Broken Wings (13 page)

“Couldn’t wait to see how my girl was doing,” he declared.

She stood for a moment and watched, a little mystified, at how the man’s muscular body curled around the creature as he pulled his cupped hands close to his chest. His shoulders, back, and neck reflexively encircled the contents of his hand, as if to shield the helpless animal from any further harm.

“Has she been eating?” he asked as he glanced over at Pamela.

“Not as well as I would like. She wasn’t too interested in her plate of mealworms and fruit this morning.”

Daniel carefully placed the groggy brown and white squirrel back in her container and closed the lid. Putting the container back amid the pile on the table, he then turned and looked at Pamela. He smiled and slowly walked across the room to her side, then reached his hands around her back and pulled her into his arms.

“So now that I’m your boyfriend, I guess I can do this,” he whispered as he leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

Pamela’s first instinct was to pull back and slap him across the face, but then another kind of instinct took over. She felt her arms reach up about his neck as her body slid in closer to his.

Daniel responded to her submission by deepening his kiss. He let his hands travel the length of her back.

Pamela quickly pulled away. She took a step back out of his arms, leaving Daniel confused.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What are we doing?”

“I think it’s called dating,” he answered with a grin.

“Dating or mating? I think you have the two confused.”

“No, I don’t,” he affirmed. “Trust me, I know the difference. If we had been mating, we wouldn’t be standing in the living room.”

She took another step back from him. “Perhaps we shouldn’t do this. Neither one of us has a very good track record with the opposite sex, and our becoming involved might make our working relationship difficult.”

He placed his hand on his hip and shook his head. “You need to stop analyzing this, Pamela. What we were as individuals is not what we will be as a couple. People change people no matter how short, or how long, a relationship lasts. Why don’t we just enjoy what we have now and see what happens?” He paused and smiled at her. “Just consider me a new type of wildlife that you are eager to learn everything about.”

Pamela scowled at him. “I don’t end up in bed with my wildlife.”

Daniel raised his dark brows. “Have you been thinking about how we would be in bed together?”

She felt her cheeks blush over. “Perhaps you should get to work on my roof before this,” she motioned to Daniel, “gets out of hand.”

“Am I moving too fast for you?” he asked as his eyes probed hers.

Pamela stood for a moment and considered the question. “Daniel, I think at my age moving too fast is more a necessity than a problem.”

He laughed. “You’re not old, Pamela.”

“I’m older than you.” She shrugged. “Perhaps too old.”

“I don’t care about your age.” He reached out and pulled her back into his arms. “It’s not the age of the wine that matters. It’s the taste.”

“You can’t compare people to wine, Daniel.”

“Relationships are not right or wrong because of someone’s age. We are both over twenty-one and free to choose who we want to be with.”

She looked down at the hardwood floor beneath her feet. “Even if the woman you want to be with is broken?”

He cupped his hands around her beautiful face and brought his lips within inches of hers. “You will never be broken to me.”

Her eyes eagerly searched his. “I wish I could believe you,” she whispered.

“How can I prove it to you?”

Pamela sighed as she felt that familiar nagging feeling of doubt rise from her gut. No man could ever prove his sincerity as far as she was concerned. Trust was a commodity she had stopped investing in years ago.

She took a step back from Daniel. “The roof is waiting,” she said in a firm voice.

Daniel stared into her eyes and Pamela thought she saw a glimmer of hurt linger in his dark orbs. He smiled and the serious mood lifted between them. He nodded to her. “I’ll get right on it, boss lady,” he cheekily replied.

Daniel turned away and headed out the front door. Pamela felt a flurry of excitement stir beneath her skin. But a rush of apprehension soon replaced her excitement. Her gut screamed that this was a mistake, and no matter how hard her heart fought to quell her doubt, she knew that any romantic relationship between them would never last. She had realized a long time ago that she was never meant for love and she had gotten used to the idea of growing old alone. Life had instantly found a way to interfere with her plans, and the thought of a future with another person suddenly scared the hell out of her. But stirring amidst the doubt was an underlying twinge of desire; a feeling she had not experienced for a very long time.

*  *  *  *

Later that afternoon, Pamela and Daniel were sitting on her back porch, eating sandwiches and taking a break from their work. Daniel had finished the roof and was starting to strip the old paint from the outside of the house. Small flecks of blue and white paint still covered his dark hair, face, chest, and forearms. Even his faded jeans had remnants of the paint on them.

“Sorry I don’t have anything heartier than tuna for you,” Pamela apologized. “I don’t have any red meat in the house, and the chicken I do have, I have to keep for the animals.”

Daniel held up his sandwich. “The tuna’s fine, Pamela.” He paused as he gazed out over the facility. “You know, with a little work this place could really be something,” Daniel said, and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Yes, but the kind of work I need done costs money.”

He finished chewing on his sandwich and asked, “What else do you need, besides an overhaul of your house and the barn?”

She eyed the large cages next to the barn for a moment. “Well, I need to get a few more exterior cages built. Then I would love to add more outdoor lights so I wouldn’t have to carry a flashlight with me when I check on sick animals at night. Then there are the extra faucets needed around the cages.”

“I might be able to help out with the outdoor lights,” he volunteered. “I can do some basic wiring and run a line out from the barn.”

“You’re already doing too much. I feel like I’m taking advantage of you and I don’t like feeling that way. I prefer to pay people for their services.”

“I told you I want to do this,” Daniel insisted.

She could not help but smile at him. “I find it’s getting harder and harder to get you to accept no.”

“Like I said, I rarely listen to women; especially the stubborn kind who don’t like to accept help from friends.”

