Sealed With A Kiss: Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild, page 11
“Yeah? Because nobody knows we’re together?”
She looked almost sad for a moment. “That’s not what I was thinking. I think it’s better because I’ve been to dinner with other men. I’ve never done something like this. And I don’t think I would do something like this with anyone else.”
That hit him hard. It was a big deal that he got to help out this way, but it was awesome if he had somehow inspired someone else to do it as well.
“That doesn’t make me want to buy you dinner any less, goddess,” he told her.
He didn’t have to try to drop his voice lower and softer to avoid being overheard. It seemed that his voice naturally did that when he spoke to her.
He saw a flicker of emotion in her eyes at the use of the endearment.
“Well, I suppose we’ll have to eat later. I have a feeling that even if that turns out to just be a sandwich, it’ll be the best sandwich I’ve ever had,” she said quietly.
“Dammit, girl, you say things like that when I’m standing in the middle of a bunch of people you don’t want to know about us, so I can’t kiss you the way I want to right now.”
She nodded and dragged her tongue over her lower lip. “Dammit is right.”
But he shouldn’t kiss her at all. Not even if they were alone. Because he was leaving.
“Okay, let’s head out,” Sawyer said. “Next stop, Mobile. We’re heading over to the southwest part of town. There’ll be somebody there to meet us who will help us get the boats in the water and direct us where to start.”
“I think we’ll head over there with you,” Donovan said, making himself focus on the task at hand instead of Naomi.
He’d gotten a voicemail from Fiona while they’d been driving and he’d listened right after they’d parked. “Fiona won’t be to town until later on this evening. They’ve got an emergency animal shelter set up, so they’re hoping to have a few rescue boats that are willing to pick up animals and get them to the shelter. Knowing there’s somewhere safe for their pets could help convince some of these people to actually leave their houses.”
“Absolutely,” Sawyer said. “You and Naomi have all the details?”
“I can fill her in.”
“Great. Owen and I will each take one of you on our boats. They’re big enough we can fit some crates and carriers on them.”
“We’ll need to bring some food and supplies too,” Donovan said. “We might need to coax some animals out and there might be some injuries.”
“Fine,” Sawyer agreed.
Donovan glanced at Naomi. “You okay with this?”
She looked a little nervous, but she nodded. “Yes. If that’s what needs done, I’m in.”
Yeah, it was impossible not to be crazy about this woman.
6
She really shouldn’t fall for a guy who could convince her to balance on the side of an airboat, jump across four feet of flood waters to a rooftop, then climb through a tiny window into someone’s attic.
The owner’s cat, who had escaped when the humans had finally realized they needed to abandon their house, was supposedly hiding out in that attic. They’d notified the animal shelter who had passed the word to Donovan. Their airboat was full of people they’d picked up from five blocks over—including two dogs—but Sawyer had agreed to head this direction to check the house for the cat.
Now Naomi was climbing over the slippery shingles of a house and trying not to think about how devastating this all was. This family had lost everything. The water reached up to the roof of their porch. There was hope there were things on the second floor that could be salvaged but furniture, food, and mementos from the first floor were gone.
Naomi blocked that out as she held onto the eaves of the house and made her way to the attic window.
“You couldn’t have fallen in love with that welder from Bad, could you?” she muttered to herself. “Or that architect from New Orleans? Or that firefighter Caleb introduced you to? He was a firefighter, Naomi. Sure, he does risky things for a living, but he wouldn’t have you climbing into burning buildings.”
Donovan wasn’t right beside her, actually telling her to do this, of course. He was in the other Landry airboat about three houses away. But she was doing this because this was what he would have done and it was why she was here. She wanted to help. She was here to help Donovan rescue animals specifically.
And she was the only one on the boat small enough to climb through the attic window.
The cat better be up here.
The owners were assuming Mr. Paws had stayed in the house. It was probably a fair assumption. Their house was, literally, surrounded by water. The cat would have had to swim to get anywhere else.
“What did you say?”
* * *
Naomi glanced over at Bennett, who had accompanied her out of the boat and onto the roof. “Oh nothing, just talking to myself.”
He gritted his teeth as he inched along the slippery rooftop behind her. “Okay, good.”
She got to the window. The owners had told her that it would be unlocked and it should be no problem for her to get inside. She started to pull it up and found it stuck, however. “Dammit.”
“Here, let me try.” Bennett moved in beside her and let go of the eaves overhead to grab onto the lower part of the window. One of his shoes slipped and he cursed. “Motherfucker.”
Bennett pried on the window for a couple of minutes and finally got it to budge slightly. Together they shoved it upward. They got it about three-fourths of the way up.
Bennett eyed the opening. “Think you can slide through there?”
Naomi pressed a hand to her belly. “Makes me wish I had laid off Ellie’s bread pudding a little bit.”
Bennett chuckled. “I think you’ll be okay.” He grabbed a flashlight from the toolbelt he had hooked around his waist. He shone it through the window. “There’s not much of a drop on the other side, and it looks like it’s clear below the window.”
