He hadn’t made tight friendships in college on purpose, and when he’d been shooting his original TV show and then more recently, his YouTube series, the risks he took and the dangerous situations he’d found himself in worked for ratings. It was incredibly rare for someone to tell him to be careful. This was nice.
And it didn’t hurt that she was incredibly beautiful. If you had to be fussed over, being fussed over by a gorgeous woman was definitely the way to go.
Still, there was an orphaned bear cub out here.
He looked around. “Fuck.”
He felt her hand on his shoulder. “I know. But you need to be safe too. And if something happens to you, who’s going to take care of the other two bears?”
Well, his brother, Griffin. Or Tori. Or Jill. Or one of several wildlife veterinarians at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.
But instead of saying any of that, he nodded. “Okay.”
Because if something happened to him, then Naomi would have to get those two bear cubs back to town for care from another veterinarian. And suddenly he realized that she was out here risking herself in the storm because of him. If anything happened to her, he would hate himself.
“Hey, what are you doing out here by yourself?”
“I’m not by myself. I’m with you.”
“You didn’t have to come.”
“Someone did,” she said firmly. “And with everything going on in town, everybody else is crazy busy.”
She was definitely the type to just step up and do what needed done.
Damn. Suddenly, he needed to get her back to town. “Okay, let’s go.”
Once he got the cubs settled, maybe he could put Naomi in charge of watching over them and he could sneak out and come back down here.
“Donovan, there!” Naomi suddenly pointed off to the right.
He glanced over and, sure enough, saw a flash of black fur moving between the trees.
He took off without a word, jumping down the embankment and sliding about two feet before getting his boots under him. The bear cub was frightened, but also disoriented without his mom to lead him and definitely vulnerable to coyotes, bobcats, and other bears. It hadn’t gotten far from its mother’s body and Donovan knew it had been coming back to check in.
The poor little guy. Lost, lonely, and confused, and probably starving. As hard as he would work to rehabilitate the cub, at the moment, the animal’s condition would work in Donovan’s favor. The bear would be weak and that would make it much easier to sweep him up and get him into the truck with his brother and sister.
Donovan dodged around a tree and ducked under a branch just as the bear came around a bush. It stopped, sliding on the wet leaves, and dove under another bush, scampering up the hill. Swearing, Donovan slipped and then charged in that direction.
But he pulled up short as he came over the crest of the roadside ditch.
Naomi was holding the cub and talking to him softly, her shoulders hunched as if trying to keep the rain off of him.
Donovan felt a strange warmth in his chest. This woman was definitely an angel.
He strode toward them without a word and opened the back of the truck, helping her get the cub into the crate with his brother and sister. They huddled together at the back, giving him sad looks with their brown eyes. They were scared and weak, but they were safe now. He’d make sure of it.
He turned back to Naomi, not sure what to say but opening his mouth anyway.
She was already heading for her truck.
Right. Because they were in the middle of a major storm.
“You want to ride back with me?” he called over the wind and rain.
She paused with her hand on her door and shook her head. “I have to get the truck back.”
Yeah, that made sense. It was silly to leave it out here. But he had the urge to insist she stay with him.
It was his fault she was out here. He had no right to insist she do anything his way.
Dammit.
“Be safe,” he said.
He wasn’t sure the last time he’d told someone that. He took plenty of chances and didn’t need to be babysat. People calculated their own risks and rewards.
But suddenly, looking at Naomi, he felt protective. Coming out here after him was the first time he’d seen her do something that wasn’t completely safe and rational.
She was always composed and cool and seemingly unruffled. He’d seen her help her brother splint his finger with a popsicle stick and duct tape without even grimacing. She’d pulled both of those things out of her purse, by the way.
He’d seen her take a third cookie away from her nephew and replace it with a fork and simply point at a bowl of sweet potatoes. She hadn’t needed to say a word. Andre had sighed, but he hadn’t given even a peep of an argument.
He’d seen her get up from the table, disappear into Ellie’s kitchen and then reappear with a glass of milk, cross the room to a table of tourists, and hand the glass to a guy who’d bitten into a pepper way hotter than he was able to handle.
She just noticed things. Then fixed them. Made things better. Took care of things. And people.
Maybe she wasn’t an angel. She was more like a goddess.
Especially standing there in the rain, looking gorgeous and more competent than any single person he’d ever met, and like she didn’t need anyone or anything.
“Oh, if I get blown off the road and into the Gulf, I will absolutely appear to Gracie Trahan so she can give you a message from me,” Naomi called to him.
He laughed. And made a definite mental note. He’d learned that the sweet little blond girl he’d met a few days ago, who’d helped named the flamingos, saw ghosts. And he believed it.
He also believed this goddess would come back and give him a piece of her mind if he caused her untimely demise.
“Let’s definitely not have that happen,” he called back. “Grace doesn’t need to learn all those bad words at such a young age.”
Naomi shot him a grin and then climbed up into her truck. Donovan felt like he’d been punched in the gut. Damn, it was really too bad he was firmly in the friend zone with this woman.
They made their way back to Autre. He’d only been about five miles out of town, but those five miles in the wind and rain felt like fifty. When they finally pulled up next to the rehabilitation center that Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild had constructed, Donovan realized that he’d been tense during the entire drive in a way he hadn’t been going out to the bear rescue. And he knew it had everything to do with Naomi being in the other truck.
He quickly went around back to unload the bears and Naomi met him at the tailgate.
“You didn’t have to come over here with me.”
“You’ve got three bears and two hands. Figured you might need some help.” She took the other end of the crate.
When they got to the door, he yanked it open and she ducked inside as he struggled against the wind to shut the door behind them.
Finally it thudded shut, blocking out the storm.
The building was very basic, but Donovan loved it. It had everything he needed and it was the first time he’d felt like he really had a solid home base. He hadn’t been in one place with his wildlife rescue and rehabilitation work for this long…ever. He’d started traveling the country right out of college and had never stayed in one place more than a month or two. He’d been in Autre for nearly a year now.