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“He’s really okay?” she asked against me.

“Yes.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

I leaned back and lifted her chin until she looked at me.

“No. I’m not just saying it. Your daddy is awake. He’s talking. He was drinking ice water and getting on my nerves before I left.”

The tiniest smile appeared through her tears, and I smiled too. My last comment seemed to help. Maylee wiped her face with the bottom of her shirt before looking at me again.

“When is he coming home?”

And there it was. The question I’d known was coming and still wasn’t ready to answer. I mean, I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to because he had a long road ahead of him. I looked down at our hands for a moment before meeting her eyes again.

“Not right now.”

Her eyebrows pulled together.

“Why?”

“One of the bullets hurt Daddy’s back. The doctors fixed what they could during surgery, but there’s still a lot of swelling around the injury, and it’s affecting his legs.”

Maylee stared at me as she tried to understand.

“What does that mean?”

“It means Daddy has some work to do before he can come home. He’s going to need therapy, and the doctors are going to help him get stronger.”

“Is he scared?”

That question made me pause. I thought about Malik lying in that hospital bed yesterday. The way he’d stared at his legs after the doctor explained what was happening. The silence that had followed. My husband wasn’t a man who admitted to fear easily, but I knew him well enough to recognize when something shook him.

“Probably a little.”

Maylee looked surprised by my answer, so I rubbed her back.

“Being scared doesn’t mean Daddy isn’t strong. Sometimes scary things happen, and we have to figure out how to get through them anyway. That’s what he’s doing.”

“Can I see him?” she asked as she started to clean up her face with the back of her hand.

“Of course you can.”

“Today?”

“If the doctors say he’s up for visitors, I’ll take you.”

She nodded.

“And I can stay with him?”

“For a little while.”

“I wanna bring him something.”

I smiled because we had raised her right. Wanting to bring him something spoke volumes, and I loved the young lady that she was becoming. Maylee became quiet again, and I watched her mind working as she sat beside me. There would be more questions. Probably dozens of them. Some today, others days from now when something reminded her of this conversation. I was prepared to answer them as they came. For now, she knew the most important thing, and that was that her father was alive. I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head.

“We’re going to be okay,” I said in a whisper.