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A heavy wooden beam had pinned his left leg. At this point, the agony subsided because Noah didn’t feel anything. He couldn’t feel anything! More men arrived, and they went to work lifting and levering the weight off his leg.
“How’s Wilson?” he asked.
The hum of conversation taking place around him briefly paused, and Kemp repeated, “We’ve got eyes on him.”
Noah pushed himself up on his elbows, anxious about his crew buddy. That’s when he saw his brother framed in the doorway at the opposite end of the warehouse.
Some part of Noah relaxed at that moment. Here was the big brother who checked the closet and beneath the bed for monsters, the hero who took back Noah’s stolenlunch money and gave the third-grade bully a black eye for his trouble. Here was the person who always, always had Noah’s back.
Their gazes met and held. Daniel nodded.It’s gonna be okay now. Big bro is here. Superman is here to save the day.
Daniel headed across the room. That familiar no-nonsense stride.
And then, without warning, the floor fell, and Daniel Tannehill disappeared.
Noah was brought back to the present when he felt the brush of a tissue across his cheeks. Embarrassment washed through him as he opened his eyes. How long he had sat there without speaking, he couldn’t say. “Oh hell. Was I crying?”
“No,” Willow said, tucking the tissue into her pocket. “Just a little allergy. Pet dander, you know.”
Crap. “Pet dander,” Noah repeated with a snort. He shifted the puppy’s position, more for something to do than because it needed doing. “That’s embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. Tears are sometimes a tribute.”
If that was the case, Noah probably had enough tribute locked inside him to build a monument to compete with Mount Rushmore. He reached for his drink and slammed it back, then decided to be done with this. “Fire had weakened the floor’s structural integrity, and it gave out beneath my brother’s weight. He fell into the fire in the room below. They, uh, couldn’t get to him in time. Wilson didn’t make it out, either.”
Willow set her hand atop his as compassion filled her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Noah. That’s a tragic loss.”
He nodded, unable to say more due to the lump of emotion that had formed in his throat.
After a moment of silence, Willow asked, “You’ve mentioned you’ve lost your parents, but do you have any other siblings? Any other family?”
He cleared his throat. “No siblings. It was just me and Daniel.”
“So you two were close?” He nodded, and she suggested, “Tell me about him.”
Noah opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You’re such a guy,” Willow complained. Noah could tell she was trying to lighten the mood. “Did Daniel look like you? Was he into sports? What were his favorite movies? Tell me something the two of you did as kids that got you into trouble.”
Her prompts proved to be just what he needed. Noah answered her basic questions, but it was the tale of childhood shenanigans that loosened both his tongue and the vise around his heart. For the first time since Daniel’s death, Noah was able to remember his brother with a laugh, rather than tears.
When he finished the story about sneezing powder and a fan in freshman algebra class, he fell silent, his thoughts reflective. It had felt good to talk about his brother. Surprisingly good.
Then Willow asked a question guaranteed to spoil his mellowing mood.
“Did Daniel have someone special in his life?”
“Two someones,” Noah replied. “Daniel was married. He had a daughter. Madeline. Maddie. She’s a little older than Emma.”
“Oh,” Willow breathed. “Oh, I see.” She brightened with a smile. “You made the dollhouse for Maddie.”
“No!” Noah quickly responded. “I didn’t. I made it for…” He shook his head and said, “Look, my brother’s wife and I aren’t in touch. I haven’t seen her since before the accident.”
“You didn’t go to your brother’s funeral?” Then, before he could respond, she answered the question herself. “Your leg. You were in the hospital, I imagine.”
He nodded. “For two months. It was a tib-fib fracture. Six surgeries. Another month in a rehab hospital. Discharged home but still tethered to daily outpatient rehab appointments for another three months. As soon as I was sprung, I headed here. I’ve been here ever since.”
“So, why don’t you see your sister-in-law?”
