Rachel looked toward the closed door.
"Not right now."
"Food? A ride? Someone to help Mark?"
She shook her head.
"We're managing."
Doc hesitated.
"All right."
Rachel could hear the distant sounds of his garage.
A tool clinked against metal.
Somebody called his name.
Then he said, "I'm stopping work on the project until we know what her doctors think."
Rachel closed her eyes.
"Thank you."
He continued.
"There's no deadline. If this changes what she can safely do, we change the plan. If it means we don't move forward, we don't move forward."
Rachel felt tears rising.
"Doc..."
"Yes, ma'am?"
"She's been asking about the motorcycle."
He went quiet.
Rachel swallowed.
"Even here. She asked whether the mechanic man was still building her metal horse."
Doc looked across the workshop toward the unfinished machine.
For a moment, he couldn't answer.
Then he said, "Tell her I'm still thinking about it."
Rachel wiped her eyes.
"Okay."
"And tell her I hope she feels better soon."
Rachel nodded.
"I will."
After the call ended, she stood in the hallway for several minutes.
She had spent months worrying that Doc would become so attached to the project that he wouldn't accept limits.
Now, when Ellie's condition became more fragile, he was the first person to say the work should stop.
Rachel began to trust him in a way she hadn't expected.
That night, Doc went home earlier than usual.
His house stood at the edge of a wooded neighborhood outside Asheville. It was quiet and modest, with a detached garage, a narrow porch, and a living room that still contained several things Sophie had chosen years earlier.
A small ceramic horse sat on the bookshelf.
A faded photograph showed her wearing a pink raincoat.
And a wooden box remained beneath Doc's bed.
He had avoided opening it for a long time.
Not because he wanted to forget Sophie.
Because he was afraid of what remembering would do to him.
That evening, he sat on the bedroom floor and pulled the box into his lap.
For several minutes, he simply looked at it.
Then he opened the lid.
Inside were drawings, birthday cards, photographs, a bracelet made from colorful beads, and a pair of tiny pink gloves. Beneath them lay the wooden toy motorcycle he had built while Sophie was in the hospital.