Rescue Me Page 2

  He hurried in to get her before she could get a good wind under her sails. He changed her and then made up a bottle of her new formula, which he gave her just as she was pulling in the air for a really good wail. “You and I are going to the neighbor’s for dinner,” he told her. “So I want you to be on your best behavior. That means no exploding diapers and maybe a nice long nap while we’re there.” He looked down at her huge blue eyes, which stared back at him. “Maybe we can find you something special to wear.” He carried her out of the kitchen to her little bedroom and opened the closet, but before he could pick an outfit, the doorbell rang. Beau had been here two months without so much as a visitor, and now two days in a row?

  He opened the door and glared at Gerome. “What are you doing here?” he asked as lightly as he could so he didn’t disturb Jessica, even as he seethed inside.

  Gerome lowered his gaze to Jessica, who was just finishing her bottle. “What the hell is that?” He muscled his way past Beau and into the living room. Beau closed the door. “I see it’s true. You moved out here to the country. How butch of you.” Gerome put his hands on his hips. Beau’s ex-husband was huge but could swish with the best of them. “I found out where you were living and had a meeting in Harrisburg, so I figured I’d stop by to see if you’ve come to your senses yet.” Gerome was a fun guy, but he lived in a world of his own making. That worked for him and his art. Gerome made huge metal sculptures. They were intricate and beautifully flowing. But it didn’t work for Beau—especially when fun and artistic meant coming home to find the studio assistant fucking the hell out of his husband in his and Beau’s marital bed.

  “I came to my senses, as you call it, as soon as I found you—” He stumbled over the word he wanted to use because he didn’t swear in front of Jessica. “—in bed with someone else.” He turned away. “Have you moved out of the house and studio yet?” he asked. “It’s mostly mine, and I want it all sold.” Maybe he was being petty, but Beau had no intention of spending the next part of his life financially tangled with Gerome.

  “Come on,” Gerome wheedled. He was good at that. “You know you miss me….”

  Jessica whimpered, and Beau put her over his shoulder to burp her. She gurgled and rested her head on his shoulder before burping loud enough to make a sailor proud.

  “That’s my girl,” he said softly. “And as for you, I’m done. The divorce is final, I have a new life here, and as per the agreement, the property is to be sold.”

  Gerome drew nearer, looming over him. “But I work in the studio, and you know how hard it is to find affordable space in Philadelphia. I need some—”

  Beau shook his head. “Then buy me out according to the agreement you signed when we bought the property and what was agreed on in the divorce. By my estimate, it’s 1.8 million.” That felt good. Yeah, he was being a little bitchy, but Gerome had really shattered his heart. Beau had thought the talented man in front of him was the one, that he and Gerome would spend their lives together. He’d put most of the inheritance from his grandparents into the house and studio property, though thankfully he had thought to specify how the property was to be owned before he married Gerome.

  “I don’t have that kind of money,” Gerome whined.

  “Then I’ll contact a realtor friend tomorrow to list the property. You need to find a separate place to live and vacate the studio. Any damage will be taken from your share of the proceeds.” He was well aware of how vindictive and petty Gerome could be. This entire situation had gone on long enough. “Now please leave. I’m not coming back to you.” He pointed toward the door as Jessica began to fuss. He gave her the remainder of the bottle.

  “What’s with the baby?”

  “Amy died. I sent you a note a few weeks ago. I’m raising Jessica.” Gerome never paid attention to anything that didn’t have to do with him. “Now, we have places to go, and you’re going to make us late.” He let Gerome open the door, and as soon as he stepped outside, Beau kicked it closed.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I used to be married to him, but you can be thankful that he isn’t going to be your daddy.” Beau didn’t think he could handle two babies at the same time.

  Jessica was awake and playful as he dressed her. Then he put her on the floor under some hanging toys and packed the diaper bag. Once he was ready, he lifted her, in her carrier, and the bag and walked over to the neighbor’s. Jessica loved to be out for walks and calmed immediately. Beau hoped that she didn’t fall asleep too soon.

