Page 43 of The Cajun Doctor

“Are you kidding? Every time I step in your yard, sirens go off, lights flash, and all those animals you have inside bark, and meow, and chirp.” He adjusted the bag and dusted off his behind, then resumed pressing a hand to his side. “You got a zoo in there or something?”

Or something. “What’s wrong with your side?”

He ignored her question as he helped the girl to her feet. She groaned, too.

“And this is . . . ?” Samantha asked.

He blinked with confusion for just a moment before realizing that Samantha hadn’t met his friend yet. “Sorry. Sam, this is Lily Beth Fontenot. From up Lafayette way. Lil, this is my sister Samantha Starr . . . um, stepsister. I mean . . . my mother was married to her father, after he was divorced from her mother, and another woman, and after my mother was divorced from my dad, and . . . whatever!”

“Hi,” Lily Beth said with a shy smile. “Samantha Starr sounds lak a movie star name.”

Yep. Just call me Julia Roberts. “Nice to meet you,” Samantha said, then arched her brows at Angus after glancing meaningfully at the girl’s belly.

“Not mine,” he told Samantha, holding both hands in the air.

Lily Beth tsk-ed her disgust.

“Lil is a friend who, um, needs some, I mean, my help.”

“I wouldn’t need yer help if ya didn’t get me in this trouble in the first place,” Lily Beth snapped, elbowing Angus, which caused him to wince.

Samantha noticed Lily Beth’s deep Southern accent, something she’d managed to lose, being educated up north, both at boarding schools and then Columbia. Angus, too, had lost his Southern accent. In his case, he’d gone to lots of colleges, including MIT. Usually, he got bored and tried again somewhere else. She didn’t know what university he was associated with now. Maybe none. He was supposed to be working at Starr Foods on some complicated computer system. This, too, was boring to him.

“But what I need right now is ta pee,” Lily Beth said. “I swear, mah bladder’s ’bout ta explode lak a Mardi Gras water balloon.”

“C’mon,” Samantha said, pressing the buttons on her remote to turn off the backyard motion sensors. “Be careful where you step. I haven’t had a chance to clean up yesterday’s poop yet. The goose and duck droppings are especially bad.”

“You have geese and ducks?” Angus asked, clearly shocked.

“I did have . . . until this morning. Now, I only have dogs, cats, a bird, a pig, and the occasional goat, and llama.”

“Boy, have you changed!” Angus muttered behind Samantha.

“You think?” she muttered back.

Just then, Lily Beth tripped over a dog toy, and Angus half walked her the rest of the way with an arm around the back of her waist. The girl sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

After keying in the numbers on the security box next to her patio doors, Samantha turned the knob and stepped aside as Axel bolted out to do his business. She opened the dog crate and five yipping puppies, who thankfully hadn’t had any accidents inside the crate, tumbled out and rushed after Axel. Her exotic Savannah cat Maddie followed suit, but only at a leisurely amble, giving the three humans a glance of dismissive importance. Two other cats, Garfield and Felix, a Maine coon breed, followed after Maddie. The animals would be secure because of the brick wall that surrounded her property.

Emily, her depressed potbellied pig, who also lived in a kennel crate but was litter trained, chose not to go outdoors; instead, she voiced her displeasure at Samantha’s long absence by emitting a long oinking sound. And Clarence, her cockatoo, proclaimed, this time aptly, “Holy shit!”

Angus’s glance shot to the bird’s cage. She could understand his surprise. Clarence’s voice, even when squawking, had a distinctive male sound. “What the fuck are you doing with all these animals?”

“Rescuing them for adoption.”

“Cool!” Angus said.

“Bathroom?” Lily Beth asked urgently.

“Down the hall, first door on the right,” Samantha said.

Samantha got her first good look at Angus then, and gasped.

“Holy shit!” Clarence opined.

There were bruises on Angus’s cheek and chin. The little finger of one hand looked crooked, and might be broken. The way he was holding his side indicated an injury, maybe his ribs. And she’d noticed a limp when he walked inside. “What happened to you?”

“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that Lil and I have to get out of town. Pronto!” he said. She saw fear in his hazel eyes.