Pamela said nothing. She watched in silent amazement as the man gobbled down two tuna sandwiches before she had barely gotten through half of her cheese sandwich. She waited until he had finished the last bite of his second sandwich before she brought up the subject that had been bothering her all morning.

“So how is the job hunting going?”

“Great,” Daniel replied as he wiped the crumbs from his hands. “Got another bartending job at the Port of Call on Esplanade. It’s not far from my place in the Quarter. The pay isn’t as good as it was at Pat O’Brien’s, but the tips are probably better. Tourists aren’t the greatest tippers.”

“Where do you live in the Quarter?”

“I rent a cottage that was converted from a carriage house. It sits across a courtyard from a house that was split up into apartments. It’s small, but it’s enough for me.”

“I’m glad to hear that you found a job. I was worried you wouldn’t find anything.”

He shook his head as he grinned at her. “I always land on my feet, Pamela.”

She gave him a cool going over with her gray eyes. “It’s not your feet I worry about.”

He looked out over the property. “You don’t need to worry about that, either. It’s been better lately. I feel less
…
agitated, I guess. Every time I feel myself getting tense, I remember what holding those baby squirrels feels like. Just holding those little guys really calms me. Then I think about this place.” He paused as his eyes found hers. “And about you.”

Pamela nervously cast an eye to her cheese sandwich, avoiding his penetrating gaze.

“Thinking about all of this helps me,” he continued. “I’ve been to shrink after shrink and none of them have been able to do in six years what you and your animals have accomplished in a few days.”

She kept her eyes peeled on her sandwich. “Animals help many people overcome mental and physical problems. Horses and dolphins have been used to connect with children who are autistic. Dogs and cats visit nursing homes and hospitals to comfort the sick and elderly. A variety of animals are trained to help individuals with chronic diseases, physical handicaps, or mental disorders. There is a long list of animals that have been utilized in some sort of program to help all kinds of people. Maybe my animals have helped you.”

“Is that why you got into this?”

“I don’t understand,” she said, putting the rest of her sandwich back in a plastic bag.

He turned to her and let his dark eyes travel the delicate features of her face. “Do the animals help you? Is that why you surround yourself with them?” he finally asked.

She played with the sandwich bag in her hand. “They help give me something to live for, to get out of bed for. So, yes, I guess they have helped me. They have kept me going and not let me give in to my disease.”

“Have you ever thought about when you can’t do this anymore? I did some research on lupus after Carol told me about your condition. It seemed pretty daunting to me,” he admitted.

“It’s only daunting to you. For me, it’s just something to live with like a limp or bad teeth. And I have no one to hand this place over to if something were to happen. I have no family to speak of and my biggest fear is that Bob will take over the facility and turn it into an elite petting zoo.”

“What about hiring others to run it for you?”

She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t have the money for that. I would need a nice sized trust fund for the sanctuary to pay a small staff. Most rehab facilities last only as long as the person who founded them. If anything were to happen to me, this place would not survive.”

Daniel reached for his glass of iced tea. “So how do we find the money to make sure your facility keeps going?”

“We?” She rolled her eyes at him. “Are you sure you want to get involved with all of this? It’s as nerve wracking as hell. It drives Carol absolutely insane.”

“I can handle it. What do we do?”

She thought about the hours of wasted phone calls, sucking up to people she could not stand because she needed the money. The worry over bills, the sleepless nights, and when all was said and done, she still had to care for the animals. At times, the demands of her rehabilitation center seemed overwhelming, and then there were the moments with the animals that made it all worthwhile.

“Well, next Saturday there is that oil spill benefit that I mentioned to Carol. My ex-husband wants me to attend so I can hob-knob with his rich friends and see if I can drum up donations.”

He nodded as he lifted his glass to his lips. “Yes, I remember. I’m in.” He took a sip from his drink.

She furrowed her brow at him. “It’s black tie.”

He leaned closer to her. “I do own a tux, Pamela. I’m a bartender, not a bum.” He leaned back from her and looked down into his tea. “I’ll pick you up at five. We can go have a nice dinner in the city. And after the benefit, I can show you where I live.”

She shook her head. “This isn’t a date.”

“For me it is,” he said and took a long sip of tea.

Pamela sighed. “Now I’ll need to go shopping for something to wear.” She cringed and added, “Ugh!”

“I thought women loved shopping for clothes,” he said, a little confused.

“This woman does not like shopping for clothes. I live in jeans and T-shirts. The idea of wasting money on some fancy cocktail dress I’ll only wear once is infuriating. I’d rather be spending the money on my animals.”

Daniel stood up from the porch. “Fine. I’ll take you shopping later on this afternoon and buy you a dress for the benefit. I’ve got a change of clothes in the car. I can shower here and we can grab some dinner after. How does that sound?”

Pamela scowled at him. “I wasn’t asking you to buy me a dress, Daniel. I can afford to buy my own clothes.”

“You’ll buy something that will cover up your body and make you appear frumpy and unattractive. I’ll buy you a dress that will turn heads and have every man at that benefit pulling out his checkbook to win you over.” He winked at her. “I know how to dress a woman to look like a woman.”

“They teach you that little trick in bartending school?”

“Yeah, in
between how to mix daiquiris and martinis.” He reached over and pulled Pamela to her feet. “Now, go and take care of everybody so we can make an early start of it. I’ll take you to Baton Rouge where they have some decent malls.” He handed her his empty glass and headed down the porch steps.

Pamela could not help but smile as Daniel walked away from her. For the first time in a long time, she was actually excited about the prospect of shopping.