“How about you go to your apartment and get some sleep?” she suggested. “I’ll sit with her for the next few hours, and then your dad will take the next shift.”

His worry about Finley and his regrets about how the treasure hunt had ended kept him awake most of last night. Yet the idea of going home caused resistance to sharpen within him. How was he supposed to trust other people enough to leave her? He’d prefer to remain here 24/7.

Mom came over and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. It brought back a flood of memories from when he was a kid. All the times she’d hugged him, felt his forehead when she suspected he had a fever, ran her fingers through his hair.

“Finley would want you to take care of yourself,” she said. “She’s depending on you not to fall apart, so you need to rest.”

She was right. If he continued like this, he’d be of no use to Finley. “You’ll contact me immediately if they decide to bring her back to consciousness?”

“Immediately,” she confirmed.

“And you’ll give my number to all the people who are taking shifts through the night and tell them to call me if that happens?”

“Already have.”

“And the whole night is covered?”

“It is. Everyone in Misty River loves her. It wasn’t difficult to fill every slot.”

That night, Akira answered the doorbell to find Ben standing in the hallway outside her apartment, holding a bouquet of flowers. She pulled him inside, kicked the door closed, and hugged him.

Almost two days had passed since he’d called to tell her about Finley’s injury. It had been a wretched two days.

Fear had been stalking her. So had disbelief. How could healthy, vibrant Finley—whom she’d seen at work just a few days ago—be lying unconscious in an ICU bed?

A year ago, Akira had been a patient in that same ICU, fighting for her life. That time, she’d been so sick that it had been hard to pray. This time she could pray, and so she had been.

She basked in the comfort and steadiness of Ben’s hug. This evening, they were scheduled to spend time with Finley from ten p.m. to one a.m. But they had a few more hours before they’d need to leave for the hospital.

When she pulled back, they quietly measured the nuances of each other’s faces. She’d developed the ability to look beyond his exterior to his character. And what she saw there lit a candle of hope within her.