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squirrel.”
    “Natalie’s only nine? I’d have guessed her to be older. She’s so tall.”
    “Takes after her mother. And she’s just barely nine. Her birthday was the tenth of this month.” Mary stretched, her arms extended over her head and her legs flexed out full length. “Time to let your foot thaw out and get your cast back on.” Leaning over, she lifted the towel and ice pack from Ellis’s ankle. Mary helped Ellis get the cast back in place and fasten the hooks and loops. “How are you feeling?” she asked as she plumped the pillow and wedged it under Ellis’s lower leg.
    “Good.” Ellis smiled broadly. “I’m fed, I apparently have a dedicated nurse, my dog has a full-time caretaker, and the drugs have beaten the screaming match in my ankle down to a dull roar. Who could ask for more?”
    “Don’t express that thought in front of Natalie. She’s got a long list she’d happily recite for you.”
    As if on cue, Natalie came up the hallway and into the living room and stood behind the sofa. “For one thing, I’d ask for a little sister. I’ve been telling Mom I want one for years, but I still haven’t gotten her.”
    Mary reached out and tugged affectionately on Natalie’s hair. “Aren’t you supposed to be reading your library book?”
    “Uh-huh, I was, but I think Sammy wants to go outside, so I came to ask you if I should take her for a walk again.”
    “It’s dark out, sweetie. Just put her in the backyard.” Mary gave Ellis a quick look. “It’s fenced. She’ll be fine.”
    Natalie raced down the hall, calling as she went. “C’mon, Sam. We’re going out back.”
    Ellis applauded twice very quietly. “Nice sidestep on the baby sister issue.”
    “Thanks. One of the great things about talking to a nine-year-old is that conversation topics can change in half a sentence.”
    “So I noticed.” Ellis mustered her courage. “So what about Natalie’s father?”
    “Nathan?”
    “If you say so…”
    Mary pressed her hand against Ellis’s forearm. “Wait a sec. Big ears coming into range.”
    Natalie, with Sam in tow on her leash, clomped back into the room. Sam took one look at Ellis on their way to the kitchen, offered a single “woof,” and trotted to the back door with Natalie.
    “Don’t forget to turn the lights on out there, Nat.”
    “Oh, Mom.” Natalie flipped the switch and exited to the yard.
    “It would appear I’ve been replaced,” Ellis said with a sigh. “Fickle dog.”
    “Look at it from Sam’s perspective. If you had a choice between a whirling dervish who’ll chase you around the yard for twenty minutes or a cripple on a crutch who’ll keep telling you to hurry up and do your business, which would you pick?”
    “Point, set, and match, to Natalie Moss.”
    “Natalie Kimbrough.”
    “She doesn’t have your last name?”
    “No, she goes by her dad’s name. My ex-husband.”
    “Nathan?”
    “Nathan.” Mary rose, dragged the glider rocker halfway across the room, and placed it at a right angle to the sofa so they could talk more comfortably. “Nathan Kimbrough, who, by the way, trimmed those bushes for you at Fredrick’s house this afternoon.”
    “Sheesh. I forgot all about that. I must be losing my mind.” Ellis rubbed both temples.
    Mary sat in the glider. “Or under the influence of strong drugs and recovering from a nasty fall.”
    “Still, you’d think I could remember that I’m a landscaper.” Ellis rapped the crown of her head. “Hello? Anybody home?”
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Even if you’d remembered, you couldn’t have done anything about it today.”
    Ellis raised her injured leg from the ottoman. “Blinding glimpse of the obvious. So your ex did the trimming. Wow. How’d you talk him into it?”
    “Have you forgotten? I reign here on the moss-covered orb. All lesser beings, such as men, heed my every command.”
    Ellis swiveled so that she could stretch out on the sofa. “Do you mind if I lie down?