“Please… come with me.”

—

Ten minutes later, I was sitting beside Liam as he drove through a quiet neighborhood.

He pulled up beside a small yellow bungalow.

An elderly woman was watering flowers near the porch.

The moment she saw him, she waved.

“Liam!”

Then she noticed me.

Her entire face brightened.

“You finally brought Meryl!”

I climbed out beside him.

“Finally?”

Liam briefly closed his eyes.

Mrs. Palmer laughed.

“Oh, honey, I’ve been telling him for months I wanted to meet you.”

That wasn’t what I’d expected.

Inside, she made coffee while Liam explained.

Mrs. Palmer used to be one of his clients.

He’d helped her with some work around the house the year before, and she’d apparently adopted him as her unofficial handyman ever since.

Three months earlier, Mrs. Palmer had slipped in her bathroom.

Unable to reach her phone or stand up, she’d spent almost four hours on the floor before her daughter arrived.