He picked up the last box and started downstairs. Poppy’s neighbor leaned against the doorframe at the second landing. “She’s lucky to have a strong man like you,” she said as she held a wriggling little dog in her arms. “Moving with all these stairs, hell, I’d rather just stay.”

Ryan smiled at her. “I’m the lucky one.”

“Oh, Lord. Here we go,” she said with an eye roll. “Nah, I’m just playing. Young love is a sweet thing.”

He wedged the last box into the van, nestled between Poppy’s other boxes and his own that carried what meager possessions he’d picked up since re-entering civilian life.

The neighbor had followed him to the van. “What you kids gon’ do in Newark?” she asked.

Ryan looked at Poppy, plonked down in the passenger seat with the door open as her long legs dangled. He couldn’t help but smile. How did I get so lucky?

“Ryan got a job with WitSec, and I got a new internship lined up. Miraculously,” she said with a sigh. He smiled at her. She’d worried endlessly over whether or not she’d get that unexpected opening at the Newark hospital, but he’d known she’d nail it. She never gave herself enough credit.

“WitSec?” the woman asked.

“Witness Protection,” Ryan said.

“Oh! Are you… you’re the feds?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said with a laugh. “US Marshals. Not the CIA or anything.”

“What about you, baby?” the woman asked Poppy. “What you gon’ be doin'?”

“Working with kids with metabolic disorders,” she said. “I never could decide all through med school between my two favorite specialties. It’s nearly impossible to find an internship that covers both, and yet… here it is.” Poppy held out her hands like she couldn’t believe it herself.

He couldn’t ever remember seeing her this happy before.

“Well, you kids be safe. God bless you both,” the woman said.

As they went into her apartment for one last check, Poppy ran her fingers across the windowsill. “I can’t believe this is it,” she said. “It’s crazy, but part of me is going to miss this old place.”

“There’s something to be said for the familiar,” he said as he came up behind her and hugged her.

“What time’s your mom arriving again?” he asked her.

Poppy checked her phone. “Her flight’s supposed to arrive at eight,” she said. “We should have plenty of time to get there before her.”

“Enough time to stop in Wilmington for that deep dish place?” he asked.

“You’re insatiable,” she said.

“Only for you.” He could feel her eye roll without having to look. “Honestly though, are you okay with this? Your mom staying with us?”

“I think so,” she said. “Are you? I mean, I know it’s awkward. We’re just now moving in together, and she—”

He shook his head. “It’s perfectly fine with me.”

“I just, ugh, I don’t know. Even with the restraining order against my dad, what if he… I don’t know. And only eighteen months in jail, I still can’t believe that. After all the years of hell he put her through—”

“It would have been a lot less without your testimony, Pops. That’s just how the system works.”

“I know,” she said, as she stared at her cupped hands. “It’s still not fair. And it took her so long to get over being mad at me about ratting him out… I just hope it all works out okay.”

“It will.” He spun her around to face him.

“It’s just—I mean, she came to us because she had nowhere else to turn,” she said. “That can’t be easy, asking your own kid for help.”

“She came to you because she loves you,” he said. “You know that.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Maybe. I still feel bad about the whole thing.”

“Don’t you ever feel badly about it,” he said, and lifted her face to him. “You did the right thing, a brave thing, and even when your dad gets out there’s no way in hell he’ll find her. Or you.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Promise.” She looked at him with total trust. It was a responsibility he was happy to burden.