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Actually, he whispered “surprise.” Maybe that was his way of making sure his grandma was surprised, but not too surprised.
    “A surprise party?” Debra said. “Thank you.”
    “It was my idea,” Jeffrey said proudly.
    Debra looked all around the living room, and she clearly liked what she saw. Good thing, too, because Ramona, Scott, and Rob had spent all morning sprucing things up and buying extra supplies for her big return.
    Jeffrey ran over and tugged on Debra’s dress. “Grandma. Can I give you a tour?”
    Debra didn’t exactly need a tour of her own house, but she accepted anyway. Jeffrey tugged her into the hallway. Rob chased after them, presumably so that the over-excited seven-year-old didn’t wear out the hospital patient.
    For the first time since their ride in his truck, Scott and Ramona were alone.
    “You dusted,” he said.
    “Just a little,” Ramona explained. “I figured it would take about a half hour for you to pick her up, so—”
    “Thanks,” he said. Before she could get too proud of herself, he added, “As long as you didn’t use the lime green dust rags. Those are family heirlooms.”
    Gulp.
    That was exactly what Ramona had used. They didn’t seem like heirlooms. They seemed like dust rags.
    “Um …”
    “Stop looking so scared,” he said. “I’m kidding.”
    She shoved him in the shoulder. Hard.
    “Sorry,” he said, laughing. “I saw one sticking out of your back pocket, so I knew those were the ones you used. Not funny?”
    “Not funny,” she said.
    He breathed deeply. “I still can’t believe it.”
    “That I thought some old rag was a family heirloom?” she asked.
    “That she’s okay,” he said. “After eighty-five days.”
    She hugged him, not like a wife hugging a husband, but like a friend comforting a friend. “It’s surreal.”
    “Exactly,” he said. “Surreal. If you just look at my life right now, it’s almost like the last three months never happened.”
    “Well, not exactly,” she said. There was a coldness in her voice, and she didn’t know why.
    “For the longest time,” he continued, “I thought she’d never wake up.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I never gave up hope,” Ramona said. “I always knew things would work out okay.”
    “I guess that’s the difference between you and me,” he said. “I’m not as hopeful.”
    That was certainly
a
difference between them, but it wasn’t the only one. But what was she hoping for right now? His arms were wrapped around her shoulders, their breathing in perfect sync, and an embrace that started out as friendship was slowly morphing into something else.
    Those old teenage feelings came back to her, full force. She didn’t want to start crushing on him again, not when they were watching over his mom. Not when they were playing house.
    But his embrace—so comfortable.
    He pulled away first. “You can leave if you want to,” he said.
    “What?” she asked. His voice was perfectly clear, but she hoped that she’d misheard him.
    He put a hand on her shoulder. “You can go home,” he said. “I’ve already asked too much of you for the day.”
    Ramona’s heart sank. Even though she knew he was doing her a favor, it felt like he was abandoning her. Again.
    And just like that, her mind whirled back to the beginning of the year, before the wedding, before the coma, before everything. It was just her and Nessa, drinking tea and watching some trashy reality television (Nessa’s choice, not hers).
    Ramona asked her sister about her day, and that was when Nessa casually said, “Scott asked me out this morning. So I guess we’re dating now.”
    Ramona couldn’t catch her breath. She should’ve been happy for her sister and her best friend. But the only thing she could think of, as she struggled to process this new information, was:
Why did he choose
her
?
    She felt that Scott had abandoned her, even though she had no claim over him, even though he wasn’t even in the same room.