“Ah.”
“I think you’re being incredibly hard on yourself.”
“You have a beautiful mouth.”
“You’re trying to get on my good side.”
“You bet I am,” he said with a grin.
After they loaded the last dish into the dishwasher, when the track changed to the moving song The Breathtaking Days, he bundled her up in his arms and they swayed to the music. Soon his dance steps began backing them up into the living room.
Their bodies fit together, long and lean, molded to one. “You’re a pretty good dancer for a tall guy.”
“Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you. What are you, five-eight?”
“Good eye.”
He nuzzled her neck, nibbled an ear. “I suddenly remember why taking it slow sucks the life out of necking.”
“You mean there’s something on the planet that sucks the life out of necking? Live and learn.”
They’d just ramped up testing that concept out when the phone rang. Keegan frowned.
“Who could be calling at this time of night?”
But when she answered, a wound up park ranger said in her ear, “Keegan, this is Steve Childs. I hate to bother you so late but we have a stranded baby seal north of Smuggler’s Bay. It washed up about five hours ago and then somehow got stranded on the rocks. All this time we thought we’d wait him out, hoping that maybe the mama seal might come back. But I don’t like what I’m seeing. I think he’s not going anywhere. And now that I’ve gotten a closer look at him, I see he’s in bad shape. Are you in a position to make a run out here tonight, pick him up? He might not make it till morning.”
And that was the problem, wasn’t it? How could she turn down a request like that and sleep tonight? She’d seen her grandfather go out later than this, in raging storms, plenty of times to make a save. “What about light? I’ll need plenty of light without scaring the bejeezus out of him.”
“I’m here now. I’ll help with the light.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you in twenty.”
“Rescue?” Cord asked when she hung up.
“Looks like a stranded baby seal. Sorry, Cord. I’ve got to go.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You sure? It could take awhile, especially if he’s on the rocks, getting to him and all. It might take several hours for me to even get close to him enough to net.”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this. I want to see you in action.”
“Good thing I spent the morning loading up your truck with the cages, nets and gear. Let’s roll then.”
When she grabbed her Raiders cap, tugged it down over her hair, Cord scowled. “A Raiders fan? Just my luck. I’ve rooted for the Chargers my whole life.”
“And for what?” she teased as she plopped into the passenger side of Cord’s truck while he got behind the wheel. “At least my team’s won Super Bowls.”
He grinned. “Ouch. A person can only take so much. But slamming my favorite football team might be the deal breaker.”
“Hey, not slamming, it’s a fact. Have you guys even won a championship game in the twenty-first century?”
“Like you guys have been burning the house down lately.”
“Yeah, since both had eight and eight seasons last year, I guess it’s a draw as to which team sucks more.”
With that settled, Keegan directed him through town and up the coast toward a scenic overhang.
“That’s almost next door to the farm.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen a lot of seals end up there. It’s rocky and hazardous surf but that doesn’t stop them from getting stranded at that particular spot.”
Twenty minutes later he pulled into a circular gravel lot north of town next to a jeep with the state park logo on the door.
The place was deserted this time of night so when the park ranger stepped out to greet them, he looked glad to have the company.
As Keegan emerged from the passenger door, she heard the pitiful wail of a baby seal pup calling for its mama. “That sounds like a pretty young seal, Steve.”
“He is—and noisy. He’s not very big, Keegan, and his wail is getting weaker by the hour.”
Keegan introduced the two men before heading to the back of the pickup where she retrieved her gloves and netting out of the bed along with a large, rectangular, tub-like bin.
Since the park ranger had already set up floodlights aimed on the steep slope to help them all with seeing their way to the shore below, Cord walked to the railing and peered over. No sand here, no stretch of pristine beach either, just rocks and jutting boulders. He knew for a fact it was a spectacular sight during the day, but all he saw now was a dangerous thirty-foot climb down to reach the bottom.
Steve looked genuinely apologetic. “Sorry Keegan for the late call, but I tried to wait him out thinking he might find his way back in the water or that the mother was just off foraging for food or something and would eventually come back for him. She didn’t.”
“It’s okay. Mothers leave to forage all the time, but something could have happened to her. This isn’t the best place to do it either. Maybe she couldn’t get back. You’ll watch out for her over the next couple of days though, right? This is where she’ll likely circle back.”
“We will. I’ll see to it the morning crew knows about her.”
From that moment on, Cord got to see the woman in her element. She was impressive as she first had to hike down the ragged hill.
Once she reached ground level she had to scramble up and onto the finger of land to get to the pathetic little creature, gray in color, marooned on the area jutting out over the water, obviously scared to death—and in distress.
Over the roar of the waves crashing up against rock and cliff, Cord heard her talking to the little guy, trying to calm him down.
“Oh, wow, I knew it. You’re just a baby, aren’t you, probably less than a week old and underweight? How in the world did you make it this far on the rocks?” As Keegan surveyed the surrounding area, she added, “Or did someone put you here?”
That brought Childs closer. “I thought the same thing. We do get stranded seals here, Keegan, but rarely one so young. Porter Fanning personally rescued probably a hundred or more on these very rocks over the years.”
