The baby, Emily, stirred against her mother’s chest, looking like a strawberry in her little red dress.
“She’s adorable.” Naomi felt an overwhelming impulse to touch her. “May I?”
Lexi nodded.
Naomi balanced herself on her good leg and ran a hand over the baby’s silky hair. “She’s so tiny—and she looks just like you. How old is she?”
“Emily just turned four months last week.”
“Let me take those.” Winona took the basket of bottles from Lexi.
“The milk is for the fawns,” Lexi explained. “It’s feeding time.”
“Fawns? Oh, God, can I watch?”
“You bet.” Winona turned and walked down a side hallway.
Lexi leaned in as if to share a secret. “Be careful. The levels of cute around this place are almost lethal.”
Chapter 8
“Igotto feed the fawns. God, they were cute. Their little tails flicked back and forth the whole time they were feeding, and the little sounds they made…”
Chaska ate his spaghetti and listened while Naomi described her day at the wildlife clinic, unable to take his gaze off her. Her face was alive with excitement, and there was a light in her blue eyes he hadn’t seen before. Spending time with the animals had been good for her.
“The little burrowing owl looks like a potato with legs. I would love to take photos of him or try to sketch him. I’ve never seen one before.”
Winona reached for another piece of garlic bread. “You’re welcome to come back and bring your camera or your sketchpad anytime.”
“I think they’re with all the stuff in my SUV.”
Chaska had a surprise for her, but that could wait. He didn’t want to interrupt her. “What was your favorite part?”
“Oh, that’s hard. I loved all of it. The bald eagle. She washuge. Or maybe the mountain lion cubs. I had no idea that mountain lions purr.”
“Theyarecats.” Winona was clearly enjoying Naomi’s excitement as much as he was. She turned to Chaska. “Bear brought in a fish today. He came in carrying it in a bucket. It had a hook and fishing line caught in its gill, and he was afraid he’d hurt it. I managed to get the hook out, and he left, carrying it in that bucket, planning to dump it back where he’d found it.”
“You met Bear?” Chaska watched Naomi’s response.
One could tell a lot about a person by how they treated those who were different.
Naomi dabbed her lips with her napkin, nodded. “He’s so sweet—like a little boy. He was beside himself with worry about that fish. It touched me to see how much he cared. Does anyone know where he came from?”
Okay, so she passed that test.
Chaska shook his head. “He’s been here as long as anyone can remember. No one is sure how old he is, how he got here, or how he became the way he is. We all try to watch out for him, but he knows more about living off the land and surviving in these mountains than anyone I’ve met.”
Naomi seemed to consider that. “Do you think he knows where he came from?”
“I asked him once,” Win said. “He told me that he was born in the mountains and that his family is waiting for him in Heaven. That’s all he knows.”
“That must be hard for him.” The light in Naomi’s eyes dimmed.
“He seems to take it in stride.”
Naomi’s gaze dropped to her plate, her fingers tightening around her paper napkin. “I don’t know anything about my parents—who they were, where they came from, whether they’re still alive. My mother left me in an alley next to a dumpster in Martin right after I was born.”
She spoke the words without self-pity, simply stating a fact, but the weight of what she said came down on Chaska—hard. No wonder she’d reacted the way she had to Winona’s question about blood. Like an arrow striking bone, that question must have pierced the heart of a grief she’d carried her entire life.