Page 53 of You'll Be the Death of Me

“Email?” she asked in shock.

“Yes. I told you the administration is very corporate.”

“Who on earth are you emailing?”

“Not earth, obviously,” Cole said, and tapped at the screen. “And I’m looking up our new friend’s case manager, as requested.”

“Huh,” Dell said, shocked but thankful. “Thanks.”

They passed doorways with nurses coming and going, aidespushing carts. An intercom buzzed to life and paged Dr. Arroyo. Dell gently held Irv back when they reached the elevator, knowing they’d have to wait for a living person to open the doors for them. He was still chattering about the surprisingly tasty menu.

“Mm-hmm, I had some delicious Jell-O earlier,” Dell added after Irv gave a compliment of the desserts. “How long have you lived in San Francisco, Irv?”

Irv cheerfully pivoted topics with the ease of the wind changing direction. “Came here in ’69. The Summer of Love.” He chortled a laugh. “I’ll tell you, that scene was wild. What a time to be alive.”

Dell had a vision of Irv with long hippie hair and wearing bell-bottoms.

A harried-looking doctor with a stethoscope around her neck approached the elevator and jammed the button to open the doors. She wore a long white lab coat over a pair of purple scrubs. Dell wondered what department she worked in and if she might, hopefully, be on her way to the third floor.

“I was born and raised here, but well past the Summer of Love,” Dell said, keeping Irv occupied while they waited to enter the elevator.

Irv laughed a jolly sound. “Well, you would have loved it. I remember the day we...”

The elevator opened, and they all stepped in with the doctor. Dell let Irv continue to chatter and nudged Cole with her elbow. “Anything?”

Cole was still studying his tablet, his brow pinched and lips pursed. “He passed three days ago,” he quietly reported.

“Then why is he still here?” Dell whispered.

“Looks like a paperwork delay.”

“Paperwork delay? Seriously?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Well, can you send a memo he’s stuck or something?”

Cole looked down at the plea in her eyes, and she saw thenoon his lips melt like a scoop of ice cream in the sun. “Your altruism is equally as impressive as your loyalty. As are your persuasion skills. I’ll see what I can do.”

Dell beamed at him. “Thank you. And while you’re at it, can you look up Robbie’s mom?

Cole sighed. “I should get a raise...”

Dell caught the hint of a smile on his mouth and grinned to herself, knowing he’d do it. Irv was still chattering beside her. She threw in an occasionalmm-hmmandhow interesting,though she was only paying about 60 percent attention.

It turned out the harried doctorwasgoing to the third floor. She stepped out when the elevator arrived with a ding, and the three invisible companions she didn’t even know she had followed.

“It’s this way to your room,” Irv said, though Dell didn’t need the direction.

She could see a small cluster of people outside a doorway: Mariana, tapping away at her phone; Oscar, her sous-chef, leaning against the wall with his bulky arms crossed; a hospital security guard; and her sister-in-law, Lena, bouncing Dell’s younger niece on her hip.

The sight of them all made Dell’s chest swell.

“Thank you, Irv,” Dell said, and patted his arm. “You’ve been very helpful.

“Sure thing, dear. You’ve got a lot of admirers. Count me among the list,” he said with a wink. “Say, any chance your friend here has figured out those directions?”

Dell turned to Cole with the same question on her face. Cole finished tapping something into his tablet and looked up with a kind smile. “If you return to your room, Mr. Jones, someone will be with you shortly to help sort things out.”