Page 17 of Midlife Animal Rescuer Bear

Before she could stop herself, she said, “So...seeing anyone these days?”

There was no response from Cal at first, and Melissa felt her gut clench. It certainly had been much less unnerving to walk behind him. He was still staring at her, she knew. What was going on in his head?

“No,” he replied finally, “I’m not.”

“Me either.” She wasn’t sure why she’d felt the need to say that. What did it matter? It wasn’t like she and Cal were getting back together.

They trudged on in silence, Melissa burning with mild embarrassment, Cal moving surprisingly nimbly behind her. It wasn’t until minutes later that he stopped, pointing at something to her left. Melissa squinted, then saw what he was referring to.

A horse lay on its side at the base of a tree, its insides spilling out onto the earth from a huge gash in its belly. From the look of it, the creature had been dead for hours. The horse’s eyes were glassy, its body unmoving. Around it, the ground had darkened with blood.

“Oh, my God.” Melissa clamped a hand over her mouth, her gut twisting with horror. “What could’ve done something like this?”

Next to her, Cal stared ahead, his expression grim. “Wait here.”

He stepped forward, approaching the carcass, and dropped onto his haunches. When he rose, turning to face her, there was a squirming animal in his arms. It was a foal, Melissa realized.

“This one’s alive,” Cal said, drawing closer to her. “Looks slightly injured, but I think he’ll live.”

He looked at her as if waiting for her to confirm that.

“We need to get him to the clinic.” Melissa glanced once again at the dead horse and looked away. “I don’t think I can stay here a moment longer.”

“Me either. Let’s go.”

***

They wasted no time getting out of Paradise Woods, heading straight for the clinic at Green Sanctuary. With Cal’s help, Melissa cleaned and sedated the foal and stitched up its wounds. When she was done a half an hour later, the animal lay calmly on the operating table.

“He’ll live,” she assured Cal. “Just needs some more rest.”

His features immediately seemed to relax. “Thank you.”

They stared across the clinic at each other for a long second. Melissa’s stomach growled. She’d been so busy thinking about meeting up with Cal that she’d completely forgotten to eat breakfast.

Cal’s gaze dropped to the hand she’d placed on her belly. “If you’re hungry, I can whip us up a couple of sandwiches in the kitchen.”

“That’d be great. Thank you.”

He left the clinic, heading for the main house. Melissa spent the next couple of minutes cleaning up, then followed him. By the time she arrived in the kitchen, he’d already laid out some bread on the table and was smearing peanut butter and jelly on the slices.

She took her seat, unable to take her eyes off him as he worked. Cal had always been a hard worker, even when it came to the simplest tasks. It was one of the many things she admired about him—that, and how gentle he was.

The memory of him standing between the trees, cradling the injured foal in his arms, slowly surfaced in her mind. For such a large man, he could be so tender, so caring. She loved him for it.

Then why did you run? The thought swept through her mind, almost searingly. Because he can turn into a bear?

In her defense, she was terrified. She did what pretty much anyone else in her situation would have done. But what if she’d been too hasty? Why didn’t she stay a little longer?

Then again, when faced with a bear, you didn’t stay and wait to see if it would hurt you or not. You ran. And with Cal, things were a lot more complicated. Just being in his presence was enough to leave her feeling beyond tense. It wasn’t even just the fact that he could turn into a grizzly bear. It was the way he made her feel, the way he’d always made her feel.

“Melissa?”

She blinked. Cal was frowning at her, holding up a sandwich.

“Huh?”

“I was asking how many of these you’d like.”