Page 19 of Jay Bird

Mia gave a shaky little smile as a tear slipped down her cheek.

It had been three years since she had seen her friend—three years of wondering if she was okay.

Mia moved first, stepping closer to the bed and carefully leaning down to wrap her arms around Willow.

Willow didn’t even think as she hugged her back.

“Oh my God,” Mia whispered, holding her a little tighter. “I can’t believe that you’re really here.”

Something about the way she said it had Willow closing her eyes.

“I thought you were gone,” Mia said, her voice cracking. “I didn’t want to believe it. I kept telling everyone they were wrong, but after so long…” She drew in a shaky breath.

Willow swallowed around the lump in her throat. There was so much she wanted to say. So much she wanted to ask. But right then, she just held on to her friend for another second.

Then something else popped into Willow’s head. Lily.

She pulled away from Mia so quickly it startled them both.

“Oh, my God. Lily.” Her gaze flew to Riley. “Where’s Lily?”

Before Riley could answer, the door opened.

Willow’s head snapped toward it, and every bit of calm she had managed to find disappeared when a huge man walked into the room, followed by two more men who were just as big. Her body reacted before her brain could catch up, and she instinctively shifted away from them, her hand gripping the edge of the blanket.

Then she saw what the first man was carrying. Well, not what, but who—Lily.

Her little girl, who was skittish around men, was tucked comfortably against the stranger’s chest with her stuffed elephant clutched under one arm. And she wasn’t scared. She wasn’t crying. She was actually laughing.

Willow stared, almost unable to process what she was witnessing.

Then Lily reached into what looked like a container of French fries, pulled one out, and held it up to the man’s mouth.

He leaned down and took a bite.

Was her daughter seriously feeding this enormous stranger a French fry?

“She’s fine,” Riley said softly beside her.

The man carrying Lily caught her gaze for just a moment before he lowered his head and whispered something in Lily’s ear.

Lily’s head snapped around.

“Momma!” Lily squealed and started squirming so much that the man barely caught the container of fries before they fell to the floor.

“Hang on, Peanut,” he said as he carried Lily over to the bed.

“Easy with Mommy," he told Lily softly. “Remember what we talked about.”

Lily nodded as though the two of them had apparently established rules while Willow had been unconscious.

“Gentle.”

“That’s my girl,” he said as he gently set Lily down next to Willow.

Something strange fluttered through Willow’s chest at the words, a brief, unsettling warmth she didn’t want to examine too closely, so she pushed it away almost immediately, refusing to let herself linger on it.

Willow held out her arms, and a second later Lily was in them.