Her new plan? She had no clue, other than it had to be bigger than her old one. Maybe it should be to appreciate surviving, learning to live her life to the fullest.

She stepped into her new apartment. Other than the pics Simon had on his phone, she’d signed the lease place unseen, so she was relieved to find it was even roomier than she’d thought. The kitchen, living room, and bedroom were filled with nooks and crannies typical of an old Victorian. It was furnished, which was a bonus because she hadn’t wanted anything from her previous life. Comfy-looking leather couch and chair, a huge TV, an oak table and chairs, and a king-size bed with navy-and-white bedding that looked so inviting she almost crawled into it on the spot. All of it looked well loved and well lived in, and Emma sent a silent thank-you to whoever had furnished the place. It was clean, definitely masculine, but also warm and cozy. It felt . . . perfect.

Shutting the door behind her and Hog, she was immediately drawn to the big picture window and the view of the Pacific Ocean. Turquoise water, dotted with whitecaps and sailboats, stole her breath.

Still sweating and trembly, Emma made it to the couch, collapsing onto the cushions. Hog plopped heavily to the floor at her feet, both of them thrilled with the glorious view but even more glorious silence. Some of her tension started to drain away.

Until someone knocked on her door.

Hog jumped up and hid behind the couch.

“It’s open,” Emma said wearily to the exes squared, wishing she could hide behind the couch too.

The door opened, but it wasn’t the exes squared. It was two high-school-aged boys, both tall, gangling, and clearly twins, wearing matching T-shirts that said RJ MOWING SERVICE.

And they were carrying her entire life in four boxes.

Hog peeked out from behind the couch, his hangdog face creased in worry.

Emma managed to sit up. “Um, hi?”

“Hi,” one of them said. “We take care of the yard of this property. I’m R.” He jabbed a thumb at the other kid. “He’s J. Simon gave us twenty bucks to carry these boxes up here for you. Uh . . . is that a bear behind the couch?”

“Nope, just an anxious dog named Hog. What do R and J stand for?”

“Robert,” the first kid said, patting his chest with his hand. He pointed at his twin. “Jeremy. We hate our names so we go by R and J.”

Jeremy nodded, but didn’t speak.

They were so identical it was almost spooky, but then Emma realized that while R had two green eyes, J had one light brown, one green. He nudged R, whispering something in his brother’s ear.

R nodded. “Right.” He looked at Emma. “So does Hog eat people? Cuz he’s drooling like maybe he needs lunch.”

They all eyed Hog. The classic-looking St. Bernard was massive, heavy, and potentially powerful, with a thick furry coat. Emma could see how he’d been mistaken for a bear because only his huge head was peeking out from behind the couch. He was panting slightly, his big milk chocolate eyes filled with deep concern.

“He eats everything but people,” Emma said fondly. “Also, he’s a very large scaredy-cat. I’m . . . kind of his emotional support person.” Then she said to Hog, “It’s okay. They’re friendlies.”

Hog, always good-natured even when scared, gave a tentative wag of his tail and came out, waiting to receive all the love. Both guys were happy to give him what he wanted. In two seconds, Hog was on his back again, tongue lolling in happiness while he received all the pets.

“What happened to the couple who was supposed to carry my boxes up?” Emma asked.

“Simon told them we had this,” R said. “And that they should go because the sprinklers were going to come on and ruin the new wash job on their Lexus. The guy said he could move the car and park on the street instead, but Simon said the street cleaners would be coming through soon so it was best if they just left. The woman had to talk the guy into it.”

Not sure how she felt about Simon being her own personal superhero for the day, Emma searched her pockets, hoping she had some money to tip the teens. “Thanks so much for the assist. I really appreciate it.” She went to stand up. “Let me just find my wallet—”

“Simon told us if we took a tip from you, he’d fire us,” R said.

And then they were gone, and she was blessedly alone. If she could’ve done a happy dance, she would’ve. Instead, she settled for flopping onto the couch again. She was on her own. Yay! She looked around and her smile faded some.

Alone meant she didn’t have anyone to open a jar when her shaky fingers couldn’t grasp it tight enough. No one to sit on the bathroom counter while she showered to make sure if she fell, she had a quick rescue.

No one to be there when she woke up from the nightmares of being back in the coma, trapped in her own mind.

As if he sensed her worry, Hog joined Emma and they both tried to watch the beautiful scenery, the water, the puffy clouds lazily crossing a bright sky . . . but they promptly caved to the exhaustion and took a nap. And for those few hours, Hog wasn’t the only drooler.

Chapter 2

Step 2: Listen.

Being in a coma was a funny thing. One minute you were jogging and singing along to Pink in your headphones as you hopped off the curb to cross the street, and in the next beat you were . . . nowhere, just floating somewhere above reality, but below the afterlife.

For Emma, it’d been like sinking underwater, terrified and unable to move, not even to open her eyes, at the complete mercy of the tide. She could hear things going on around her, all of it warped, as if going through a filter.

Later she’d learned that had been the heavy drugs they’d had her on, but at the time, all she’d known was that she couldn’t open her eyes or move as real life went on around her. The snippets of conversations she’d caught had come to life vividly behind her eyelids, like dreams.

She could still remember two women talking about one of them hooking up in a supply closet with an ER doc the night before. She’d gotten pregnant and had given birth to a litter of healthy puppies. Ten of them.

Obviously she’d been given really good drugs.

She’d heard Ned and Cindy talking quietly to themselves about a cruise to the moon.

Her parents promising her that if she would only wake up, they’d help her learn to fly.

Then two more female voices; one of them had just broken up with her boyfriend who was on fire, racing through flames, carrying his dad on his back everywhere he went. She’d dumped him for leaving her behind.