Naomi wet her lips and nodded. “Just keep the light shining there, okay?”
“You bet.”
She put her hands on the windowsill, gripping it tightly. Then leaned in and very ungracefully slid through. She braced her fall with her hands on the other side feeling a twinge in one wrist. “Dammit.”
“You okay?” Bennett asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t practice my landings.”
She heard him chuckle, then he handed the flashlight through the window to her and took another out of his toolbelt and shone it through the opening.
Naomi got to her feet, flashing the light around the attic. It was a very typical attic. It had boxes and trunks and lots of dust and cobwebs.
“Mr. Paws?” she asked. Her fall to the window had probably startled the feline, making the chances of finding him even more difficult. The only things she had going for her were that the attic was relatively small, he didn’t have many other places to go, and he was probably hungry.
“I don’t see him. We’re probably going to have to convince him to come out.”
“Here you go,” Bennett said, handing a small sandwich bag of cat food through the window.
Naomi set the flashlight on a box to her right so it would shine into the room and opened the bag.
“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” she called softly. She shook some of the food out onto the floor. “Come on, kitty. Come on, Mr. Paws. I won’t hurt you.”
She backed up away from the food and settled in to wait, giving the animal some space to come out on its own. Of course, capturing it and getting it out of the house would be the next step, but locating the animal was obviously where they had to start.
Naomi backed up to the wall and leaned in to wait.
But it wasn’t long before she heard a scratching sound and then saw a cardboard box in the corner to her right shift.
She straightened away from the wall. Donovan had also reminded her that house cats tended to be a lot more friendly and generally calm around humans. It was a much different situation than trying to catch feral cats or wild animals.
Mr. Paws was ten years old and generally friendly with even guests and visitors, all of which made the situation seem like it would be an easier capture.
A moment later, a large gray and black cat came waddling out from the shadows.
“He’s coming out already,” Naomi told Bennett. “
“That was easy,” Bennett commented.
Thank God. She would love to think that her first attempt would be a success. She not only would like to have this turn out for the family, but she wouldn’t mind showing Donovan that she could handle this. She wasn’t going to think too hard about wanting to impress Donovan Foster.
The animal crept closer and Naomi worked on holding very still. She was going to give it a chance to eat a little bit, but she was going to have to be prepared to scoop the cat up and hand it out to the window to Bennett.
Mr. Paws was reportedly declawed so she wasn’t worried about being scratched, but he was a big guy and if he put up a fight, he might be difficult to hang onto.
“Hi, kitt —” Then she gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Bennett asked.
Naomi backed up quickly, right into the wall. “Um… This isn’t Mr. Paws.”
Bennett leaned down, peering through the window. “What do you mean?”
“Bennett, this is a raccoon.”
“What?”
“This is a raccoon, not a cat.”
“Well…shit.”
The raccoon, however, didn’t seem bothered by Naomi. In fact, it seemed to be enjoying the cat food. It ate quickly and searched the area for more. Naomi reached into the bag she still held and tossed more onto the floor. The raccoon followed the scattered food, eating it quickly as well.
“Bennett, can you get another animal carrier.”
“What? Why?”
“To put the raccoon in.”
“Seriously? You’re going to capture the raccoon?”
“Well, it’s trapped too. There’s nowhere for it to go either and it’s obviously hungry. I’m sure it came up here because it was higher ground. We can’t just leave it here.”
“I…”
She heard Bennett blow out a breath.
“Yeah. Okay. Hang on.”
Naomi dumped the rest of the food onto the floor for the raccoon. Then she heard more scratching. She sucked in a breath. She reached for the flashlight, shining it over in the direction the raccoon had come from.
Three smaller, clearly baby raccoons made their way out from behind the stack of boxes in the far corner.
“Holy crap,” she muttered.
She watched the little raccoon family finish off the cat food as she waited for Bennett to return. It was several minutes. But he finally appeared outside of the window with one of the medium-sized carriers.
It wouldn’t fit through the window.
“I’m going to have to pick this raccoon up,” she said. Not so much a question for Bennett as a realization out loud for herself.
“Guess so.” Bennett passed a pair of work gloves through the window to her.
She sighed. “Well, all four of them actually.”
“Four?”
“There are three babies too.”
There was a pause, then Bennett said, “Of course there are.”
“Is there a towel or something in the carrier?” she asked.
She remembered watching Donovan rescue a possum that had gotten caught in a barrel. He had to cut one end of the barrel off and then he’d covered the possum’s head with a towel. It had kept the possum from panicking when it saw a human coming for him. It had also given Donovan something to wrap around the animal so as it wiggled it couldn’t scratch or bite.
Oh, God, this raccoon could scratch or bite her.
Naomi looked down at her bare arms. It was hot and muggy down here. It would have never occurred to her to wear long sleeves.
“Here you go.” Bennett passed a bath towel through the window.
