Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
There was a knock on Noah’s door, and he snapped his head up. He draped a pink unicorn blanket over his latest project and took one last look around.
His dining room had been transformed into a temporary playroom. A new set of coloring books stood next to a bin of magnetic building tiles. A dozen other toys he had thrifted stood ready in bins.
The house didn’t need to be baby-proofed anymore. Izzy was six, and she was already significantly smarter than him. But his house still didn’t feel kid-friendly. He deemed it good enough, opened the front door, and had to look down to spot the visitors.
“Uncle Noah!” Isabella rushed in and hugged him around the belly.
“There’s our girl.” He grabbed her under the armpits and lifted her up. “You’re getting too big for me to lift you.”
“No, I’m not,” she said defiantly. “Look at my unicorn.”
She thrust it into his face. “Wow. Very…pink,” he conceded.
As always, it was startling to see the characteristics of his best friend in her face—the deep brown of her eyes, the dimple in her right cheek, the way her nose scrunched up when she was concentrating. All Bobby.
“Yas,” he said in greeting. She wasn’t much taller than her own daughter, and he had to bend down to hug her.
“I really appreciate you doing this,” Yasmin said. She looked tired. She reached behind her and rolled a small purple suitcase into the house.
“I’m going to go look around,” Izzy announced.
Noah set her down, and she disappeared up the steps.
“Whoa, an astronaut light,” came her voice from upstairs.
“Are you sure two days is enough?” he asked.
Yasmin nodded. “Yes, my sister is flying in on Sunday, so I just need to get Mom home and settled and meet with the case worker and nursing team.”
He nodded. “A broken hip is rough. You’ll have to let me know what the recovery is like. My mom definitely needs a replacement, but she refuses to see the orthopedist.”
“Gloria? Refusing medical treatment? I’m shocked,” Yasmin said flatly.
He cracked a smile. “It’s good to see you. How are things?”
“Busy,” she said, glancing at her phone. “We’re in the middle of a serious campaign for the Orioles. They’re trying to increase attendance by ten percent.”
Noah grimaced. “Good luck with that.”
“And…” Yas paused, craning her neck in the direction of the stairs. “I met someone,” she said in a low voice.
“You did? That’s great. Has Izzy met him?”
She shook her head. “It’s way too soon. I’m not sure how serious things are yet. But I just wanted to let you know. I know it’s…weird.”
He squeezed her hand. “You haven’t been together since Izzy was two. Bobby wouldn’t want you to go through this life alone.”
“I could say the same to you. What have you been up to for three years besides snarling at anyone who got too close?”
“I’m too busy for a relationship.” He slipped into the automatic defense.
“Bullshit. You’re lucky I don’t have time to argue with you,” she said with a point of her finger.
Time for a change of subject. “Do you want to see where Izzy’s sleeping? Make sure it all looks safe?”
She smiled and paused with a hand on the door. “I trust you. That will never change.”
He followed her onto the porch. “Does she have a bedtime routine? What about discipline? Is she afraid of the dark? I got extra night lights. And a booster seat for the car.”
“She’s six. Trust me, you’ll be fine. Just make sure she brushes her teeth, and don’t listen to her if she says I let her eat two desserts.”
“Yes, you do,” Izzy called from upstairs.
“It was one time, and I was on a Zoom call,” Yas clarified.
This was met with silence.
“Bye, mija,” Yas yelled.
“Wait,” Izzy called, then scrambled down the stairs. She was now wearing a blanket like a cape, secured by a pink feather boa, and there was a crown perched on her head. She threw herself on her mom. “Te quiero mucho, mami,” she said.
“Te amo por siempre.” Yas kissed the top of her head before releasing her. “I’ll text you when I’m on my way back,” she said to Noah.
“Take your time. It’s no big deal if you need an extra day. I’ll just take Izzy with me to work. It’ll be super boring,” he added to the six-year-old. “You know how to change a smoke detector, right?”
Izzy crossed her arms. “I would need a Phyllis head screw-diver.”
“See? She’s an expert already.”
He made a mental note to get Izzy her own tool set. Glow in the dark would be cool as shit.
Yas took a last lingering look. There was emotion welling in her eyes, but she kept it to herself.
“I’ll see you in a couple days. Have fun, you two.”
“What are we going to do, Uncle Noah?” a wide-eyed Izzy asked the second the door closed.
Noah smiled. When she was smaller, she had called him Unca No-No. Sometimes he missed the silly toddler version of her, but every version of her was amazing in its own way.
“Oh, we have many activities on the docket,” he said. “We’re going to bake cookies. We’ll swim. We’re going to play with all the cool toys I have over—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Izzy had sprinted into the dining room, leaving a trail of pink feathers behind.
“What’s this?” she asked immediately, pointing to the blanket.
“You want to see?”
She nodded.
He pulled it off, revealing an intricate wooden dollhouse he had been working on for the better part of six months.
She gasped and crawled over on her knees, inspecting every inch.
“Here, it opens.” He swung the front of the house forward on its hinges, exposing the interior. Izzy squealed over the tiny wooden staircase, the miniature chest of drawers. Even the wooden toilet.
They played for the better part of an hour, with Izzy driving the show. She spun an elaborate plot where one of her Barbies threw a fancy dinner party, only for it to be ruined by an evil Barbie—played by Noah—who came in and flipped the table.
Yas watched a lot of reality TV.
He was piloting a pink plane to fictional Cabo when an almighty smack resounded from the window.
Izzy screamed and ran into his arms.