She already knew that and did her best to concentrate on the situation and not on her grandfather.
Childs stood next to Cord below Keegan on the narrow strip of earth dividing the precipice, looking up and added, “This is where he’s been barking since I found him about five o’clock this afternoon. He hasn’t moved much from this spot. I should’ve called you then.”
“Could someone or something have chased him up here?” Keegan wanted to know. “This isn’t a good area for foraging anyway. That’s why once seals wash up here, they’re usually injured or sick and can’t get down themselves. The rocks are too craggy, the waves are too harsh. But something drove him up to higher ground like this. That’s for certain.”
“I don’t see him getting this far away from the water on his own.”
“So you think someone purposely drove him up here? Why am I surprised? Hell, some people beat their dogs,” Cord tossed in.
“Sad, but true,” Keegan agreed.
She gauged her approach, decided on the most direct. “Aw, you want mama, don’t you? Poor baby. Well, I don’t see mama around anywhere so we’ll take good care of you in the meantime, get you some place safe until maybe mama comes looking for you.” Behind her she heard Steve ask if he could do anything.
“Nope, I won’t even need the netting. He’s so small and weak I’ll just wrap him up in a wet towel. Cord?”
“Right here,” Cord answered as he watched her maneuver into position.
“Do me a favor, give me two of those towels I brought and dip them in the cold water there at the edge, wring them out for me, and then hand a couple up here.”
Once he brought them back, she took the cloth and stepped around
the pup, approached him from behind. Bending down, she draped it out and slowly, gently, covered the seal’s back, then his head. She quickly scooped him up and held him to her chest.
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll bite?” Cord asked, genuinely concerned for her safety.
“Nah, this guy’s too weak to put up much of a fight. Aren’t you, Sam? You look like a Sam to me,” she cooed as she continued to rub his little head in an attempt to keep him calm.
“Sam, huh?” Cord said as they made their way to the rocky slope. “How do you intend to get him back up?”
“Good question. I guess we use the tub after all, and carry him that way.”
Reluctantly she let go of Sam, placed him in the container and let Steve and Cord heft the weight, take point, carrying him while she brought up the rear. The ascent up took much longer than the hike down. But once they got back to the scenic overhang, Cord pointed out, “Sam if it’s a girl, Sam if it’s a boy. Good call, you can’t lose either way.”
“Exactly.”
“Every rescue gets a name? Elmer?”
“Yeah. It seems rude not to call them something while they’re in our care. And Elmer the sea lion sounds a lot like Elmer Fudd when he barks. He has a bit of a stutter.”
Not for the first time that day, he realized they did have a great deal in common after all. When he’d first taken the job at the farm, he’d thought it was silly on his part to name each of the cows. But now, he considered that might just be either a quirky part of his personality or the fun part of his job.
Once they got back to the truck, Keegan transferred the pup into one of the cages, keeping him wrapped up in the wet towels.
“Thanks for coming out, Keegan. I don’t know what we’d have done with him if we didn’t have the center so close by,” Steve said.
“Then it’s a good thing we’re on call twenty-four-seven, huh?” Keegan cracked.
“Do you think he’ll make it?”
“He’s dehydrated and very young. But we’re good at what we do, so yeah, he has a good shot at growing up.”
As soon as they settled back inside the cab of the truck, Cord looked over at her before starting the engine. “You’re something. You know that, Keegan Fanning?”
“I am?”
“You are. That cute little guy needs you.”
“Cute as a button now but will grow to be so much bigger.”
“Really?”
And for the next twenty minutes she filled him in about how the harbor seal, whether male or female, would grow to a minimum of six feet and would most likely weigh close to four hundred pounds as an adult.
The minute she got the seal pup back to the center and into the exam room, she set about assessing his condition. She stretched out her measuring tape, jotted down the necessary statistics on a notepad.
She put the baby on a scale and announced, “Twelve pounds. Very underweight.”
Cord watched as she performed a physical exam on the lethargic little thing and couldn’t help but think how exceptional she was at what she did. He’d bet money the woman didn’t even realize she was already one part veterinarian.
After another fifteen minutes or so, Keegan announced, “I’d be willing to bet twenty bucks we’ve got a female here.”
“How can you tell?”
“I can’t really—not yet anyway. But look at how tiny she is, not simply underweight but small. And see this light gray color on the underbelly and the spot pattern? That says female to me. But if there’s a huge weight gain and the color changes…” Her voice trailed off as she opened a supply cabinet, took out an intravenous feeding tube and began to mix up an electrolyte solution with fish oil.
“That fish stuff smells rank.”
“Hmm, shouldn’t you be used to all the lovely aromatic smells around animals since you spend part of your day mucking out stalls?”
“Sure, but fish is strong and foul.”
“Work around it long enough though, live near the ocean, you get used to the smell.” Tilting her head, she sized up the baby seal and decided to forego the feeding tube. From a drawer, she dug out a clean eyedropper. “Let’s try this first, Sam.”