Naomi assumed the babies would be easier to handle than the larger raccoon but they might be harder to capture. Still, she thought, starting with the mother was maybe the way to go.
In truth, she had no idea what she was doing. But she had to do her best. She was the only one here, so this was her job now. She had to help these animals if she could.
She approached slowly and quietly. The raccoon was still eating, which helped. When she was close enough, she tossed the towel over the raccoon, careful to get it over its head. Then she quickly scooped underneath the animal, wrapping the towel around it. It definitely wiggled and tried to get away. She quickly crossed to the window and shoved it into the carrier. Her heart was pounding and her mouth was dry as adrenaline pumped through her system.
Bennett closed the door on the carrier and Naomi stepped back, breathing hard.
“Okay. There we go.” The raccoon had already worked its way out of the towel and was chittering angrily.
“I know,” she told the animal. “I know. But we’re helping. I promise. I’m going to get your babies and we’ll get you someplace safe.”
She understood why Griffin talked to the otters all the time at Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild. It was an affectionate joke that the grumpy vet spilled his guts to his furry friends more easily than to humans, but it was impossible for Naomi to not respond to the raccoon’s clear fear and displeasure.
She turned back to find the babies had scattered. Awesome.
It took her nearly twenty minutes, but she finally found all three of the babies, scooped them up and got them into the carrier with their mother without letting any of the previously captured animals back out. Somehow.
Bennett was a huge help and she had no idea how he kept his footing on the slippery roof, while also managing a heavy, shifting crate full of animals.
Trying to catch her breath and calm her racing heartbeat, Naomi stood by the window.
The people on the air boat were probably getting antsy since they’d been at this house for nearly forty minutes now.
And she still hadn’t rescued the owner’s cat. The entire reason for this stop.
She turned back to the attic. Dammit. Mr. Paws wasn’t here? Now what were they going to do?
Just then, there was a soft thump as if something had jumped from a height. A moment later, a fluffy gray cat came strolling out from the shadows.
And yes, this time she was sure it was a cat.
She propped her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s nice to see you, Mr. Paws.”
No doubt the cat had gotten up somewhere high to avoid interacting with the raccoons.
The cat gave a soft meow and sniffed around on the floor where the cat food had previously been.
Naomi laughed. “Sorry, buddy, you have to get on the boat if you want some food now. Your roommates ate all I had.”
The cat approached and rubbed against her legs. Clearly, she didn’t have to worry about bribing this one. She leaned over and scooped him up. The cat settled in against her chest and started purring. “Well, I’m happy to see you too.” She turned back to the window. “Need that other carrier after all.”
Donovan had told them that cats were going to be safer in carriers even if they were house pets and seemed docile. It would be easy for them to get spooked on the airboats and no one wanted cats going overboard. Dogs could, of course, be kept on leashes, but cats were a different story.
Bennett looked at her and Mr. Paws and chuckled. “I knew this would be interesting, but I didn’t quite expect this.”
When Sawyer pulled their boat into the main drop off location to let their passengers off, Donovan, Owen, and Mitch were letting off a family with three dogs.
Donovan caught Naomi’s eye and gave her a big grin. She returned it with a wave. But they didn’t have a chance to talk. They were all handed more addresses where people were waiting to be rescued.
Over the course of the next several hours, it felt as if they’d traveled every street in Mobile. About ninety percent of the people they ran across agreed to get on the boat. The ones who decided to stay behind were given contact information for if they changed their minds and bottled water, batteries, and other supplies.
Naomi didn’t feel quite the same rush of desire and affection that she felt for Donovan in his heroic moments, but watching Sawyer, Bennett, and Zeke carrying little kids and older people from their porches to the waiting airboats made her heart feel full in a different way. The guys all worked to make the people laugh, reassured them everything was going to be okay, and distracted the kids with alligator and otter toys that Maddie and Kennedy must have stored on the boats from the Boys of the Bayou gift shop.
She’d been surrounded by these good people all her life and, while she’d always known it, seeing them in action like this, outside of Autre, outside of their comfort zones, was a great reminder that she was lucky to know them.
Their lives on the bayou might seem small and simple, but the truth was, they interacted with people every single day from all walks of life. Sawyer took tourists out on the bayou every day. Zeke did construction and worked to make houses into homes. Bennett was a climate activist and politician. Yes, that meant he spent a lot of time trying to convince other people to think his ideas were good, but that took a lot of listening too.
They were all naturals at this and at the end of the day, Naomi was exhausted, but she felt like she’d really been a part of something important.
Nearly twelve hours after first putting their boats into the water, they gathered in the parking lot of a grocery store with a good portion of the other volunteers.
They all debriefed about the rescues they’d done that day and about what was waiting for them the next day. A few boats planned to go out even tonight. There were a lot of people who were hesitant to evacuate during daylight hours, but once the sun went down they got a little more willing to leave their dark, powerless homes.
A couple of local church groups were providing food for the volunteers and the Landry crew stood around the back of Sawyer’s pickup, eating and chatting.
