"Well, when you put it that way, maybe it's less the idea that they're all watching out for us, and more the idea that they're all together. Elliot and our parents, I mean. And your parents and Ben, and whoever else." Leah also had the advantage of having family alive. David was the last of his line. Alone. He didn't know why it comforted him to think that his brother wasn't alone, when he was, but it did. It didn't always help, but it did sometimes, and sometimes was better than never. "Just sucks to miss them, is all. It helps to think they're together."
David was pretty sure no one understood O'Brien's logic. The whole situation with how he'd handled breaking up a relationship that wasn't really a relationship with Leah was baffling. David had handled it better when his real, actual relationship with Allie had broken down. The man had always seemed somewhat unbalanced, as far as David was concerned. "I guess it's gotten him this far, so there's got to be something to it, but..." Yeah, David didn't understand it too well, either.
When Leah didn't tell Marigold right away, what the animal was that they were going to see, David was a little surprised, but he gave a smile when the girl agreed. "She's probably the friendliest one we've got." And that wasn't a lie. Mochrie was kinder than any of the other pets in the vet station.
On the walk there, David and Leah told Marigold some of the nicer things about Mochrie; how she let the kittens and puppies crawl on her and cuddle with her when they slept, how she and Dog were "best friends" and kept each other warm on cold days... they told her all these things, but never once mentioned the name. Trying to teach her, at least in David's case, that even animals that were big were just as cuddly and nice as little ones.
"There she is," David said, pointing to Mochrie, and then looking at Marigold, awaiting her reaction.