  Their arrival was greeted by the call of the wild. Mitchell came out of the barn. “That’s enough, guys. Cool it,” he called and pulled the barn door partway closed. Then he turned to Beau, his smile setting Beau’s insides aflutter, chasing away the last of the darkness that Gerome had left in his wake. The flush of energy and the way Mitchell looked at him had Beau’s cheeks heating, and he wished he could hide until it went away. “Come on inside. They’ll settle down in a few minutes, unless you’d like to go see them. Most of the pack would love a visitor.”

  Beau wasn’t so sure of that, but he nodded anyway, set the diaper bag just inside the door, and followed Mitchell out to the barn.

  “These are all the dogs I have at the moment. I adopted out three more today, so I’m down to eleven.” The delight in Mitchell’s expression tamped down some of Beau’s nerves. “Fifteen is about all I can handle.”

  All the dogs seemed excited. Some bent down, butts in the air and tails wagging, hoping to be played with. Other were quiet and standoffish. Small dogs, large dogs, ones of all descriptions, for the most part tails wagging so rapidly they might have caused a breeze. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of them all in one place.” He positioned Jessica into his arms so she could see. Mitchell let two of the dogs out and picked up a small one.

  “This is Randi, and that’s Sweetiepie. Sometimes they come named, and other times I do it. Randi is really sweet. I’m surprised she hasn’t been adopted.”

  Beau slowly reached out and stroked her head. “What happened to her?”

  “Lawn mower. Her owner was careless and cut her. He brought her into the clinic and asked me to put her to sleep. I just couldn’t. So I took her and did the surgery to close up her wounds, nursed her to health, then brought her here.” Mitchell stroked her body as Beau reached down to pet Sweetiepie, a brindle bulldog mix who was just as gentle as could be.

  “And this one?” It was pretty obvious, judging by the myriad of wagging tails around him and the state of these pups, that Mitchell had a huge heart. It would take one to do what he’d done. It occurred to Beau that most people would have been like Randi’s former owner and written a lot of these dogs off. Hell, he might have been one of those people. Beau would like to think he wasn’t, but never having had a pet, he didn’t know. Still, to care that much took a special kind of person. Too bad they were really rare, at least in Beau’s experience.

  “Broken leg that festered. I had to remove it, but she does well on three legs and is as gentle as can be. I refuse to let any of them be uncared for.” Mitchell’s gaze grew hard for a moment and then softened again. “I started the shelter a few years ago as an accompaniment to the clinic. I couldn’t bear putting down or sending dogs that needed help to one of the other shelters. So after I inherited the property here, I leased out the land to the neighbor on the other side of your place and converted the old storage barn into a shelter. I added runs and secure outdoor spaces for them. In the clinic, I have pictures of the dogs up for adoption, and I work with groups and law enforcement to rescue dogs in trouble.” It was pretty clear from the way he spoke that Mitchell really felt for and connected with the dogs in his care.

  Beau continued stroking Sweetiepie’s head as Jessica watched the dogs, drooling and chewing on her fingers. “This is pretty amazing. I had no idea. I mean, you see those commercials on TV, but you never know how much of that is real or just for the cameras.” His gaze roved over the large enclosures, each housing a dog. He stepped closer, and a
basset hound with gentle eyes scooted up to him, tail wagging slowly.

  Mitchell patted Sweetiepie and gently put her back in her cage. Then he did the same with Randi. “It’s real. People do terrible things to one another, and sometimes they treat their dogs the same way.” He stepped back, and Beau followed him out of the shelter, letting Mitchell close the door. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I ignored what I saw.”

  Mitchell led the way across the yard, staying close, and then held the door for Beau to go ahead. Beau couldn’t help thinking about those dogs, but his mind spent more time turning over his thoughts on their rescuer, and he couldn’t help taking a peek at the way Mitchell filled out the tight jeans that gripped his thighs and cradled his rear end.

