Abigail proved that further right then.
“Stuff happens in the wild, honey,” she told her daughter, leaned over her and stroking her back.“That’s why it’s so good we have places like Mr.Hutch’s sanctuary, so someone can look after them, and then, like he told you, when they’re ready, they can take them back to where they were born to be.Into the wild so they can live their lives how they’re supposed to.”
“And they do have mommies,” Brett added.“Human mommies and daddies who look after them and help them become big and strong so they can take care of themselves when they’re back home.”
Emma gave the orphaned moose pen a good long stare before she hopped off it and looked up at Hutch.“Are you a moose daddy?”
He smiled down at her.“I’ve given my share of moose babies a bottle.”
Her face lit.“Can I give a moose baby a bottle?”
He kept smiling.“They’re bigger than you, sweetheart, even when they’re born.”
Her face got stubborn.“But I’m not a baby.”
“You aren’t,” Brett said.“But I don’t wantmybaby girl run over by a baby moose who wants his bottle.”
Emma turned her stubborn to her dad.
Liam edged up to Hutch’s side and tentatively took his hand.
Hutch wasn’t tentative in holding it.
He also didn’t miss the expression on Mabel’s face when he did.An expression that said she wanted to jump him.
Christ, this woman.
“Can we see the owls, Mr.Hutch?”Liam asked.
“You bet,” he told him.
He took them to the aviary next, and although they had a kickass aviary, the birds in it didn’t have as hopeful a future as the orphaned moose, because all of them had been wounded to the extent they’d never be released to the wild.
But he didn’t share that.
“I like the one with the really fluffy head!”Emma cried.
“Not so loud, baby,” Abigail said.“We’re in their home.We need to be polite.”
“I like the one with the really fluffy head,” Emma repeated in a little-kid whisper.
“That’s a boreal owl,” Hutch told them.
“Its name is Boreal?”Liam asked.
“No, bud.That’s what owls like him are called.His name is Otto.”
“Otto,” Liam murmured and looked back at the bird.
After they were done with the owls, they kept walking through the sanctuary.And that day was a good day, considering Ursula, their lame Canadian lynx (right hind leg injury), who didn’t come out very often, showed herself to both Liam’s and Emma’s, not to mention Abigail’s and Mabel’s delight.
He didn’t share that Canadian lynx were rare and endangered.
He just let them thrill at what a beauty she was, with Emma stating, “She’s got such big, poofyfeet!”
They were heading back to their cars, and then onward to Mabel’s for dinner, with Mabel, Abigail and the kids walking ahead of Brett and Hutch in a way he knew either Brett or Abigail had arranged it to be.
In other words, the women and kids were so far ahead, they couldn’t hear Brett and Hutch talking.
