Ellen Tanner Marsh - For His Son's Sake

Angus’s eyes were completely round. “A bird hospital?”

“That’s right. So you’ll need to be quiet. These are wild birds, not pets. They’ll be scared of you, so don’t move too fast or get too close, okay?”

“Okay.” His voice had dropped to an awed whisper.

Grinning, Kenzie’s eyes sought Ross’s. Didn’t the guy know how adorable his kid was?

Apparently not. Instead of smiling indulgently at his son, he was studying the sagging roof of the shed, probably wondering, Kenzie didn’t doubt, if it was safe to enter.

Her mouth set. “Come on in. It won’t collapse on you.”

The front half of the shed was crammed with boxes, cabinets and mismatched drawers. Two refrigerators and a chest freezer took up one wall. Ross looked around at the cluttered workbench with its scale, storage bins and stacks of kitchen and medical utensils. Heavy leather gloves were draped over the sink. It was cleaner than he’d expected, and apparently structurally sound after all.

“Oh, wow! Look at that!”

Ross turned. Angus was pointing at the back wall, which was divided into rows of cages, as well as pens that opened into fenced outdoor aviaries. About a dozen birds were staring back at them, some uneasily, some calmly. Ross recognized a pelican, a hawk and an egret. The rest escaped him.

Angus was tugging at Kenzie’s arm. “Kenzie! What kind of bird is that?”

“A red-tailed hawk. Don’t get too close. He’s just getting over being sick. If you startle him he’ll try to fly away and hurt himself on the wire. Do you know what that one is?”

“A pelican?”

“Right.”

“What happened to him?”

“His bill got tangled in fishing wire and he couldn’t feed himself. He was half-starved when he came here, but he’s gained a lot of weight since then. I may set him free tomorrow.”

“But why would he want to leave? He’s got his own swimming pool!”

They were both whispering. Still, Ross noticed that Angus was practically shaking with both excitement and the strain of not showing it so he wouldn’t scare the birds. Ross had seen him this overwhelmed only once before—when they’d gone to a toy store in Manhattan and he’d been allowed to operate a model train by himself. He was usually so withdrawn in public, but right now he certainly didn’t look like a kid who was shy or scared or had recently lost his mother. Right now he was looking at Kenzie with his eyes glowing a bright, happy blue.

“I’d keep him if I were you. He’s the prettiest bird in the world!”

Even Ross had to laugh at that.

“Don’t you like him?” Angus demanded.

“It has to be the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s not true!”

“Oh, yes it is. He reminds me of…of some throwback to the dinosaur age.”

Ross had been teasing, but Angus glared at him tearfully. “You don’t like anything!”

Ross turned away, but not before Kenzie saw the glimmer of pain in his eyes. “You’ve got to admit they’re a little bizarre,” she said quickly. “And there’s nothing pretty about that bill when he decides to use it.”

“Do pelicans bite?”

“Oh, my, yes.”

Angus backed away quickly.

“How’d you get into this business?” Ross asked, determined to ignore Angus’s outburst. “Are you a veterinarian?”

“Just a volunteer.” Kenzie opened the chest freezer and began rummaging inside. “When they run out of room at the raptor refuge up in Manteo they send them down here. I’m sort of an overflow center.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

“About a year. I had to learn the ropes the hard way. Like what to do with a vomiting owl and how not to get your eyes gouged out by a heron. Want to feed them some fish, Angus?”

“Could I really?”

“Sure.” She leaned deeper into the freezer, unaware that she was giving Ross a clear view of…well, of a very firm, muscular body. White shorts and long, tanned legs. A cropped T-shirt that rose higher as she leaned over farther, revealing more sun-browned skin.

Ross’s hurt at Angus’s remark seemed to fade at the simple pleasure of admiring Kenzie’s sweetly sexy curves. She seemed so wholly unaware of her appeal. Surely she had to realize the affect she had on every man who met her? And what about the way she was affecting him? Much as he disliked admitting it, he was starting to view Kenzie Daniels in a far more personal light than he wanted to. Yes, he was aware of the sweetness and warmth that Angus had responded to so readily, but this purely sexual pull of attraction was more than he’d bargained for—and something he certainly didn’t welcome. He had enough to worry about just dealing with his son!

“Eeeww!” said Angus, pulling Ross back to the present.

Kenzie had pulled a glassy-eyed fish from the freezer.

“Change your mind?” she asked with a grin, dangling it in front of the boy.

“Um—”

“Would gloves help?”

“Oh, yes, thanks.” Angus looked relieved.

“Don’t blame you, sport. I hate touching slimy stuff, too.”

She helped him pull on the heavy gloves while Ross watched, then showed him how to feed each of the birds. Angus didn’t even flinch when a gannet with a long, pointy bill lunged forward to snatch the fish. And he whooped aloud when a great blue heron swallowed its meal whole.

“Did you see that? Did you see that, Kenzie? It went down his throat sideways!”

“Pretty amazing,” she agreed, laughing.

When Angus had given each bird a treat, Kenzie led him away to wash up while Ross followed without speaking, muscular arms folded in front of his wide chest. Pushing a footstool up to the sink, Kenzie lifted Angus onto it, chatting unconcernedly all the while. “Let’s scrub that smell away, okay? Here, use plenty of soap. How about something to drink? Are you thirsty?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And hungry? I’ve got pastries in the house.”

“Ooh! What kind?”

She twinkled at him. “We’ll have to go see. Wait, wait. You missed a spot.”

He scrubbed quickly at the offending hand she’d tapped, then jumped off the stool and rushed outside without asking his father’s permission.

Kenzie hung away the towel. “Hope you don’t mind him having sweets.”

“How do you do that?” Ross countered gruffly.

She turned to look at him. “What?”

“Make it seem so easy.”

Her hand stilled. He was standing there with his thumbs hooked in his belt, his expression unsmiling and oddly vulnerable. She’d never noticed before, but his eyes were a darker blue than Angus’s.

Something in her heart seemed to turn over. No way, she told herself firmly. No way was she going to start feeling sorry for this man!

But she wasn’t going to pretend to misunderstand him, either.

“Because it is easy. With a boy like that—”

“I don’t mean just Angus. You’ve obviously been around a lot of them. How many children do you have?”

She blinked. “I—I don’t—I’m not married.”

“Oh.” He was silent for a moment, then looked at her with something very close to helplessness. “Then how do you do it?”

Kenzie bit her lip. Something obviously wasn’t right here. While she had no idea what it was, her heart had started aching in a funny way. “It isn’t anything you can explain,” she said softly. “It’s just something you know. In here.” When she touched her heart, his expression changed, and she knew for sure now that what she saw in his eyes was pain.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” he said roughly.

Heaven help her, but some strange compulsion was making her reach out to cover his big hand with hers. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

“What do you mean?”