Pamela Tracy - Katie's Rescue

She carefully opened one eye to a slit.

He wasn’t what she expected. For one thing, he was better looking than his website photos suggested and closer to her age. She’d figured he was older. For another, he was looking at her and not at Aquila.

Her father, had she interrupted his day by wimping out, would have put her in the hands of an employee and gone back to work.

“Katie, you all right?” Jasper inched over, right next to Luke.

Katie closed her eyes again. She wasn’t ready to deal with this, with him.

His voice hadn’t changed. It was still twangy and gravelly and soothing.

“She’s going to be fine,” the third man said, sitting beside her. This was the only voice she didn’t recognize. He felt the back of her head. “Not even a bump.”

Somebody else sat down next to her and patted her on the shoulder. She knew it wouldn’t be Jasper. He had a master touch when it came to animals but didn’t have a clue when it came to humans. Surely it wasn’t Luke. Yet, even before she opened her eyes a nano-slit, she knew it was him. He seemed like a take-charge kind of guy.

She was right.

“How long have you been afraid of animals?” Luke asked.

Katie opened her eyes and stared down at her tennis shoes. She wasn’t quite ready to meet Luke’s gaze. She’d expected a fifty-something, gruff, hard-edged keeper. Instead, she got a thirty-something, rugged, almost Indiana-Jones perfect—a young Indiana-Jones keeper.

“I’m not afraid,” she said. “I’m just surprised by how big Aquila’s gotten.”

From behind her, she heard Jasper snort. Luke just looked at her; his mouth didn’t change from a straight line. “Liar,” he said.

“It’s been more than a decade since I’ve been around exotic animals,” Katie protested, finally looking Luke full in the face. “I didn’t know how I’d react when...”

“You mean you didn’t know you were afraid?” Luke supplied.

“I’m not sure I am afraid. Maybe more like unwilling to find out.”

“You aren’t afraid of anything, little girl,” Jasper said. “What’s really bothering you?”

Katie glanced away. It had seemed like such a good idea, to come in alone and assess Aquila without any gawking eyes.

When she’d arrived at Bridget’s AZ Animal Adventure, there’d been maybe five cars in the parking lot. A strange-looking man had sat cross-legged in front of the entrance. He’d smiled, asked her name, seemed to recognize it and then offered her a paintbrush. When she turned it down, he’d opened the gate and told her how to find Aquila.

Walking into Bridget’s, she’d had an almost ethereal sense of déjà vu.

All she could think, with each step, was how the smell of animals never changed, and how the morning sun seemed more pronounced when there was a vital job to do—like taking care of animals.

Katie had never felt more needed, more confident, than when she’d been taking care of Aquila and Tyre. Taking care of Janie wasn’t the same. Katie had been scared to death when, at eighteen, she’d become the guardian of her twelve-year-old sister.

To this day, she was terrified she’d mess up with Janie.

She’d never been scared with Aquila.

Until today.

She looked at Aquila and remembered his brother, Tyre, remembered what a big cat looked like with blood dripping from his mouth onto the ground.

“I’ll be all right,” she said forcefully. “Maybe it’s that I’ve been awake all night, driving. Maybe it’s the worry of being unemployed—”

“We’ll find a way to compensate you for your help.”

She felt her voice growing tight. “Maybe it’s the fear that I can’t do whatever it is you want me to do.”

“Just get Aquila to eat,” Luke said. “That’s all we want. He’s losing too much weight. If we don’t do something soon, we’ll lose him.”

Now that her eyes were open, Katie could see Aquila pacing back and forth in front of the fence. Every step was agitated. His skin sagged more than it should. His gait was slower than it should be. A decade out of the business and Katie could still spot what John Q. Public would miss.

Aquila wasn’t himself. He wasn’t holding his head quite as high as normal, his steps weren’t as stable. For a moment, she wanted to enter the cage, stroke the satiny fur. Hear Aquila purr.

But after a decade away, she couldn’t do that, even if she wanted. It would break every rule her father and Jasper had instilled in her.

And it might break Katie.

But that attitude wouldn’t get the job done—and it wouldn’t get her home any faster. Aquila might need her, but Janie needed her even more. She couldn’t help one without helping the other. No matter what it cost her. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll try.”

She felt a hand land on her shoulder and awkwardly squeeze.

Jasper’s fingers were brown and blunt. His nails as short as could be. She’d always believed him to be stronger than her father. Maybe because her dad always seemed to need help, but Jasper, with just a word or the touch of his hand, could get the animals to do anything. “Have you eaten? How’s Janie?”

Katie laughed. “You still have a way with words. I stopped about an hour ago and had a doughnut. Janie’s fine. She’s a freshman in college.”

“She okay by herself?”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Katie reached up and patted Jasper’s hand; he squeezed her fingers as he helped her to her feet. She managed not to fall as she repeated, “I’ll help, Mr. Rittenhouse.”

“You can call me Luke.” He didn’t look convinced she could really help, though. “How about I show you around Bridget’s first? Let you get a feel for the place.”

As she fell into step beside Luke and Jasper, Katie tried to tell herself she felt relieved because she was tired, not because she didn’t want to face Aquila yet. But she knew the truth—she was a screwup waiting to happen—and welcomed any reprieve that gave her time to regroup.

“We open in an hour,” Luke said. “Saturday’s our busiest day. We’re hoping to get at least five hundred visitors today. That’s more than double what we got before your dad’s animals.”

Katie’s headache wasn’t as pronounced now as she followed him down a path painted with cat paw prints. “My dad’s menagerie made that much of a difference?”

“Yes. Your father’s animals and their antics are definitely bringing people in.”

“Your website said you had a lion.”

Luke nodded. “Terrance the Terrible. He belongs to our veteran keeper, Ruth. He weighs three hundred pounds and is twenty-five years old.”

Katie whistled. “That’s old.”

“In lion years,” Luke agreed. “He deserves not only AARP but all that goes with it. He’s losing his eyesight. That’s what has Ruth worried. Next week he’s getting a tooth pulled. Though other than that, he’s perfectly healthy—”

Jasper cleared his throat, loudly.

“Okay,” Luke admitted. “Terrance also has the worst breath you can imagine. Ruth actually brushes his teeth twice a day, which he lets her do. She’s going to film him getting his teeth brushed—”

Jasper cleared his throat again.

“Oh, give it up,” Luke said lightly. “You know you like her.”

Jasper actually blushed.

“Is it really that exciting to film a tiger being sedated and then having its teeth cleaned?”

Luke laughed, “Oh, Terrance will be awake.”

“But—”

“He’s the calmest lion you’ll ever meet,” Luke said.

“He’s a wild animal,” Katie insisted. “It’s dangerous to—”

“Wait until you meet him.”

Katie considered protesting more, convincing him of the dangers, but forced herself to stop. She’d been invited here to help with Aquila, not give advice on how to guarantee employee safety.