keeping her face pressed tightly against her father's shoulder.
"I'm going to keep him comfortable," Gracie said, walking the fine line of truth and falsehood.
"You'll make it stop hurting him?"
"Yes," Gracie said. "I promise you I will."
#
Sophie wanted to follow Gracie around back to find Doctor Jim but Noah wouldn't let her.
"You're cold and wet," he said to his daughter. "Let's go upstairs and get warm first."
He should have known the quiet afternoon was too good to be true. Her crying about the injured seagull suddenly turned into a mini-temper tantrum. The tantrum fell short of kicking and biting but it wasn't a whole lot of fun for either one of them. Sophie was crying so hard she could hardly breathe by the time he got her upstairs to her room. So much for progress. Every time Noah felt like he'd gotten a handle on fatherhood, he hit another speed bump.
"Take off your clothes," he told Sophie, "and put on your robe while I start a bath for you."
"I don't want to take a bath."
"A nice warm bubble bath will make you feel better."
"I don't want to feel better."
"I don't want you to catch cold, Soph."
She made a run for it. He managed to catch her at the top of the staircase. He tucked her under his arm and carried her back to her room.
"I want to help the bird, Papa," she said, struggling against his efforts to remove her wet clothes. "I have to find Gracie and help her."
"Gracie is an animal doctor," he reminded Sophie, "and so is Doctor Jim. They'll make sure the bird doesn't hurt anymore."
"But I am the one who found him. He'll be looking for me."
"He's being cared for, Sophie. I'll bet Gracie will be up here by the time you finish your bath and put on your nightgown." How did you draw the line between the painful truth and a comforting lie?
Sophie didn't seem convinced but most of the fight drained out of her. He wasn't above taking advantage of that fact.
#
"There was nothing we could have done, Gracie." Doctor Jim put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a swift hug. "He didn't have a chance."
"I know that," Gracie said. "I know all about the food chain and the ways of nature. Believe me, I've dealt with that and more down in New York." She knew the difference between a lost cause and convenience. In fact, knowing that had cost her her position at the hospital where she'd worked. "It was the look in Sophie's eyes..."
"The little one's been through a lot," he said. "It's natural you'd want to protect her."
"She's not mine," Gracie said. "I don't know how Noah wants to handle this." Every parent treated the topic of death in a different way. She only knew she didn't want to lie to Sophie.
"Seeing you and Noah together took me back a lot of years," Doctor Jim said. "I always hoped you would end up together."
"So did I," Gracie said with a soft laugh.
"So what's stopping you? I saw the way you looked at each other over Rachel's turkey. It's clear nothing has changed."
"A lot has changed, Doctor Jim."
"Nothing essential."
She had to stop this now before it went too far. "I'm hoping we can find a way to be friends again."
"And that's your polite way of telling me to mind my own business."
"I'd never tell you that."
"No," he said with a smile. "You wouldn't but I'll do it just the same."
They stood together in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun slide behind the hills.
"There's a place for you here, Gracie," he said as they hugged goodbye. "I meant what I said at the dinner table."
"I know you did," she said, "and I love you for it."
She lingered a few moments more than stepped back into the house where Laquita found her a second later.
"Your father's getting tired," Laquita said, "and I'm working midnight shift. If you don't mind, I think it's time to head home."
Gracie hesitated. She had finally worked up the nerve to tell Noah what had happened the day she left him and the right moment kept slipping between her fingers. "Why don't you two go ahead without me." She told Laquita about Sophie and the injured bird. "I think I'll stay and see if Sophie wants to talk."
"How will you get home?"
"I hadn't thought of that."
Laquita pulled her car keys from the pocket of her bright red down jacket. "Here," she said. "Use my car."
"What about