Shadows of You (Lost & Found #4)(6)

Aspen quickly climbed off the snowmobile just as the front door flew open, and a little girl ran out. “Mama!”

She charged down the steps as fast as her snowsuit-clad legs could carry her. She looked like a pink glitter snowball.

“Cady,” Aspen chastised gently. “I told you to wait inside.”

A guilty look passed over her face. “I know, but—” Her words cut off as she saw the deer at the back of my vehicle. “No! Is she—?”

Aspen quickly wrapped her daughter in a hug. “No, Katydid. She’s just sleeping so we can help her.”

Tears welled in the little girl’s eyes. “Promise?”

“I promise. We got some help from Fish and Wildlife. We’re going to make sure she’s okay.”

The little girl’s gaze cut to me, so much like her mother’s, it froze me to the spot. “You’re going to help my mama save Bambi?”

Fuck me. I couldn’t say no to that face or the damn deer.





3





ASPEN





I saw the moment the burly man softened. Even the hardest-hearted didn’t stand a chance against my Cady.

“Yeah. I’m gonna help her,” he muttered.

I couldn’t stop my lips from twitching. The man didn’t miss the movement, and it turned his reluctant agreement into a scowl. It only made me grin wider.

Cady wiggled to get out of my hold. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! What do we do now? I want to help. I’m a real good helper. Right, Mama?”

“The best helper in all the land,” I agreed.

The man frowned. “I think it’s best if you keep a bit of distance, just in case she wakes up.”

Cady bobbed her head up and down. “I can do that.” She glanced up at me. “Do you think she needs a blanket?”

I shook my head. “We’ve got straw and heat lamps in the barn.”

The man, whose name I still didn’t know, raised his eyebrows in surprise. I was going to start calling him The Grouch in my head.

“You’ve got heat lamps?”

I nodded. “We have some baby ducks that need some extra heat right now. And we’ve had baby goats, too.”

Cady filled him in on our menagerie. “We’ve got ducks and goaties and donkeys and a pony and an alpaca and four cats and a dog and an emu and—”

The Grouch’s jaw dropped. “Did you say an emu?”

My cheeks heated. It did sound a little out there when Cady listed them all like that. “There was a guy over in Brookdale who thought it’d be fun to have one as a pet but didn’t realize all that went into caring for one.”

The Grouch shook his head. “Let’s get her inside before the snow gets worse.”

We had at least a foot already.

Cady tugged on my hand. “Think I’ll get a snow day tomorrow?”

“You just might.”

She squealed and spun in a circle. “I love snow!”

I laughed, grinning at Cady. She was a constant reminder of everything I had to be grateful for.

The man cleared his throat. “Over there?”

I jerked my gaze to him. He’d already unhooked the stretcher from the snowmobile and had hold of a tow rope.

“Yup. I can help you pull her—”

“I’ve got it,” he clipped.

“Alrighty, then,” I mumbled, leading the way toward the barn. My skin itched, feeling just a bit too tight for my body. I wasn’t used to having people in our space. Only the few friends I truly trusted or when it was strictly necessary. This qualified as necessary—an emergency, even—but it still made me twitchy.

Cady bounded around us, chattering away about all the animals, sharing their names and funny stories about them, and how they’d come to live with us. The man didn’t respond once, except with the occasional grunt, but Cady didn’t seem to mind. She just kept right on talking.

I hurried ahead to open the barn door. The animals lifted their heads at the sound. Syd, our deaf pony, just followed the others’ lead and turned toward the door. He let out a whinny, and Cady hurried over to stroke his nose.

The man tugged the deer into the barn aisle. “Which stall?”

“Far back right has the tallest door.”

He didn’t respond, just dragged the board and doe back there. It didn’t take him long to unhook her and lay her on the hay.

Cady pressed into my side. “She’s hurt.”

I wrapped an arm around her. “That’s why she’s here. So we can help her get better.”

She looked up at me. “Did someone hurt her?”

My ribs constricted. I walked a delicate line with Cady, never wanting to lie to her but also knowing she wasn’t ready for the whole truth. Still, she knew enough to understand that sometimes people did bad things.

The man’s gaze lifted to Cady, sensing something deeper in her words.

“Not on purpose,” I hurried to assure her. “She got stuck in something from a garden.”

Cady nodded, a little of the worry leaving her expression. “We gotta give her a name.”

I tweaked Cady’s nose. “Good thing I know the perfect person for the job.”

She giggled. “I’ll start thinking.”