“Dallas, fuck, I’m sorry, but my mom, she…”
The words got caught in my throat. Dallas gently rubbed my arms up and down, then tipped my head up so I was looking at him.
“She saw your truck last night. She knows I’m gay so she assumed you were there to…you know.”
There was the tiniest stiffening of his jaw as he took in my words and he dropped his hands.
But just to get his phone and type a message.
It doesn’t matter.
“Yes, it does,” I said. “She’s a terrible gossip. It’ll get all over town. I’m sorr-”
His hand came up to cover my mouth. He shook his head and then typed again.
The town hates me anyway. Just another crime to add to an already long list.
Before I could respond, he began typing another message and I remembered that we were only boss and employee. It wasn’t my place to question him about stuff.
I did your morning chores already.
“Dall-”
He slapped his hand over my mouth and gave me the evil eye. Then he held up one finger, indicating I should wait.
I’m releasing the mom and baby raccoons back into the wild this morning and thought you might want to come. It will take a couple of hours, so I got up early to do your chores and mine.
I opened my mouth to answer him, but he held up his finger again and then sent me a small smirk at my look of exasperation.
And if you even think of insisting I not pay you for the time, I’ll fire you, drive to your house, introduce myself to your mother, and tell her I’m there to pick you up for our three-way with Tom Hiddleston.
His eyes danced with humor after I finished reading his text, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, you win. But if we ever do find ourselves face to face with Tom Hiddleston, I get to tap his ass first.”
His eyes narrowed and he typed out, You’re fired.
“Fine, you can tap his ass first.”
I expected him to continue the joke, but his eyes pinned mine and then his gaze slid down my body. And just like that, the humor died and the air around us became charged with electricity. I was leaning into him before I even realized what I was doing. Thankfully, Dallas had the common sense to step back.
We should go.
I nodded because my throat felt like I’d swallowed a beach ball.
I followed Dallas to the small animal building and watched him collect a very angry mother raccoon and her babies, who’d grown considerably in the past two weeks. It took just over an hour to get to our destination – a small nature reserve in the middle of nowhere.
Dallas set the cage on the ground in a heavily wooded section of the park. There was a large stream nearby that hadn’t frozen over yet. He stepped behind the cage and lifted the door, then took my hand in his and pulled me back several steps. A full minute passed before the mother raccoon and her babies emerged and then took off up a tree.
“Won’t they get too cold out here?” I asked as I huddled into my coat.
Dallas shook his head and motioned to a couple of large rocks near the water’s edge. I followed him and sat down. He was slower to sit down and I had to wonder if his leg was bothering him more today, since his limp had seemed a bit more pronounced. I patiently waited for him to type his response.
This stream has a strong enough current that it never completely freezes over in the winter. I’ve released several different kinds of animals up here, including raccoons. The mother will spend the next month or two gathering food. The babies will probably stay with her through the winter. They don’t hibernate, but they spend the cold snaps mostly in their dens.
Dallas leaned into me and pointed upstream. I smiled at the sight of the mother raccoon and her babies exploring the stream. The sun was bright over our heads and helped take some of the chill away.
“How did you get into this?” I asked. “Did you always like animals?”
He nodded.
We weren’t allowed to have them growing up. About eight years ago I found an orphaned deer alongside the road. I tried to find a place that could help her, but there was nothing around and none of the vets I called would take her. So I tried taking care of her myself.
“Did she make it?” I asked.
Another nod. But I made the mistake of treating her like a pet, so when I tried to release her back into the wild, she didn’t know how to take care of herself. When I came back to where I’d left her, she came running right up to me. She’d lost a lot of weight in that short time and I knew she wouldn’t make it, so I took her home with me. She was the first permanent resident of the center.