Raven’s Instinct (A Day Care for Shifters #6)

40. Kendra

40

KENDRA

K endra didn’t realize her hand was shaking until Roderick frog-marched the mercenary out of the back of the ambulance and he and Alan pinned him up against the side. Kendra finally lowered the impossibly heavy hammer, nearly dropping it in relief.

She had always sort of wanted to be in an action movie, but now, with her adrenaline ebbing into trembling, she wondered if it was always this exhausting. Her shoulders ached from overflying, and she felt gritty and ready for a shower. She texted Cherry with a brief update and got a photo of Amy playing in her office, reading a board book to some stuffies. Take your time! I don’t often get one-on-one fun!

It was a reassuring breath of normalcy.

“Where did you get this car?” Alan demanded, when the second fake EMT had been zip-tied and the Montana troopers had arrived. He apparently had a magical agency card, because they deferred to him completely as they collected statements and got traffic moving again. One of the troopers took the fake ambulance with Addison and Roderick back into town, leaving Alan and Kendra with the muscle car.

“I told some poor guy that I was with the NCPD and he had to get out and give it to me. I showed him my driver’s license really fast and then got in the car before he could realize I was just making everything up. It’s a sweet ride. I told him there would be compensation, so I hope there actually is.”

“You bluffed a guy into giving you his car and then chased down a rogue ambulance on the highway, stopped traffic, and then busted out a window so I could get in?”

“What else was I going to do? I wasn’t going to catch them flying. And it was pretty clear you weren’t going to get in with your stocking foot.”

“I didn’t exactly have time to put my boots on,” Alan pointed out. “You’re bleeding?”

Kendra touched her face. Her cheek stung, but she hadn’t really noticed it in the rush of everything else. “It’s probably nothing.” She touched it and came away with a smear of blood on her fingers.

“Let me see,” Alan said with a frown. “It might need stitches.”

“I’m not going to a hospital for a cut on my cheek,” Kendra protested, batting his hand away. “I have everything I need in Rita. Unless you were suggesting the RN at East Medical who is a shifter? So we could see Addison’s new baby?” Did she sound too hopeful?

“Do you want more babies?” Alan asked unexpectedly.

The question shorted something out something in Kendra’s brain. She tried to say No, of course not! but her owl was fluttering around in her head like a cloud of confusion.

Nest! Nest!

“It’s just baby fever,” she said firmly to both of them. “I’ll hold Addison’s and get all gooey and smell their head. Then I’ll remember how much sleep I’m still deprived of and hand it gratefully back.”

“Oh.” Did Alan sound disappointed?

Did he want kids? There was only one way to know. “Do you?—?”

“Baby fever,” he agreed. “That’s all.”

“Ever?” Kendra pressed.

Alan hesitated way too long. They were still standing out by the side of the highway, only able to see each other when a car went by and they got caught in the headlights. “I don’t know.”

“This is the kind of thing people talk about when they’re getting serious,” Kendra said quietly.

“I am serious,” Alan assured her earnestly. “I never really thought kids could possibly fit into my life in any way until I came to Tiny Paws. And now, knowing you, knowing Amy , suddenly they seem…appealing. I like the idea of an excuse for developing a dad bod and learning a lot of bad jokes. But I don’t need children of my own to feel complete and I wouldn’t ask you to have more if you were finished. Also, I am freezing my stocking feet off out here, so will you kindly start your stolen car so we can return it before it’s reported to the authorities and I have to fill out even more paperwork?”

Kendra had to laugh, because how could she not? “I love you,” she said frankly, even though this wasn’t even close to the circumstances she’d imagined making the confession. “I love you whether we have a hundred kids or none. Which isn’t a promise. I’m not deciding my kid count on the side of a road at nearly freezing temperatures.”

Alan swept in and pinned her to the car to kiss her, a slow, deliberate kiss that was passionate and full of conviction. “I love you, Kendra Emerson. I love you to the moon and back.”

One of the cars going by honked at them, whether it was in appreciation of the show, warning, or disgust, Kendra wasn’t sure.

“I’m certainly not making one right now ,” she giggled. “Keep it in your pants, Romeo.”

“I’m not sure it would work right now,” Alan said. “It is very cold out, my feet are completely without feeling, and if I tried to take anything out of my pants, I think we’d have some geometric problems as my parts tried to climb back into my body for warmth. Can I take a rain check?”

Kendra kissed her, then slipped out from under his arm. “Let me figure out how to keep the kid I have, and we’ll go from there.”