Laura pulled him into the kitchen while Mark eased himself onto the chair on the porch for a bit, and the words came out of her in a rush, like she’d been holding them in for weeks. Mark’s wife, Sarah, was pregnant with their first baby and had landed in the hospital twice in the last month with complications. Mark had been staying here so Laura could help drive Sarah to appointments while he worked reduced hours to be close by.
She hadn’t told Daniel because she didn’t want him distracted overseas, worrying about a situation he couldn’t do anything about from half a world away. The flowers were from Mark, a thank-you for letting them stay. The prenatal vitamins belonged to Sarah, who’d been resting upstairs in the guest room more often than not. She had set up the new alarm owing to reported burglaries around, and in the chaos of hospital visits and sleepless nights, updating Danie had simply fallen through the cracks.
“I didn’t want you to feel like you had to fix everything,” Laura said quietly. “You had enough to deal with already.” Daniel let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding since he opened the bathroom door, relief and something close to shame washing over him at once. He still had one question left to ask.