Satisfied that I at least had help in my quest, I finally headed back home. Well, not home. Home was a two-story blue house not too far from where I knew Jasper’s parents still lived. A new family lived there now. I’d seen them. Three kids. A mom and a dad. But not us. Bruno was halfway around the world, Mom had her small apartment, and Dad…

Well. Dad was somewhere. A better place, they said. I wasn’t so sure. But I did know that him not being here had changed everything, taken that little blue house away for good. And after my accident, I’d had no choice but to stay with Mom for a while, but I hated feeling like I was crowding her already tight space, disrupting the new routines she’d worked so hard to find. So I’d moved in with some friends. Crappy apartment on the edge of town, a complex that had never seen a good decade, with thin walls and lax management, but I could afford my share of the rent. At least I hadn’t had to worry about the whole application thing on my own.

And it was on a bus line, which was an advantage because I didn’t take my car out unless I had no choice. It was a Sunday, so I had a wait for a bus, but that was fine. I had my phone and other distractions with me. No one was around at the downtown stop, so I pulled out my pocket sketchbook, did some doodles while I waited. I roughed out some crowns, trying to psych myself up for Wednesday, but somehow my pen strokes kept morphing into cartoon versions of Jasper. Messy hair. Easy smiles. I was being ridiculous, but it passed the time until the bus finally pulled up.

As I pocketed my sketchbook, my phone buzzed with a message. Jasper, almost like he’d sensed my obsession with getting the right lift to his expressive eyebrows.

Change your mind yet?

Gee. He had such faith in me. No. You wanting me to back out? Got another prince on standby?

The reply came as I found a seat at the back of the bus. Nope. No such luck. Just making sure because Kellan says some hospital administrators are stopping by. It would suck not to have a Neptune for their visit.

What the heck? He’d said kids. But a promise was a promise.