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struggled to move.
    Lifting my eyes to the field, I could see the backs of the cats as they roamed to and fro, seeking their next victims. Looking back at Kip, I told him, “We need to get you a better cage.”
    Watching as he hopped around the yard, I smiled. That bird wanted to fly more than anything else in his life. What if I had that kind of determination for life?
    “Clay?” a woman’s voice startled me.
    Turning toward the sound of my name, I saw a woman come around the corner of the house and toward me. She had blonde hair that was up in a tightly woven bun. She was easy on the eyes, but looked as if she would cut you if you said something wrong. The woman carried herself with confidence and her chin held high. My mind jumped around trying to place her, but I couldn’t.
    “Who’s asking?” I replied, worried it was a bill collector. They had been becoming more aggressive in recent months about collecting the debts I owed for the surgeries from the accident.
    She came over to me with an extended hand. “I’m Katie.”
    “Oh. Katie. John mentioned he was going to try to get me your help.” I shook her hand. “It’s been a while! I haven’t seen you since you were playing tea party with your dolls and teddy bears.”
    She laughed and replied, “I haven’t seen you since you were trying to force me to eat grasshoppers and lick dirt.”
    I smiled as we released our handshake. “Did I do that? I don’t think I did.”
    Her lips pursed for a moment and she nodded. “You sure did.”
    Rubbing the back of my neck, I let my other hand swing out. “Sorry about that.”
    She looked past me and at the grass. “What’s up with the bird?”
    Turning around, I smiled as I saw Kip trying to climb up a twig that was lying in the grass. “That’s Kip. I found him injured a few days back, and I’m trying to help him get back to the sky, where he belongs.”
    “Awe . . . that’s so sweet!”
    Turning my eyes back to her, I shook my head. “Any decent person would do it.”
    A moment of silence fell between us as we watched Kip leap from the branch and tumble down into the grass below. He’d fall, go back up the branch and then jump again.
    “So close!” Katie exclaimed.
    Nodding, I walked over to Kip with Katie and scooped him up into my hands. She followed behind me as I took him back to the porch. As I set him under the hamper, I asked over my shoulder, “So what’s the plan? Or did you just come to see Kip try to fly?”
    She smiled at me as I stood up and turned around. “Can we go inside? And we can talk about it?”
    Nodding, I led her into the house and into the kitchen. As we sat down at the table, I could smell the perfume she was wearing and it was intoxicating to my senses. Between that, the good looks, and ocean blue eyes that drew me in, I didn’t understand the lack of a ring on her wedding finger.
    She shuffled some papers around. “You were at Saint Jude’s . . . but it looks like you didn’t complete it?” Katie looked up at me with raised eyebrows. “What happened there?”
    Letting out a laugh under my breath, I shifted my eyes to the outside through the window. “Lots.”
    “Okay. Why’d you leave?”
    “I was kicked out. I didn’t leave. In fact, I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing.”
    Setting the papers down, she brought her hands together on the table in front of her. In a soft voice, she asked firmly, “Why’d they kick you out, Clay?”
    “It didn’t work out.”
    “I need you to be honest with me. If you’re going to get better, I need your full cooperation. I know you don’t know me anymore, but you have to trust me.”
    Furrowing my eyebrows, I narrowed my look on her for a moment. She looked at me. “I didn’t care about getting better. They cut me free because they didn’t want to waste any more time on me.”
    “All right.” Her eyes went back to the papers, and she shuffled through them more. “I think you have a good shot if my