I couldn’t help it.
“I’m Lauren,” I said.
Her eyes got huge.
“Dr. Nate’s Lauren?”
My heart stopped.
“You know about me?”
“He talks about you all the time.”
“He says you can plan a party for three hundred people in a week.”
“He says you make the best meatloaf in the world.”
She tore a page out of her sketchpad.
She held it out.
“This is for Poppy.”
It was a card.
Two girls holding hands.
One in a hospital bed.
One in a birthday hat.
Across the top, in purple marker: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWIN.
“We have the same birthday,” Maddie said.
“Dr. Nate told me.”
“He says Poppy’s braver than me.”
“But I don’t think that’s true.”
“I’ve had six surgeries.”
“How many has Poppy had?”
“None,” I said.
My voice was barely there.
“See?” she said.
“I win.”
The woman in the chair stirred.
She blinked awake.
