?”