"And I'm gonna make all the animals better like you, Uncle Sawyer."
Newt's declaration ripped me from the dark turn my thoughts had taken. I forced a smile to my lips. "You're going to be one very busy guy, Newt," I said.
Newt nodded and then hugged the swear jar to his chest. I didn't miss the fact that his usual buoyant smile had faded just a bit. I was pretty sure I knew the cause. His older brother, Isaac, who was more of a father than sibling to the little boy, along with Maddox Kent, Isaac’s boyfriend, had left Pelican Bay a couple weeks earlier to drive to Oklahoma to pick up a friend from Maddox's days in the military. Maddox’s brother Dallas and Dallas’s fiancé, Nolan Grainger, had been watching Newt, but it was understandable that the child would be missing his big brother. From everything I'd learned, the pair had pretty much been inseparable from the time Newt had been born and Isaac, though a teenager at the time, had ended up raising the child when his own mother and the boy's father had failed to measure up to the job.
"I don't suppose you have time to help me with this one here," I said as I jerked my chin toward Jerry. The zebra had his head hung over the fence so that Newt could rub the middle of his forehead with his free hand. "You've got the touch, you know."
"The touch?" Newt asked curiously.
"With them," I said as I motioned to Jerry and Loki. "A lot of these animals don't naturally trust people, but they sense something in you… something that tells them you will never hurt them. That you’ll always protect them. Your Uncle Dallas has the touch too."
At that, Newt's eyes went wide and the half smile turned into a full-on, high-wattage grin that I knew would someday melt hearts.
"'Kay," Newt said and then he took off toward the barn where he'd be able to access the paddock I was in. I began making my way toward the small structure when my phone beeped. I felt the always present knot in my stomach tighten like it usually did whenever my phone rang. It wasn't like I could just mute the thing because as the on-call state veterinarian for the northern part of Minnesota, I needed to be available at all times. I pulled my phone out and glanced at the screen. The amount of relief I felt was absurd.
With my heart still in my throat, I accepted the call and said, "Dallas, hey."
"Hey. Is Newt with you?"
Despite having known Dallas for more than six months, I was still getting used to the sound of his voice. The gruff owner of the wildlife rehabilitation center had been mute when I'd first met him after responding to an emergency call for one of his animals. At that time, Dallas had only been able to communicate via texting and writing things down. But when Nolan Grainger had entered his life, a lot of things had changed, including his willingness to undergo a procedure that, despite its success, would only give him temporary access to his voice.
"Yeah, I have him. We’re at the livestock barn. Do you want me to send him back to you?"
"No, uh, can you keep him busy for a little while?"
Normally, I would've just responded in the affirmative, but something in Dallas’s voice was off. "Sure, is everything okay?"
Dallas hesitated a moment and then said, "Isaac and Maddox are going to be here soon. Things are a little… tense."
I didn't like the sound of that. I couldn't even begin to imagine that something could have happened between Maddox and Isaac. The couple, though as different as night and day, were clearly perfect for one another. Aside from Dallas and Nolan, I'd never seen two people look at one another the way Maddox and Isaac did. But it wasn't my place to ask so I quickly said, "Absolutely."
"Thanks," Dallas said somewhat grimly and then he was gone. I forced myself to smile as I hung up the phone because Newt was running toward me, Loki at his side. Under normal circumstances, the sight of a wolf running toward us should have given Jerry pause, but the zebra didn't seem concerned about what should've been his natural enemy.
Not surprisingly, Jerry trotted ahead of me to meet the boy, and by the time I reached them, the wolf hybrid and zebra seemed to be competing for Newt's attention. "How we gonna fix Jerry's foot, Uncle Sawyer?"
I went into autopilot mode as I explained and then actually undertook the process of soaking Jerry's hoof, but my mind was fixated on whatever trouble was brewing in the Kent household. Although Newt didn't seem to sense anything amiss, the mere act of bottling up my emotions was making me physically ill, even if it was for a good cause.