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the girl just as she was about to peel off her shirt and change, too. "Hold on there a minute. I'm a boy. You can't change like that in front of me." He shielded his eyes comically.
    She frowned and gave Jus a look like he was stupid or something. "I change in front of Dr. Nate all the time."
    "Doctors are different," Jus said, calmly. "They have to see body parts so they can make them better."
    The little girl rolled her eyes again. "You are so lame. Turn your back."
    Jus laughed and stood. "I'll stand on the other side of the curtain. You call me when you're ready."
    We heard rustling and some cute grunting.
    "Having trouble?"
    "No!" She sounded indignant. "I got it! I'm ready!"
    Jus took my hand and pulled me with him around the curtain.
    "Ta-da!" The girl held her arms up and out.
    "You look beautiful!" Jus said in that adorable voice he used to tell me the same thing. The voice that actually made a girl feel the way he saw her.
    The little girl's beam of happiness turned into a frown as her gaze slid to our clasped hands. Holding hands in public was becoming automatic.
    "Who's she ?" Her voice and face turned to thunder, startling in one so small with so little energy. She was in a pique of little girl jealousy.
    "This is my new wife, Kayla." I swore his voice caught on the words. "Kayla, Sophia."
    "I'm happy to meet you!" As I reached out my free hand to shake hers, Sophia recoiled and glared at me.
    She shook her head vehemently. "No! No, you can't! You can't have a wife. You promised!" If she'd been standing up, she would have stamped her feet. Because she was lying in bed, she had to resort to pounding her pillow with her tiny fist in an impotent show of rage and displeasure. " I was going to marry you when I grew up! Remember, silly face?"
    Justin's face softened. He hesitated. "Sorry, Sophia. You won't be grown up for a long time. I'll be an old man by then and you won't want me." He grinned at me. "But you're going to love Kayla as much as I do."
    My heart did an odd little flip. Love me? How easily and casually he tossed the phrase around in public.
    "She knows all about hair and makeup and fashion," he continued. "All those things you love."
    Sophia's face twisted into a grotesque, exaggerated frown. Her little lips puckered. "I don't like her. You were supposed to marry Mommy until I got old. Then I would marry you."
    "Who's supposed to marry me?" A slender woman, an older, healthier version of Sophia, pulled back the privacy curtain and stepped inside it, carrying a paper cup of cafeteria coffee. "Oh! Justin!" She flushed.
    "Vicki!" He released my hand and hugged her.
    From her bed, Sophia flashed me a smug smile. I realized that mama bear had just arrived. Clearly, Sophia was misguided in her beliefs about what her mom could and couldn't do.
    Vicki was young. Much younger than I imagined. Had I imagined? I guess I involuntarily had. And I'd been picturing someone more my own parents' age, though that was silly. Because they were parents of a grown daughter, not a preschooler. But it was automatic, wasn't it, to imagine parents being, well, an advanced, experienced parental age?
    I would have been surprised if Vicki was as old as I was, though she looked worn with worry. When Jus introduced us, I felt the slight chill of Vicki's disappointment. Had she been hoping to catch Jus, too? Was I the only girl in the world between the ages of three and ninety-three who'd been immune to his charms? Or did she see Jus as a way to provide for her sick child? Could I blame her for that?
    Vicki was pretty in a hard, life-worn sort of way. Her face was young and smooth and covered with too much makeup. She would have looked younger and fresher with less. The look in her eyes was old, and almost afraid of getting older. I supposed having a sick child did that to a person. I took it there was no daddy in the picture. And in at least Sophia's mind, Jus was a good candidate.
    Vicki shook my hand and sang Justin's praises,