Bed & Breakfast Next to the Pink Roses Hotel

Kathy smiled.

"Well, I really have to be leaving now. I have a plane to catch and the taxi will be here any minute."

"Would you mind if I shared it with you?" the doctor asked. "The hospital is on the same route."

"On the contrary."

As Kathy descended the staircase, after saying goodbye to Mrs. Sloan's elder brother, Angus, and to Frances's daughter, she suddenly remembered what her hostess had told her at the hospital, just a couple of minutes before she died.

"Meet Jesse."

Right after that, she had suffered a second heart attack and… that was all. The promising new friendship between M. A. Sloan and Kathy Schneider had ended then and there.

If Jesse were someone Mrs. Sloan really, really wanted her to be introduced to, someone she cared for, shouldn't he be at the funeral? But he wasn't. Maybe the lady's last words hadn't been so meaningful. Maybe it was a trivial comment not intended to fill such a crucial moment - not intended to be taken as a last wish.

"A last wish is something awfully important, is it not?" thought Kathy. "So why on Earth would she focus it on me? The truth is I've only known this woman for barely three weeks. Yes, we met and we instantly found ourselves to be kindred spirits, but friendships do need time to solidify, to prove themselves worthy of something as solemn as a last wish."

Besides, the second heart attack had been so sudden and brief. How could Mrs. Sloan have been aware that the syllables she was about to pronounce would be the last ones ever? It wasn't likely.

When she was reaching the door, resolved to interpret those two words as the beginning of an unimportant conversation abruptly ended, the bell rang. And when she opened, the two most intense brown eyes she had ever seen stared at her.