showing up a little after that, but then . . . the truth is, I got lost! I’ve never come down to this side of the city, and”—she broke off, shook her head—“it doesn’t matter. I figured I’d missed you, being so late getting here and all, but then I called and got transferred to a nurse who said you’d left a few minutes ago, and anyway that’s why I’m here! I wasn’t, uh. It’s not like I’ve been standing out here for a long time or anything.”
For the first time, he noticed she was holding something—a thin, square package that seemed to be wrapped in quilting material. She thrust it forward, holding it out to him, her face turning even pinker. “This is still warm, see?”
He looked down at it, shifting to tuck his bike helmet under his arm so he could take it from her. But as soon as he moved, she pulled it back toward her stomach. “Oh! I can hold it! I didn’t . . . if you ride a bike, you won’t be able to—”
“Nora,” he said, because he knew this about her now. That if he said her name this way, she would slow down. She would look up at him.
When she finally did—her lips pressing together, her flush deepening—he could not help his smile.
“You look like you feel better,” he said, which was an understatement. She looked like the best thing he’d ever seen. Fresh and pretty and painted with the pink-orange light of the setting sun. How had he not gone to see her? That was the real question.
“You left me all the food that was in your freezer,” she blurted, and that quick, everything between them shifted. Now it was his turn to flush, her turn to smile teasingly—knowingly—at him.
“You told Benny to send me text message reminders for when to take my medicine.”
Benny, Will thought, dropping his eyes to the concrete. A traitor, through and through. Still, Will wondered if he’d been able to get that starter wort going.
“You told Marian I shouldn’t go out for three days, and she basically set up a security checkpoint.”
Marian! Dammit. Though the security checkpoint, that was a good idea. He knew he could count on her. He hoped at least Mrs. Salas had been more dis—
“Mrs. Salas made me mantecaditos.”
Will suppressed a sigh. He hadn’t told Mrs. Salas to make the cookies. He’d maybe mentioned, when he was bringing up the food he hadn’t eaten from his freezer, that he didn’t have any of them left. Mrs. Salas was the one who’d insisted.
“And I can only assume you asked Jonah to put his air purifier in the hallway for a few days.”
He cleared his throat. “I . . . no.”
That had been the worst, asking for a favor from Jonah. Even after the ball game they’d watched together, Jonah still looked at Will through narrowed eyes. He still called Will “Beanpole,” even when Will was giving him doctor’s orders.
“No?” Nora said.
He scraped the toe of his shoe against the concrete.
“Fine, yes.”
He didn’t need to look up to know she was smiling even bigger now.
“Neighborly of you,” she said, and he couldn’t just hear the grin in her voice. It was like he could feel it, like she had her mouth pressed right against his chest.
It wasn’t neighborly of me, he wanted to say. It was something else of me. Not rash, not reckless, not selfish. But not neighborly, either.
“It was nothing,” he said, finally working up the courage to look at her again.
She rolled her eyes, flicked her braid over her shoulder. “I brought a thank-you gift. It’s only one serving, because I didn’t want it to seem like a threat.”
He breathed out a laugh. “Is it more of those cheesy bacon potatoes?”
Her face fell. “Oh. No. This is something I made.”
His eyes dropped to the package again. He had no guesses as to what could be in there, didn’t even really know if Nora was any kind of cook, but suddenly he felt hungrier than he had all day.
Than he had in two weeks, two days.
“I didn’t really like those potatoes,” which was half a lie. He liked them fine, when there weren’t ten pounds of them. He just wanted to know what Nora had made him.
“It’s manicotti. Homemade sauce. My nonna—”
He held out his hand, beckoned for the dish. “Lemme try it,” he said impatiently.
She clutched it tighter. “You can’t eat in a parking lot.”