25. Kendra
25
KENDRA
L eaving Amy in distress went against every motherly instinct that Kendra had. Even her owl was hooting woefully.
She’ll be okay with Alan , Kendra told her owl as she hurried along the sidewalk towards the auto shop. She felt disloyal almost at once. And Addison and Cherry and Shea, of course. How had Tiny Paws come so quickly to mean Alan , and his big smile and his big arms and his big heart? He’d been there a few weeks. The rest of them had been Amy’s caretakers for more than a year now!
Libido , she told herself. Too long in a tiny bed with a toddler kicking her. She hadn’t realized how much she missed socializing with other human adults, or being touched as a woman and not just a mother until Alan had kissed her. Now she was remembering all the carnal things she loved about being in a relationship and having someone make her purr.
“Quiet as a kitten, now,” Mason told her as he handed her the keys. “Not that kittens are always quiet, exactly. I shouldn’t attempt metaphors.”
Kendra gave him her credit card and he ran the payment as Kendra glanced at her phone. She still had time to make it to her first afternoon appointment if she hurried. “I really appreciate you getting it done so quickly,” she said, genuinely grateful. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“It was a good training opportunity,” Mason said gruffly, looking embarrassed. “And shifters look out for each other.”
The idea that she belonged to a community buoyed her all the way to the first farm, and Rita drove like a dream. Kendra hadn’t realized how noisy the rig had gotten. She didn’t have to turn the music to drown out the unwelcome percussion. The power never sputtered.
The routine care of her first stop was cut short by an emergency delivery with complications, and Kendra had to double back to finish her rounds, glad that she’d been close enough to arrive in time to save the baby.
She stopped at the laundromat to shower before picking up Amy, because she was even more filthy than usual, and arrived at Tiny Paws with damp hair and cold ears. When did I get too vain to cover my hair with a hat? she asked herself in disgust as she was buzzed in at the door.
To her disappointment, it was Addison who met her at the gate, awkwardly walking with one hand in Amy’s. She looked like she might tip over at any moment and be stuck like a turtle, unable to rise. “How are you still here?” Kendra chided her. “Shouldn’t you be at home with Roderick rubbing your feet?”
“Do I have feet?” Addison asked, pretending to peer around her giant belly. “I don’t remember feet, I haven’t seen them in so long!”
Kendra laughed with her and bent down to swing Amy up over the gate into her arms. “You’ll be glad to have that little one out, won’t you.”
“So glad,” Addison said, rubbing her side. “My due date is next week, so Friday will probably be my last day for a while. We’ve got Alan well-trained now. Amy will be in good hands.”
“AWAN!” Amy squawked agreeable.
“I’m sure she will.”
Addison gave her a slow, knowing smile and Kendra caught herself blushing. “You know,” Addison said gravely, “I think that Alan had a lunch report for you. I’ll get him.”
“Addison…”
“I know you are invested in keeping tabs on Amy’s eating habits,” Addison teased as she gestured to Alan where he was sitting on the floor pretending to eat with one of the older kids while being mobbed by the younger ones.
“Addison…!”
But Alan had already caught sight of Addison’s hand flap and bounced obediently to his feet, shedding children from his lap.
“Did you need something?” he asked as he approached.
Addison had unhelpfully waddled away and was pretending to be out of earshot, even though she clearly wasn’t.
“Addison said something about food?” Kendra said. She knew when she was being set up.
“Would you like to get dinner?”
Kendra blinked at him. “I think she meant Amy’s food. Her lunch?”
“She loves raisins and hates things that crunch too much. A very normal sweet tooth for any age, and strong opinions about oranges. We are working very hard on not throwing food we don’t like at other kids or at Mister Alan.”
Kendra’s mouth curved up into a smile. He really did know Amy. “Are they calling you Mister Alan now?”
Alan put on an expression of relief. “Yes, thank all my ancestors. Now, about dinner! Amy is invited, of course. We can pick a place that will give her crayons. She is partial to red. We are working on not throwing those, too.”
“You don’t have to take us out to dinner,” Kendra laughed, though she rather liked the idea. “My daughter is a disaster of manners that I wouldn’t inflict on anyone.” Amy was making a lie out of her statement by snuggling patiently in her arms, every so often reaching up to pat Kendra’s face fondly.
“You’d be welcome to come to my place instead,” Alan said with endearing hopefulness. “But I don’t have any crayons.”
“That’s a shocking oversight,” Kendra chided him. “You call yourself a nanny. Well, no you probably don’t. What do you call yourself?”
“Anything but late to dinner.”
“Mister P?—”
“Or that.”
“—etrov,” Kendra finished.
“That works.” It wasn’t just that he was handsome. He was wholesome and cheerful and forward and Kendra didn’t feel like she had to do most of the work in a conversation or wait for him to keep up with her. He’d looked her up online, but Kendra had considered doing the same in return. And underneath his nurturing and kindness was an exciting double life that Kendra was dying to know more about. She wanted to coax all the stories out of him that she could…and she unexpectedly wanted to share hers with him.
“Dinner?” he prodded, because she’d fallen silent.
“Yes,” Kendra decided. “Your place.” Her owl hooted in approval and Alan’s face lit up. “But I’ll bring take-out. Do you like Thai?”
“TIE!” Amy said, sitting upright in Kendra’s arms. “TIE SHOES!”
“Love it,” Alan said, not offering any argument to her proposal. “The hotter, the better.”
“Be careful what you ask for,” Kendra teased.
“Bring on the heat!” Alan replied slyly.
“I’m not promising anything,” Kendra warned him.
“I’m not setting any expectations,” he agreed.
Kendra knew that neither of them was talking about food by this point.
“Tonight?” Kendra clarified. Amy was getting restless and starting to lean out from her embrace to convince Kendra to put her down.
“I’m free,” Alan said. “I get off at six.”
Kendra vividly remembered his promise to get her off. “What’s your address?” she asked, pulling out her phone. Alan rattled it off to her and she set a pin on the map. “I’ll come by at six-thirty.”
“Kendra…” he blurted, as she turned to go.
She glanced back.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said honestly.
“Me, too,” Kendra agreed.
They definitely weren’t talking about food.