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said anything about falling for him? A kiss isn’t a marriage proposal, pull it together, Kate.”
    “But he’s not as big a schmuck as I assumed. Actually, he’s charming and sweet, and… maybe this isn’t right.”
    Joan pursed her lips and was about to answer before Lily ran up and grinned at her sister. She had things in each hand. First, she unveiled the slightly lopsided Rattlers poster, complete with lumpy snake mascot front and center. Kate oohed and ahh’ed over it appropriately. It was cute, but it wasn’t her sister’s best work. Instead, her whole face lit up when Kate spied the gorgeous beaded bracelet in her sister’s hand.
    Lily reached over and looped it over Kate’s wrist. It was a mix of lavender and pink beads with a cute faux silver butterfly hanging from it. “We made this in art class, and I made one just for you!”
    Kate grinned and hugged her sister tight, enjoying the feel of her in her arms. It was the only thing she wanted: her sister—her only living family—alive and healthy. “It’s adorable, Lilz, just like you,” she poked her sister lightly on the nose.
    Lily rubbed the tip and rolled her eyes. “It’s Lily. I’m too old for kid’s names,” she said, but she bit her lip and looked at her hands. She wasn’t nearly as confident as she was pretending to be. “But you like it?”
    “I couldn’t like anything more.”

Chapter Nine
    There was screaming.
    It was the blood-curdling shrieks that woke her from a fitful sleep. Goosebumps spreading all over her flesh, Kate bolted out of bed and rushed for her sister’s room, all the while her heart was pounding in her chest. She reached her sister’s bedroom threshold but had to wait there, feeling the agony pouring over her as a violent seizure rocked through her sister’s body.
    Ever since the accident five years ago, Lily had developed severe epilepsy. She had seizures so severe that she had broken an arm once with her thrashing, and often wet herself or spent hours afterwards fuzzy and unable to concentrate.
    However, no matter how badly Kate wanted to run to her, she had to wait until her sister stopped shaking. It was dangerous to try holding someone down when they were in the throes of a seizure—it could cause torn ligaments or broken bones as well. The minutes dragged on, and if she lived to be ninety, Kate would never forget the sight of her sister’s eyes rolling back in her head for so long.
    Finally, God, finally , the tremors stopped and she ran across the room to cradle Lily. She touched her sister’s cheek and tried to ignore how cold it felt. “Lily, baby, are you okay? Can you tell me what day it is?”
    Her sister’s eyes were still rolling back in her head, still mostly just the whites of her eyes. Her mouth was frothing with spittle and she was far from answering.
    Horrified, Kate set her down on her lap and yanked out her cell phone. Dialing 911, she rocked her sister as she waited for a reply. They’d had great progress for the last six weeks, but it was time to go back to their home away from home, the emergency room.
    “Hello, Emergency Response, how may I help?”
    “It’s my sister, please send an ambulance. 2122 Sparrow Court. I…she’s not waking up.”
     
    ***
     
    The doctor had been back with Lily for over an hour. They’d asked her to leave the immediate examination room in the ER and go to the plastic waiting chairs in an alcove. The doctor said they needed space to work, and Kate was terrified it was something they’d done to divert her, to keep her away because her sister was dying or was, perhaps, already brain dead. It was a fear that had been playing on her especially this last year. It was why they’d hooked up with Ops for Kids in the first place. Her concierge job at a second-rate casino and hotel didn’t come with medical benefits. There was no way for them to afford the hemispherectomy, the surgery that would stop these traumatic seizures as Lily’s different