I couldn’t help but grin at Liz through the open door, her smile was so bright.

“Get inside—it’s freezing out there,” she ordered with a wave of her hand.

The house was just as warm and inviting as I remembered.

“I’m so glad you’re here, sweetheart,” she murmured as she gave me a long hug. “How was the drive? Long and boring?”

“It was okay,” I said, letting Alex help me take my sweatshirt off. “I’ve never seen so much of the US.”

“It was long and boring,” Alex joked. “She’s putting a nice spin on it, though.”

“You were bored?” I asked.

“I’m never bored with you,” he said, putting on the charm. Then he mouthed Bored to his mom, making no sound.

“Well,” she said with a laugh. “I’m glad you two are finally here and the trip was uneventful.”

I met Alex’s eyes. It had been far from uneventful.

“You’re here,” Dan said, coming out of the bedroom with a newspaper in his hand.

“Thank God you used the master bath,” Liz said with a laugh. “Because I guarantee they both need to use the other one.”

“Oh, yeah,” Dan said, his cheeks turning a little pink. “Stay out of there for a few minutes.”

Alex laughed as I realized that suddenly I wasn’t a guest anymore. I was part of the inner circle. Just one of the kids.

“I’m going first,” I said. I threw my arm out in front of Alex so he couldn’t race in front of me as I kicked off my shoes.

“We’ll eat in a few minutes,” Liz called as I hurried down the hallway. “I ordered Chinese food!”

I took my time in the bathroom, carefully washing my hand around my cast and smoothing down my hair before I joined the group in the kitchen. When I walked into the room, Dan was standing across the island from where Alex and Liz were sitting. She was rubbing Alex’s back as he spoke quietly.

“It was the worst moment of my life,” he said quietly. “I saw him coming a split second before he hit, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“That must have been terrifying,” Liz murmured.

“It was,” Alex said. “The car spun and I just went running. The airbags had deployed, and Sarai was knocked out.” He put his arms out in front of him, showing off his newly healing scars. “She’d locked the doors, but thankfully the window was broken, so I was able to unlock it.”

“Abraham didn’t tell us you’d been hurt,” Dan said, his voice gruff.

“It was nothing,” Alex said, brushing him off. “It was minimal to what Sarai went through.”

“Don’t do that,” I said, walking farther into the kitchen. “Don’t minimize it.”