Page 23 of Talk Birdie to Me

This had been one heck of a week since she’d met him.

Geena walked them out and leaned against the door once it shut. That left her facing the inside of her living room, where Taylor stood a respectful distance from the cage, making kissing noises at its occupant.

“You owe me,” Geena told her little sister as she walked across the room. “Big time.”

“I know, I know.” Taylor cringed. “I honestly didn’t think you’d let us in with this thing at all.”

“Liar. You always think your schemes are going to turn out all sunshine and roses.”

“Not true.”

“Yes, true,” Geena said. “But your optimism makes stuff happen, so who am I to judge?”

“Your judgment keeps everyone out of more trouble than they can dig out of. That’s important too.”

Gary made a series of beeping noises followed by a squawk of, “Bullshit!”

Geena gestured wildly at the cage. “Where was my judgment tonight?”

With a laugh, Taylor said, “I think it was right on target.”

“Or,” Geena countered, “it was another colossal mistake.”

“You act like you run around your life making mistakes. You, Geena Bourque, are the most careful person I know.”

“And yet, I’m wading through divorce documents and now bird crap.”

Taylor frowned. “The first part wasn’t on you. You cared for and gave someone a chance. His screw-up is on him.”

“It was still bad judgment to trust him.”

“And in this case tonight,” Taylor continued, steering the conversation away from the divorce, like she usually did to keep Geena from sinking too much into self-loathing, “you did a good thing. The right thing. Cody and Gary needed help, and you helped them.”

Geena was less convinced than Taylor about this being a good thing, but she couldn’t argue about it being right. She couldn’t send them away when they needed help. That just wasn’t in her to do, no matter what time of night her sister showed up or who she showed up with.

Taylor scrunched her nose. “Sorry about the whole date thing, though. I had no idea he had someone with him.”

“That was the least annoying part.”

Was it?

Gary made more beeping sounds.

“Is he going to do that all night?”

“No idea. Birds aren’t really my area of expertise,” Taylor said. “But I’ll leave you to find out.”

“Gee, thanks.” Geena couldn’t suppress a yawn any longer. “Sorry. Yeah, I should probably get some sleep.”

“Me too.” Taylor glanced at the time on her phone. “Geez. Yeah. I didn’t want to wake Austin, so I left a note. But I’d better head back in case he doesn’t find it.”

Geena watched that Taylor made it to her car safely before shutting the door for the last time that night.

“We’re all fucked!”

She frowned at the bird.

Taylor definitely owed her for this. Big time.

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