“Lila is a delight,” Eve said, and let warmth fill the words because it was true. “Joyful and smart as ever.”
“I miss them so much,” William admitted. “I haven’t seen them in a while.”
Eve paused and glanced down the hall, wondering if she should say anything about Mia, but then the words were out before she could stop herself. “I am worried about Mia.”
There was a breath of silence on the line, as if William had leaned in.
“Is she alright?” Concern echoed through Williams’ voice. “Has something happened?”
Eve lowered her voice, though Mia could not hear her from the hallway. “Two days before Christmas, there was a child who had a very bad accident. There was a hit-and-run bicycle accident. The girl was ten years old. Mia was on duty and caught the case.” Eve’s throat tightened. She pushed through. “She did everything right. Everything. She fought. Mia brought every ounce of herself into that operating room, and it still wasn’t enough.”
William’s exhale sounded like grief. “Oh, Mia.”
“She has lost patients before,” Eve said. “Not many. Never a child. This one…” Eve stopped, because saying more out loud felt like giving the pain another shape. “This one has haunted her and had a very bad effect on Mia.”
William’s voice softened. “Is she eating?”
Eve almost laughed, not because it was funny but because it was so human. The questions people asked when they didn’t know what else to ask. “She tries. For Lila.”
“And sleeping?”
Eve looked at the tree, at the ornaments, at the careful order Mia had built around herself. “Not much.”
William went quiet for a beat, and Eve pictured him standing in his shop back home, phone to his ear, face tightening the way it did when he decided something.
“You need to get her away from there,” William said.
Eve blinked. “Away?”
“A change of scenery,” William said. “A change of pace. A place that doesn’t smell like antiseptic and stress.”
“Lila and I were just saying we need to get Mia away from Los Angeles.”
Lila walked back into the room at that moment.
“Are we going away?” she asked in wide-eyed wonder.
Eve put the phone on speaker once again so Lila could hear.
“Then let me make it easy,” William said, and something in his voice turned decisive. “Come to St. Augustine.”
He paused for a second to catch his breath. “Come for the New Year. Come for a few weeks if you can. I have a friend, Julie Christmas, who runs the Christmas Inn on Anastasia Island.She’ll put you up. I’m sure she has rooms. She has the kind of place that makes people breathe again.”
Eve’s mind tried to organize the information. St. Augustine. Florida.
“Yes, yes.” Lila clapped her hands. “Yes. Uncle William. We want to.”
“Don’t get too excited,” Eve warned Lila. “We have to talk to Mia first.”
“Of course,” William said. “Tell her I called. Tell her I miss her. Tell her I’d like to see you all.”
“I will,” Eve said.
After a few more pleasantries with William, Eve ended the call and set the phone back on the coffee table.
Lila stared at her as if Eve had just produced plane tickets from thin air. “That was… weird.”
Eve arched a brow. “Weird?”
