Page 31 of Refurbished

“I’d love that. Can always use an extra hand. And you have two.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes, and he gave me another quick kiss, then handed me a tumbler with coffee.

“I hope I made it right. A little creamer, no sugar.” When I took a sip, it was perfect. He had noticed how I made my coffee, a little thing that meant a lot. It was a good thing that I knew how he liked his, too. Ramsey, Barnaby, Eion, and I walked around the Sanctuary and fed everyone. As promised, I took snacks to Walter. Then, made Eion take me back to the sheep, so I could give them treats too.

A notification chimed on Eion’s phone, and he pulled it out immediately. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

I stopped in my tracks, worried about what might have just happened. “Eion, what’s wrong?”

He turned to me, and his eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “There’s a female bear that has been burned in the wildfires. She needs to be put in a sanctuary, and there aren’t any available to take her. They think she’s pregnant.”

“Why don’t you bring her here?”He started to shuffle his feet back and forth, and I would have sworn there was a tear, but he looked away quickly. When he turned back, he looked pained. “Eion. Tell me, please.”

“I suck. I didn’t save enough money to get a proper vehicle. I bought this land, but I invested everything in corrals, the nursery, the medical building, and my schooling. My old pickup was good enough since I never went anywhere. Now I can’t help this bear because someone needs to go get her from the Chatchua Animal Care Center, about an hour and a half away.”

This seemed like a solvable problem in general, but immediately, we needed to save that bear. “So you need a truck? What about something to put the bear in?”

“I have a trailer in the garage.”

“I’ve got you.” A problem I could solve for him.

ANGUS

Dude, I need your truck.

WEST

It’s at the house I rode in with Tyler today.

ANGUS

Keys?

WEST

East has a set, and he should be working from his house.

ANGUS

Thanks. I owe you.

WEST

You can pay me by bringing your new guy over for dinner in the next couple of weeks.

ANGUS

I’ll talk to him about it.

“Let them know you will pick up the bear. I’m going to go get a truck, then I will be back. Will we be spending the night? Driving back immediately? Do we need another person?”

Eion turned and looked at me with such a soft, loving look that it was hard to catch my breath. “You. We.” Much like he had done that morning, he pulled me into a kiss, but this one was passion, desire, and need. “You are amazing. We need the truck, probably some lunch for us since it’s almost noon, and bring a bunch of those snacks for the mama bear. We will pick her up and immediately bring her back here, where I can tend to her burns.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ll finish feeding and get one of the stalls in the barn ready for her. We can leave as soon as we hook up the trailer.”

It took over an hour for me to get the truck, drop Ramsey off at home, and grab us some lunch. We were on the road by 11:00 a.m. Normally, it would take only a few hours, but with the fires, the highway was reduced to one lane, slowing traffic. “I have an idea about the bigger nursery.” I figured this would distract him and maybe stop the leg that had been bouncing since we left.