3. Kendra
3
KENDRA
S eeing Alan for the first time was like having one hand plunged into freezing water while the other was in boiling hot.
He was so right and so utterly wrong.
Kendra had to ask herself why her first reaction was to think he didn’t belong there. He was playing gently with the kids, but Kendra saw a big, burly man of color and immediately thought bouncer , not babysitter .
Was she more sexist than she realized? Was it just an unfair preconception that men had to be protectors rather than nurturers? Was it a knee-jerk reaction to her underlying attraction because she knew that handsome guys were too good to be true?
Then she managed to tell him what to do with his hair, and she could have sunk into her shoes and died of shame. She was a hypocrite. What was next, a comment on his weight? Should she tell him to smile?
He was already smiling, and it was an absolutely gorgeous grin, with white teeth in an expressive mouth. He had the kind of cheekbones that looked unreal on actors, and a smooth, strong jaw. There was an uncanny draw to him, some heady mix of confidence and kindness that Kendra wasn’t sure how to deal with.
“I have an appointment to get to,” she remembered. “And I double-parked the van.” Why was she explaining herself? She didn’t have to do more than drop her daughter off, and with that done, why was she even still here?
Dead rodents, her owl reminded her.
“You don’t want a ticket,” Alan said agreeably. “Amy will have a good time today, I bet.”
“I’m sure she will,” Kendra said, glancing to where Addison had set Amy down with Gabby and Jackson.
Kendra was used to listening to instinct. It told her when to leave Las Vegas, and it told her where to take her vet practice. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do without Tiny Paws to cover some of Amy’s care as the girl got more mobile and independent. She’d never even heard of a day care for shifters until she came to Nickel City. Instinct led her right here, with unexpected clarity.
And instinct was telling her now that this was all fine, that she could trust Alan, and that he might be the answer to the part of her that missed real companionship more complex than a toddler.
As long as she didn’t screw it all up.
The problem was, she always managed to screw it all up.
The safest thing to do was not let anything happen with this gorgeous raven-haired (and apparently raven-shifting) man. She could trust him with Amy, but she couldn’t trust him with her heart. “Good luck,” she said briefly, and she turned decisively to go.
Her owl cooed in disappointment, but a crash behind her made her turn. Alan appeared to have walked after her, straight into the gate, and he had knocked it asunder and was now fighting to get it back up.
“There’s a trick to it,” Kendra said, because she couldn’t just leave him to figure it out. She showed him how to wedge it into place and reset the latch.
“I think I’ve just aptly proved my general newness to this job,” Alan said abashedly. The tips of his ears were flushed and Kendra had to resist the urge to reach out and see if his hair was as soft as it looked. That would be worse than telling him how to style it.
“You’re not less new to it than I was,” Kendra said sympathetically. “Surprisingly, babies don’t come with instructions and YouTube videos are useless.”
“The advice seems to be largely that every one of them is different and you’ll do things the wrong way a few times,” Alan said, standing again when the gate was secured.
“And what works once won’t work the next time. It’s a racket.” Kendra reminded herself again that she was not supposed to be chatting with the hot new guy at the day care. “I gotta go!”
“Thank you!” Alan called after her.
Kendra wasn’t quite sure what he was thanking her for, but she gave a quick wave as she left, making sure the door was shut securely behind her.
There was a parking ticket on her windshield.
She couldn’t be positive that she’d gotten it because of the extra time she’d spent talking with Alan, but Kendra chose to take the ticket as a sign, stronger than instinct, that she really should not let herself be distracted by his pretty face and big muscles.
She threw the ticket in the glovebox and pulled the noisy van out into the road.