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“It’s my job to know,” he said. “Here.”
He thrust another handful of greens into Joel’s hand and took Joel’s wrist to guide it.
Joel swallowed hard.
The reindeer were a little smaller than Joel had expected, and a lot friendlier. The female he was feeding had a white stripe down her nose and big, blinking brown eyes.
“Wow,” Joel murmured.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” Nick said, apparently not needing an answer. “They’re from Canada originally, you know.”
“How did they get over here?”
“I’m not sure. The safari park wasn’t that forthcoming on where they’d gotten the herd from.”
“I’m glad you liberated them.”
“Best five grand I ever spent.”
Joel looked over in shock. “Five thousand pounds? For reindeer?”
Nick shrugged. “They were worth it. And look how happy they are.”
The female was grunting and nosing at Joel’s palm. He decided to put his life on the line and gently pet behind her ears, like he’d seen Nick do. She didn’t seem to mind.
“Do you want to go looking for the others?” Joel asked, instead of dwelling on how really bloody expensive the bloody reindeer were.
“No, let’s get Fergus up here first. They might wander over while we’re waiting for him. And I don’t want to let these two out of my sight, just in case they decide to disappear again.”
“Would they do that?”
“Probably not, now that they know I have food, but you never know.”
Joel nodded and carefully fed the female reindeer another handful of greens while Nick put in the call to Fergus, who owned a horse box big enough for a couple of escaped reindeer. He was trying, very hard, not to think about how Nick’s hand had felt when he’d grabbed it.
Nick turned away from Joel to talk to Fergus, not wanting to be distracted. Because Joel was very distracting, and Nick was supposed to be focussing on his reindeer.
“If you bring the van around to Lochy Road then we can probably nudge them back up that way.”
“Aye. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Thanks, Fergus.”
Nick tucked the phone back into his pocket and turned a slow circle, wanting to check if the other two reindeer were hiding just out of sight. He was pretty sure they wouldn’t have wandered too far from the others—they tended to stick together, especially in bad weather.
“Uh, Nick? I think she’s trying to eat my sleeve.”
He startled and spun around to look at Joel and his reindeer, who was definitely taking a nibble from his jacket.
“Just bop her lightly on the nose. She’ll stop.”
“I am notboppinganything.”
Nick was even finding his acidic little barbs adorable, and that’s how he knew he was in trouble.
“Come here,” he said, unable to stop himself from grinning, and offered Joel the last of the beetroot leaves he’d stashed in his backpack before leaving the house this morning. That meant he had nothing left to try and tempt the other two reindeer, but watching Joel slowly make friends with the gentle female was far more rewarding.
Nick could tell each of the animals in the herd apart, and had photos as backup if he ever needed them, so he knew this was one of the young mothers and was particularly affectionate. He’d taken her and her calf to events with small children, knowing they were docile enough to handle the enquiring pats of little hands.
