Page 24 of Lee

“They work for the man my mom married.”

“They’re both great people.”

Lee wondered if Rori’s mom was aware that Rori was hanging out with one of her employees. From what Cheryl and Alys had said, the woman was probably a bit of a snob.

“Yes. I’ve really appreciated their friendship. They’ve answered all of my questions about Serenity.”

“Did you have a favorite song last night?” Lee asked, reluctant to have their conversation end just yet.

Without even a moment’s hesitation, she said, “The one about the sparrow.”

Lee wondered what it was about the song that had resonated with her. But before he had a chance to ask her, Alys walked into the room, and Rori turned to greet her with a smile.

“What is this?” Alys asked, gesturing to the cake box on the counter.

“Mom sent me home with the rest of the cake from the monthly family birthday dinner yesterday.”

Alys turned to him with a grin. “Was it your birthday?”

“No. We have so many birthdays in the family that we just have one birthday dinner each month. Last night was for the July birthdays, and we had extra cake, so my mom said I should bring it in for all of us to share.”

“That was sweet of her,” Alys said as she bent over to peer through the plastic window on the top. “Did someone in the family make it?”

“No. The best bakers in the family currently aren’t in Serenity.”

“Who’s that?”

“Zane and Skylar.”

“Well, I can’t wait to have some,” Alys said. “If this is from the bakery here in town, it’s going to be fabulous.”

After chatting for a couple of minutes, Lee excused himself and headed for the small office he’d been assigned when he’d first started working at the clinic. He hadn’t brought in any personal items yet. It felt presumptuous to do that when he didn’t know for sure if they planned to keep him.

It did seem likely, but he refused to make any assumptions.

As he reached to turn his monitor on, Lee found himself humming His Eye is on the Sparrow, the words playing in his mind. For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

It was a song he’d sung plenty of times over the years. And when they’d been young, their mom had helped them memorize Matthew 6:25–27, which the song had been based on. She’d wanted them to know that God cared for them. That He cared about their needs. That nothing was too insignificant to bring to Him. For God cared.

Lee wondered if that message was what had drawn Rori to the song.

Though he didn’t know anything about her family or friend relationships, she always had a smile for anyone who spoke to her. Cheryl had said that she’d been easy to train because she followed instructions well and hadn’t hesitated to ask questions if she didn’t understand something.

From the moment he’d met her, Rori had lingered in his mind. At first, he’d thought it was just because of their meeting over a non-purring cat. But now, he knew it was more.

He wanted to get to know her better. To learn the things about her life that had made her who she was. To not have the opportunity to do that felt like a loss that he couldn’t really comprehend.

“You know,” Alys drawled on Wednesday as she tapped her finger against her lip. “The something that might make these pictures better is to have a cute vet holding the animals.”

Since Wednesdays were usually their slowest day, Alys and Rachel had decided that it would be a great day to take pictures of the shelter animals. At their request, Rori had brought her camera bag in and was now working with them to photograph the dogs that were available for adoption.

“You better be talking about Dr. Carl,” Lee told her as he leaned against the doorjamb with his arms crossed.

“He might be a good candidate,” Alys agreed. “If only he’d smile on command.”

Lee chuckled. Carl didn’t smile a lot. Not that the man was grumpy. He just had a more taciturn personality. His reserved nature didn’t stop their patients from trusting him, however, because he was excellent at his job.

“So I propose you do it,” Alys continued.

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