“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “It was probably just a bird.”
“A bird? Is it hurt? We have to go look.”
“Come on, kid,” he said, heading for the sliding patio door. He hoped against hope that the bird had already flown away. He wasn’t in any position to counsel Izzy about death.
They stepped down the deck stairs and rounded the flower beds until they came to the dining room picture window. A dove lay in the mulch. His chest rose and fell, and he fluttered his wings weakly.
Izzy gasped. “We have to save it, Uncle Noah. What do we do?”
Save it. Save it, Noah.
He froze, breath catching in his chest. A ringing sound arose in his ears, and for a second, his vision blurred at the edges.
“Noah?”
Izzy’s voice snapped him back to reality. He flexed his fingers, trying to control the tremble. There was only one immediate solution to this problem, and he didn’t like it.
“I think I know someone who can help.”
Twenty minutes later, Noah knocked on the front door of Cassie’s office. Her car was in the parking lot, so she was definitely in the building somewhere. A head poked out of an exam room down the hall, and he waved.
Izzy tearfully clutched the shoebox that Noah had lined with tissue paper. The bird, whom she had named Herbert, was inside.
Cassie approached the door, dressed in yoga shorts and a crop top. And no bra. Not that he was looking. She popped the door open cautiously.
“Hi,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“We need your help.” Izzy brandished the shoebox at her.
“What do we have here?” Cassie lifted the lid, and her gaze softened. “Oh no. Window?” she asked Noah.
He nodded. “It happens once in a while.”
She bit her lip. “Let’s take a look.”
Noah watched as Cassie carried the box to an exam room and snapped some gloves on. She gently lifted the bird from the box.
“Oh, he’s feisty,” she said as he made an attempt to flap away from her. She examined him closely, paying careful attention to the wings.
“Can we save him?” Izzy asked. She was clutching Noah’s arm in a death grip.
“Well, the good news is, he’s alert. But I do think his left wing is injured. Are you familiar with any wildlife rescues in the area?” she said to Noah. “I haven’t had a chance to make many connections yet.”
He nodded. “We’ve gotten a couple of red-tailed hawks from a rehab center in Boyds.”
“Okay,” Cassie said. She turned to Izzy. “Would you like to be my assistant?”
Izzy nodded tearfully.
“You see that black bag over there? Can you look inside it and get me the roll of blue tape in the front pocket?”
Izzy released her grip on Noah and fetched the tape.
“You are such a good helper. What’s your name?” she asked kindly.
“This is Izzy. My goddaughter,” Noah clarified.
“It’s nice to meet you, Izzy. I’m Cassie. Thank you for your help.” She turned to Noah. “I’m going to secure this wing. Can you check with the rescue to see if they could take him? I can stabilize him, but he’ll be better off with bird experts.”
He nodded and stepped into the hallway.
After a brief phone call, he ducked back into the room.
“Why did Herbert fly into the window?” Izzy was asking Cassie.
Herbert’s injured wing was bound in an elaborate figure eight pattern. He did seem less distressed than earlier, which was a relief.
“Well, birds fly into windows sometimes because they can’t see the glass. They only see the reflection of the trees or the sky and think it’s safe to fly through,” Cassie explained.
“Uncle Noah. Your windows are too clean,” Izzy scolded.
“That’s the first time anyone’s ever accused me of that,” he said.
Cassie secured the bird in a carrier and turned to Izzy. “You know what we did at my last job?”
“What?”
Oh, great. He sensed another unsolicited recommendation incoming.
“We painted on the windows. Dogs, cats, flowers, doodles. It helped break up the reflection, so birds knew not to fly there.”
Izzy turned to Noah with wide eyes.
Shit.
“Uncle Noah?”
“Yes?”
“Can we go to the craft store after we take Herbert to the other doctor?”
He sighed. “All right. Anything for you, kid.”
“Yay!” Izzy cheered.
“They’ll take him?” Cassie asked. Her eyes were so green in the natural light of the window. They would’ve been mesmerizing if she wasn’t constantly making life more difficult for him.
“Yeah. Thanks for your help. I wasn’t sure where else to go.”
She offered a small smile. “Happy to help.” She shifted her gaze to Izzy and crouched down. “It was so nice to meet you, Izzy. You take good care of Herbie in the car, okay? Keep him out of the sunlight and not too close to the air conditioning.”
Noah took the carrier from Cassie, and Izzy came in close. “You don’t have to be scared, Herbie. I’ll be right here.”
At the end of the day, Noah shuffled around his kitchen, a weariness in his bones. He still had dishes and paint to clean up. He should really put a coat of lacquer on the table in his workshop before bed, but he didn’t have it in him.
Izzy had had the most elaborate bedtime routine he’d ever seen—a three-song dance party, tucking in each of her Barbies, then two books, one read backward. The white noise machine she used kept tricking his ears into thinking his toilet had become a geyser.
Taking care of kids was exhausting, but when he flicked the light on in the dining room, he smiled. Doodles in a variety of colors now covered the picture window. With any luck, the chubby unicorns and slightly deformed castles would keep future birds safe.
A flash of movement from next door caught his eye. A dog galloped into the backyard, then sprinted from side to side.
He didn’t even know Cassie had a dog. He shifted his gaze until he found her, standing on her deck with a mug clutched in one hand and a blanket draped around her shoulders.
She had helped him despite their semi-contentious relationship. Maybe it was just because she was a vet. Or maybe there was something else beneath the overstepping exterior. Something soft and vulnerable.
He snapped the blinds shut. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to find out.