  A wave of heat welled up inside him, and Beau wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Oh, he knew what it meant, along with the way his pulse raced. There was something attractive about the dog-rescuing veterinarian, Beau couldn’t deny that. But for three weeks, his attention had been on Jessica, work, and getting through the day. He didn’t have time for anything else. Hell, for weeks Beau had figured that the sexy part of his life was over, at least for the next eighteen years or so. Maybe forever. A good night’s sleep sounded like heaven right about now, never mind anything more strenuous in bed.

  Beau pulled his straying thoughts back to the here and now.

  Jessica snuffled and fussed as soon as he was inside, and Beau got a prepared bottle out of the bag. He checked the temperature of the bottle and gave it to her.

  “Are you seeing a difference?” Mitchell asked.

  “Yeah. She’s hungry all the time, and a lot of the fussiness has disappeared.” He sat down on the sofa, and Mitchell sat with him. “I change her a lot now because of all she’s eating, but at least I’m not trying to get her to eat all the time.” He sighed and sat back. “Would you like to hold her?”

  Beau took the bottle and transferred Jessica to the crook of Mitchell’s arm. Jessica watched Mitchell as she ate, holding his finger when he offered it.

  “You’re beautiful, little one, yes you are. And hungry too.” Mitchell removed the bottle. Beau handed him a burp rag as he patted her back on his shoulder.

  “Does she always belch like that?” Mitchell asked as Beau cleaned up the little bit of mess. Mitchell held her once again, rocking slightly. “I think things need to settle a little and then she’ll be ready for some more.” He wagged his fingers in front of her, and she held them before smiling. “Dang, you are a beauty.”

  “She takes after her mommy.” Beau sat back and blinked, trying not to wipe his eyes. “Amy was stunning. Could have been a model.”

  “What about Jessica’s father?” Mitchell asked.

  Beau shrugged. “He isn’t in the picture. I know his name is Ronald van der Spoel because I have the documents she had where he signed away his rights to her. He isn’t going to be involved at all.” That was a huge relief. The last thing Beau wanted was someone showing up with a claim to his daughter. He might have only had Jessica for three weeks, but she was his last connection to Amy, and he loved her. Jessica already felt like his own daughter, and the thought of giving her up now, for any reason, made his heart threaten to shatter.

  Jessica fell asleep in Mitchell’s arms, and he smiled, watching her. “I was an only child and the youngest of all the cousins, so I never really spent much time around babies,” he said as he rocked his arms slowly. “At least baby people. I helped birth my first horse when I was nine. Dad said I did a good job and then gave me the colt. I raised him, helped train him, and learned to ride him. He’s out in the pasture now, retired and happy. He’s the last of the horses on the property, and he’ll stay until he dies.”

  Beau got comfortable. “So you’ve been around animals your entire life?”

  Mitchell smiled and nodded slowly, not breaking the rhythm of his slow movements. “Oh yeah. I had the full complement of pets and animals. Once I even had a pet pig. Mom had a fit about that one because she’d gotten him to raise and slaughter.” He grinned. “Mom had visions of bacon and ham, and I had visions of Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web. In that case, Mom won, but I refused to eat pork for a year just in case it came from Wellington.” Mitchell chuckled. “I also had a pet goat, dogs, and cats. I raised a steer and other livestock. No chickens, though. Didn’t care for them.”

  Jessica yawned and stretched before settling easily in Mitchell’s arms again.

  “Do you want me to take her?” Beau asked quietly. Part of him was grateful for the break, and yet he felt itchy that he wasn’t holding her. It was weird.

  “I like holding her. It’s different for me, and she’s warm and so cute.” He rocked her gently, with Jessica sleeping away. “Did you have any animals growing up?”

  Beau shook his head. “None. My mom was allergic to everything. She was one of those people who had allergies to all animals, so I didn’t have any dogs or cats. Even if I went to a friend’s who had them, I had to change my clothes and put them in the washer as soon as I came home. It was pretty bad.”

  Mitchell gaped at him. “No pets at all?”

  Beau shook his head, looking at him like he was the most deprived person on earth. It was just the way things had been, and Beau hadn’t known anything else. Sure, he had wanted to have a dog, but unlike most kids, where they kept asking and eventually wore their parents down, there had been no chance of that happening. Beau had just had to accept it.

