Carving wood.
Ten
Kind of want to fight. Kind of want to have your baby.
—Constance to Odin
Constance
It was officially week two, day eight, of the trial.
I pulled my new SUV into the closest parking spot I could find to the courthouse and got out.
Today there were deliberations and rulings.
They said that we’d “probably” get out around noon.
I hoped so.
I had a lot of things to do, and not a lot of time to do them.
I had to get Wendy to the doctor to get her blood. I had a deadline to meet with a contest that I was entering my photography into. And I also had to get home to help my mother and father since they’d had an influx of injured wildlife hit them over the last few days.
An injured young wolf that’d gotten his foot stuck in a trap. A mature eagle that’d flown into a net that’d covered some gardens and torn his wings up. And a juvenile elk that had lost his mother to an eighteen-wheeler.
That was on top of the several other animals already in residence.
Plus, Mom and Dad weren’t getting any younger.
We could use a hand or two that wasn’t related and didn’t mind getting paid very little.
Overhead for wildlife rehab facilities was quite high, and the government only helped so much.
I put my SUV in park, hit the button to shut it off, and got out.
As I did, three alarms beeped.
I eyed my keys in the cupholder and sighed before reaching for them and tucking them away in the door panel.
I hadn’t brought a purse today, which was going to suck around lunchtime.
Because there was no way in hell that I was eating what they had to offer.
I’d learned my lesson the hard way.
Closing the door, I locked it using the keyless entry and started up toward the front door. As I got closer, a blond head became visible over the huge pillars.
Odin.
I hadn’t talked to him much over the last few days, but I’d gotten here late both of those days thanks to traffic and dealing with my car.
I was elated to find out that the dealership had agreed to return my SUV and give me a brand-new one identical to the previous one.
And it hadn’t had one single problem since I started driving it four days ago. A major change from the one that I’d taken back.
What was funny was that the owner and the sales manager that I’d dealt with about my car previously had been overwhelmingly welcoming and accommodating.
They’d practically bent over backward to get me the new car, had filled it up with gas, and had offered free oil changes for the rest of the life of the car.
