“You know what, Dr. Taylor,” Nora said, leaning in, “Will and I were just talking about that! I suggested that he might want to keep them. On the way over here they kept wanting to crawl right out of that hamper to get to him.”

“They didn’t,” Will said, his voice clipped. “Listen, do you have ideas for a rescue organization? Rules say we can’t have them in the building.”

Nora pursed her lips, looked back at Dr. Taylor, who furrowed his brow and made a noise of concern. “Well, I have to say, that’s not the best news. Do you think your landlord could make an exception for a temporary period?”

“Probably not,” Will said. “She’s kind of a stickler.”

Nora rolled her eyes and nudged his side (muscles: still hard!) with her elbow. “Why a temporary period?” she asked.

“Kittens this young—I’d say the mother’s nearby, somewhere. Maybe they all got in when you were out one day, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes around looking for these little guys. We have a program here for spaying feral cats, so we might be able to help her if she does.”

“Oh,” Nora said, looking down to where the kittens playfully swatted at each other. Well, this was terrible. What if the mom cat had gone back to Donny’s, or what if she was nervously pacing outside somewhere, looking for her babies? The truth was, Nora didn’t even really like cats all that much, but this was sounding worse by the minute. She had a sudden, unbidden memory of the first morning she’d met Will, out on the balcony. She’d thought that loud, feline scream had come from a tomcat, but what if even then there’d been a mother cat in trouble? What if there was some kind of community cat crisis, all because of Donny’s sudden passing?

She didn’t want to be responsible for piling onto that.

“I’ll find a way to keep the kittens for a while,” she blurted. “Should I call here if I see the mom? Or—”

“I could give you my personal number,” said Dr. Taylor, and she really hoped he didn’t wink again. It felt like a wink was close. An imminent wink. “She probably comes around at night. If you see her, you can call me, anyti—”

“I’ll keep them,” interrupted Will.

Nora and Dr. Taylor both looked at him. Nora was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open. One of the kittens made a squeaky (celebratory!) mew noise.

“If the, uh, mom”—he said mom like it had a question mark at the end—“comes back, it’ll be to my unit. I might as well keep them there.”