She filled the tiny cylinder with formula, watched as the baby turned up its nose. “Come on now, Sam. Don’t be difficult. It’s late and you’re starving. Admit it.” She kept trying to get her interested in the formula by dabbing the end of the eyedropper at the corners of her mouth. Pretty soon the baby opened up and started sucking the tip. “Now we’re talking. Get a taste of this and you might get a bottle of Pedialyte instead of the feeding tube.”
Cord glanced around the room. “With four patients on board, you’re getting crowded in here. Abby told me on the way in, you guys are running out of space.”
“We’ve had twice this number of patients in the past. And yeah, when we need to, we move things around, scooch together, that sort of thing. Get up close and personal and we’re like one big happy family.”
He went around behind her, started massaging her shoulders with his lean and long fingers.
“Ahhh, that feels exceptional. You have such big hands.”
“You know what they say about big hands,” he whispered in her ear.
That got a laugh out of her. “I thought that was feet—and an urban myth.”
“Have you seen the size of my shoes?”
“Hmm, you do have large feet.”
“Eighteens,” he whispered. “Wanna see for yourself?”
“Ah—”
“My feet, see how big my feet are. My, you do have a dirty mind.”
“Now you’re just bragging.”
“That might be the case if I couldn’t back it up.”
That comment had her swallowing hard, conjuring up that image.
But when he heard her moan at the way he massaged her shoulders, he sighed. “I need to go. Morning comes too early on a farm. Because you couldn’t keep your hands off me last night in the truck, I got two hours sleep. Plus I have to drive all the way into Santa Cruz to see the shrink.”
“Wait. I’ll walk you out.” She pulled off her gloves and reached for his hand. “Do me a favor. Don’t get all tense about sharing your thoughts tomorrow, okay?”
“Make like he’s a bartender. I got it.”
“Just be open and honest.”
They walked out together through the front door of the center where Cord had left his motorcycle parked on the street. Before they reached the bike, Cord grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him. “I want you, Keegan. There’s no point in playing the guessing game or taking it slow.”
She ran her fingers though his long blonde locks, pulled his mouth down to hers. “Haven’t you figured out by now, my evil plan is to leave you wanting me until you can’t think straight?”
He crushed his mouth to hers. Instant lust spiked. The belly hungered for so much more.
“I’m pretty sure that evil plan needs revising.” He moved kisses over her jaw and let out a low growl. “I know, I know. We’re waiting for me to get my head on straight.”
“That and for you to move past Cassie.”
“Same thing, honey.” He tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. “Look, why don’t you plan to come out to the farm tomorrow night for dinner. I’ll beg Jordan for some of her infamous cuisine and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
She figured after the session with the psychiatrist he would need another sounding board. Well, it was a start at getting him to open up about the emotions that had to be bombarding his brain right now.
“Okay, it’s a date.”
“Our third.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “The history of the third date is a classic for a reason.”
She actually giggled. “You’re a funny guy, you know that, Cord?”
“So I’ve been told.”
She watched him straddle the Harley, rev up the engine. And watched him drive off with a bit of an attitude—and knew instantly the reason why.
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Cord Bennett already looked like he was sweating bullets about his appointment tomorrow with the therapist.
Chapter 11 Book 3
Monday morning staff shortages and another injured, beat-up pelican brought in from a man who lived south of town and who had found the bird along the roadway, kept Keegan hopping. Plus, she had preparations to make for the busload of school children due to arrive that afternoon for a field trip.
Porter Fanning had always been a fanatic about the welfare of the animals. He believed half the battle was educating the public. Whether bird or mammal, it was never too early for show and tell and to get kids interested in preserving wildlife.
Because of that, she particularly loved it whenever she got an opportunity to show off, not just the center or the animals, or the state-of-the-art hospital, but her staff as well.
Their number might be few, but those she had were passionate about animals. She couldn’t ask for more than that.
There were, however, precautions to take to make sure the two hours the kids spent on the premises went smoothly and any safety issues had been dealt with properly before the children ever stepped off the bus.
When she spotted Pete, she all but did a happy dance down the middle of the compound. “Thank God, reinforcements!”
“What’s up?”
“We’re slowly reaching capacity.” She gave him a quick rundown on the patients, and brought him up to speed on Minnie, the pregnant otter. “My guess is we’ll have a new baby before the week is out. That means we need to transfer her to the tide pool. Today.”
The tide pool was the closest thing to their native environment that the rescue center could offer the mammals, mimicking what they had in the wild.
In this case, much like the hospital, Porter Fanning had spared no expense. Spanning fifteen feet across and thirty feet in length, the rounded enclosure had steep rock formations on the sides complete with a railing and a glass enclosed observation deck for viewing.
But now, she watched Pete scratch at the thinning hair on his head. He always liked to give her a hard time about her go-team enthusiasm, and today was no exception.
“I’m gone two days and miss all the fun, or rather Keegan’s idea of fun. I swear you get that zest for this place just like Porter and Mary did. The center changes day to day and you seem to be the only one that can keep up with all of it.”
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