Sharing it with someone new was going to be amazing.
“From an otter perspective, anyway. Imagine two benevolent giants coming to help you when you were in trouble.”
“I’d probably scream a lot, not gonna lie.” Nolan shrugged. “But I see your point.”
“He’ll freak out, too,” Finn said. “So be careful, okay?”
“I did listen to the safety briefing the second time,” Nolan said. “Every word is etched onto my heart. Scout’s honor.”
“You were a scout for two weeks,” Finn responded, remembering when Nolan had told him about that.
“Long enough to get kicked out for kissing one of the other boys,” Nolan said. “Neither of our parents were happy. His parents were so unhappy that they demanded I leave.”
Finn turned to look at him, devastated.
How old could Nolan even have been? Thirteen or fourteen? That was aterriblething to do to a kid.
And his parents had just… let it happen. Which might have explained why he was clinging to Gavin.
“I didn’t even know I was doing the wrong thing.”
“You weren’t,” Finn said firmly. “Jesus. Remind me that I owe you a hug when we’re done with this, okay?”
Nolan obviously had a few demons hanging around. The urge to shoo them away was already welling up in Finn’s chest, his protective instincts whirring into overdrive. It was too late toprotectNolan from the crap that had happened to him, but maybe he could work on undoing some of the damage.
Starting with convincing Nolan that kissing was fun and they should do it again. Often, even.
Which he’d completely forgotten how to do. Once upon a time, he’d had no trouble getting people to want to date him, but he’d let those skills slip a little. Hopefully, Nolan would give him some leeway while he figured it out again.
“Let’s go be superheroes,” Nolan said with a tremble in his voice, clearly ending the conversation.
“Yeah, okay,” Finn agreed. “Lemme grab my kit. You’re in charge of the cage.”
“Works for me,” Nolan said, following Finn over to the back of the car.
Finn got out his homemade portable vet kit, double-checking everything before rolling it up and shoving it in the inside pocket of his jacket.
He handed the cage to Nolan, and then closed the car up and locked it. Not that anyone seemed likely to steal it out here.
Hell, not that anyone would steal it if he left the keys in the ignition in the middle of a suburban supermarket parking lot, but old habits died hard.
“C’mon,” Finn headed for the low fence that separated the lookout from the wilderness, stepping over it easily and picking his way over slippery banks, keeping an eye on Nolan as they both inched their way down sideways.
The last thing he needed was to lose Nolan into the river. It wasn’t exactly white water rapids and he was unlikely to get swept away or drown—assuming he had the first idea about how to swim—but all the same, he’d end up wet and miserable and Finn would still have to fish him out.
One small, helpless mammal was enough to deal with at a time.
“So do you do this a lot?” Nolan asked, grabbing a nearby tree for balance as a rock gave way under his foot. He was doing a lot better than Finn had expected.
“Once or twice a week. Plus house calls where people have done the rescuing themselves,” Finn said, crouching by the bank and getting out his kit. “You wanna pass me the sack out of the cage?”
Nolan stopped beside him, setting the hessian sack down next to the rest of Finn’s things. “Okay, so, quick rundown. I’m gonna lean over the edge here and check out our little buddy’s condition. Then I’ll either tranquilize him—which I’d rather not do—or just cut him loose and scoop him up into that sack. Following so far?”
“Following,” Nolan agreed. “Why don’t you wanna tranquilize him?”
“Because I’d be taking a guess at his weight and that’s harder than you’d think,” Finn said. “Call it a quirk, but I don’t wanna give him an overdose after coming all the way out here to rescue him.”
“Makes sense,” Nolan said. “So what do I do?”
