I expected a smile, for her to make a joke about pretending to be a Newdale mafioso, but she remained serious and unflinching, the weight of her words hanging between us.

As I turned around to escape her gaze, a bleary-eyed Ash walked in, pulling a T-shirt over his head while stifling a yawn. “Man, I could sleep for another week,” he said.

“We keep telling you you’re working too hard,” Maya said. “Stay in bed.”

“I’ll go back up in a bit,” he snapped, before closing his eyes for a moment and adding, softly this time, “Didn’t mean to jump down your throat there. Sorry, Bee.” He frowned as Maya let out a cross between a gasp and a squeak. “Maya the Bee,” he whispered. “That’s what we used to call you when you were a kid. That’s your nickname.”

Maya rushed over and flung her arms around him. “Yes, yes, that’s right.”

“This is huge,” I said, unable to contain my excitement. “Isn’t that one of the oldest things that’s come back so far? That’s got to be significant.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Ash said.

“But it could mean more of your memory’s returning,” I said. “Dr. Adler mentioned—”

“Dr. Adler?” Ash said. “When did you speak to him?”

“Oh, I, uh...I phoned him when I first arrived. We talked about amnesia in general.”

“You never mentioned it...did you?” Ash said.

“No,” I replied quickly. “With everything that’s been happening, it slipped my mind.”

He grinned. “I can relate.”

“We’d better get going,” Maya said, cutting him off with another hug. “This is amazing, so incredibly amazing. We’ll talk later, okay? We really shouldn’t be late. You take it easy today, you hear me?”

He held up his hands. “Fine, fine, I promise. In any case, you should be able to move the shelving units into your new room soon. Are you sure you don’t want me to put a window on the back wall?”

“Way too much work.” Maya gave him a peck on the cheek. “But thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said before a frown crossed his face. “By the way, before you go, have either of you seen my dad’s watch?”

Maya shook her head. “Have you lost it?”

“I don’t know how,” Ash replied. “I put it on my dresser. I’m sure I did.”

“It’ll show up,” she said. “Come on, Lily, we’d better get going.”