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Connors,” she supplied. She saw him raise a brow at the surname. “As it happens, she’s your real-estate agent’s daughter.” The moment she filled him in, she could guess at his next thought. “Yes, it really is a small world around here.” She turned her attention back to her temporary charges. “Okay, girls, we need to hustle if we’re going to get you to the school before lunch.”
    â€œLunch?” Madelyn cried, clearly dismayed. “Are we that late?”
    Okay, she was going to have to tone down her humor, Kennon thought.
    â€œJust another figure of speech,” she explained. With a hand once more on each girl’s shoulder, she ushered Madelyn and Meghan out the door. And then she looked over her shoulder at the doctor before hurrying off to her vehicle. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised in case he thought she was going to dawdle before returning to the nanny.
    Simon nodded. “So will I,” he replied.
    As the woman with the rapid-fire mouth left, closing the door behind her, Simon had the unshakable impression that he had just been in the company of a grade-five hurricane.
    But at least he was still standing, he told himself, and that had to be worth something.
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    Blair Memorial Hospital was absolutely everything he’d been led to believe it was when he had first gotten in contact with Dr. Edward Hale. First-rate in all fields, it was state-of-the-art when it came to cardiac surgery. The hospital even boasted of having a Gamma Knife available. A Gamma Knife afforded surgeons a virtually unobtrusive method of operating that their brethren of the last century could have only dreamed about. For the most part, it had been regarded as science fiction—until it crossed over and became real.
    At one point not that long ago, Simon would have gotten very excited about the possibilities that lay ahead of him. Except that these days he felt exceedingly guilty about allowing himself to feel anything but a profound sense of loss and sadness.
    Nancy wouldn’t have wanted you to feel that way, the voice in his head insisted. The voice sounded a great deal like Edna at the moment because the woman had known his wife almost better than he had.
    He knew that the voice—and Edna—were probably right. Nancy would have wanted him to move on. But he couldn’t. His body, his entire psyche felt as if it was stuck in molasses, in the past, unable to move, unable to blink. Unable to think of life without his partner, his helper, his soul mate.
    Remember the girls. They need you.
    This time, the voice in his head sounded a great deal like Nancy.
    He realized that the chief of surgery was shaking hishand, a pleased expression on the older man’s broad, kind face.
    â€œWell, I’ve got nothing further to say right now except welcome aboard, Doctor,” he told Simon. Eminently satisfied, the older man added, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Flashing an almost perfect set of teeth, he identified the quote. “That’s from Casablanca . You’ll forgive me, I’m a big movie buff. My wife, bless her, has another term for it, but I like movie buff better. Wives, God love ’em, they’ve all got our number, don’t they?”
    Hale chuckled as he looked at the face of Blair’s newest surgeon on staff. And then the chief of surgery suddenly grew somber.
    â€œOh, my God, I’m sorry. I forgot that your wife passed,” he said delicately, falling back on the squeaky-clean euphemism for death. “I’m sorry, Doctor. That had to have sounded very callous of me.”
    Simon shook his head, doing his very best to detach his consciousness from his surroundings. He’d been doing that for a year now, whenever his thoughts or the conversation veered toward Nancy.
    â€œNo, that’s all right,” he demurred, hoping the matter would be dropped.
    Not