She nodded, and he took the same quiet breath that he had when he’d set his fingers against her neck, checking for swelling. He was staying professional, even if in draping a towel over her head he had to concentrate on not staring at the long, straight curtain of her hair that was spread across her back—the first time he’d ever seen it down.

Nora made another noise, a moan of relief that prompted another professional failure on his part. Will took a step away from the couch, cleared his throat. “I’ll run over to the pharmacy.”

She lifted her head. “You don’t have to.”

“Head down,” he said, and she made a face at him.

“Your bedside manner is terrible.” But she put her head down again, shifting even farther forward on the couch. The next time she spoke, it was so muffled by her closeness to the bowl that he had to step closer to hear her.

“I didn’t want you to have to get rid of the kittens,” she said.

“That’s why I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even know I was allergic, I swear. I never have been, before.”

She sounded so miserable that he got even closer, moved around so he could sit on the coffee table, right beside the big bowl of water. “Allergies sometimes come on late.”

The towel rocked in a sad, short nod.

“I wasn’t ever going to keep them, Nora,” he said, because he thought it would make her feel better to know it. It wasn’t her fault that he wasn’t cut out to have pets, even if Quincy and Francis (sigh) weren’t so bad. “My friend Sally, you might have seen her down there, I think she’s going to keep them, and she’s great, so you shouldn’t worr—”

“You stayed so many days,” she interrupted. “You stayed so many days, I thought maybe you’d changed your mind.”

Oh.

He swallowed, unsure of how to respond. He hadn’t changed his mind, of course he hadn’t. He was still on track to getting back to normal; he was still going to list the unit and go back to work. These last four days, it’s all he’d been trying to think about, no matter that he hadn’t always succeeded.

But he didn’t even want to try to succeed right now.

“That interview today,” she said, and he waved a hand in dismissal, but she probably couldn’t see it.