  Mitchell slowly leaned forward and passed him Jessica. “I’ll be right back.”

  He left by the front door and passed quickly in front of the window. Beau wondered where he was going, but he returned a few minutes later with something in his arms. When he came back inside, Mitchell put Randi down on the floor. The little dog ran over to him, and Beau tensed a little. It was one thing to be around the dogs out in the barn, but he felt his arms tighten slightly around Jessica as Randi jumped onto the sofa and sniffed her blanket.

  “Is this going to be okay?” Beau asked.

  Mitchell chuckled. “Randi is sweet, and there’s nothing aggressive about her.” The blanket fell away from one of Jessica’s feet, and before Beau could cover it, Randi sniffed her and gave her a lick, then settled on the sofa.

  “Was she tasting her?” Beau asked, unsure if he should be concerned.

  “Maybe a little. Dogs explore their world differently from us. We use touch and sight a lot. Dogs see a more limited range of color than we do, and while they do use visual cues, they also explore with their nose and tongue. That’s all she was doing, right, girl?” Mitchell sat on the other side of Randi, who was watching Jessica, her head on her paws. He petted her, but Beau noticed that her attention stayed on Jessica. He wasn’t too sure how he felt about that.

  “Let me check on dinner.” Mitchell got up.

  Beau hoped that the dog would follow him out of the room, but Randi stayed on the sofa without moving. He tentatively scratched her head, and she leaned into the touch, obviously wanting more, but she didn’t come any closer, and when he stopped, she lay back down.

  “It will be about twenty minutes. I made a Hawaiian chicken recipe. It’s got rice and pineapple. It’s not fancy, but if you don’t like that sort of thing, I can find you something else….” Mitchell seemed nervous, but the chicken scent reached Beau’s nose, and he was suddenly really hungry. His stomach rumbled, and he nodded.

  “It sounds good.” He liked pineapple, and chicken was always a winner. “I’ve been existing on food I can microwave for so long, a home-cooked meal is going to seem like heaven. You know that Jessica hasn’t been sleeping or eating very well, so I was up a lot with her.”

  Mitchell chuckled slightly. “Then you move in next to fifteen dogs whose barking woke her up just when you got her to sleep.”

  Beau felt like such a heel for calling the authorities on Mitchell. “I was sleep-deprived and at my wits’ end, I guess. She cried and cried and was so upset all the time. I swear I existed on two
or three hours of sleep for days. Last night was the first time she slept four hours in a row since I got her, and that was heaven. I fed and changed her, and she went right back to sleep. It was a miracle.” He sighed. “You really saved my life with the whole lactose thing. That really made a difference.” Beau actually felt sane and much more normal. It was like he could see the light of day for the first time in weeks. “I was starting to worry that I was the worst daddy in the world and that maybe I shouldn’t be the one to take care of her.” What if he messed up and hurt her somehow? There was still so much he didn’t know, and he was trying to learn on the job, but this was so much more intense than he could ever have imagined. His nerves and doubts kicked in again. “Though she’s eating like a trooper now.”

  “She’s happy, and her belly doesn’t hurt.” Mitchell stroked the dog between them. “She’s a good little girl, and you’re very lucky. I always wanted a child, but I doubt that’s in the cards. Most of the guys that I dated would chew off their right arm before deciding to have children.”

  Beau grinned. He had suspected, from the vibes he got, that Mitchell might be gay. It was good to know that his instincts weren’t gone and that his gaydar wasn’t dead.

  “My now ex-husband stopped by before I came over. He actually asked me if I’d come to my senses yet. I know he wants me back, but I have no intention of returning to the controlling jerk.”

  “How long ago did you leave?” Mitchell asked, leaning closer. His earthy scent caught Beau’s nose, and he closed his eyes, stifling a groan because dang, that was good and went right to his belly. For a second he thought it might have been the food, but food never got him hard. Heck, he had actually started to think that having Jessica had killed any sex drive he might have had. Beau now understood pretty clearly why he had heard that the best birth control was having children. He wondered how parents actually had the energy for sex. Beau sure didn’t right now.