Broken Wings (10 page)

“Then how can you afford to have your roof fixed?” She walked around to the side of the porch, her Manolo Blahnik’s clicking on the wood beneath her feet as she went.

“A volunteer has generously donated the materials to fix up my house,” Pamela clarified as she followed Clarissa to the edge of the porch.

“Volunteer!” Clarissa almost laughed. “Pamie, your volunteers are just as poor as you. Now who would pay to have
—
?”

At that moment, Daniel rounded the corner. He was soaked through and his thin white T-shirt clung to his muscular torso. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Clarissa.

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I just needed to get something out of my Jeep.” His dark eyes volleyed back and forth between Pamela and Clarissa.

“Well, hello there!” Clarissa purred while sticking out her amply enhanced cleavage.

“Clarissa, this is Daniel.” Pamela motioned to Daniel. “Daniel has been helping out around here.”

“So happy to meet you, Daniel,” Clarissa cooed as she leaned over the porch railing and offered him her hand.

Daniel took the woman’s extended hand and gave it a brief tug.

“Daniel, Clarissa is a very generous patron of my facility.” Pamela gave a fake smile and tried to implore Daniel with her eyes to play nice.

He paused for a second or two, and then Daniel turned back to Clarissa
.

“Well, hello,” he cheerfully called out, flashing a boyish smile that Pamela swore she had never seen before. “It is very nice to meet someone so interested in Pamela’s little organization. You must be a woman of exceptional taste.”

Clarissa became like butter in a frying pan. “Oh, I try my best to support all worthy causes,” she gushed as she ran her hands through her long hair and showed off her beautiful porcelain smile.

Pamela tried to curtail her grin as she saw Clarissa touch her face and play with the fabric on her dress.

“Clarissa came out to take some pictures of some of the animals for the newspaper,” Pamela explained, surprising herself with the chipper inflection in her voice. “She thinks it might be a real help in getting donations for the facility.”

“Really? That is so kind of her.” Daniel’s smile looked so fake that Pamela had to wonder if he was laying it on a bit too thick.

But Clarissa didn’t seem to notice. “You know I could use some people in my shots. Perhaps highlight the volunteers who work so hard to keep the place goin’.”

“Gee,” Carol said, coming up behind the women. “I always wanted to have my picture taken for the newspaper.”

Clarissa turned and Carol extended a mug of coffee to her. Clarissa inspected the mug and frowned. “I was actually thinkin’ more along the lines of havin’ Daniel here…” Clarissa turned back to Daniel, “…pose for a few shots, Beverly.”

“It’s Carol,” Carol corrected.

Clarissa just waved her hand at Carol, never taking her eyes away from Daniel. “What do you think, Daniel? Up for a few pictures to help the cause?”

Daniel glanced over at Pamela and beamed. “Absolutely!”

“Wonderful!” Clarissa clapped her hands together. “Why don’t you and I go over to those cages across the way and take some pictures with the animals.” She pointed to the man’s sweaty T-shirt. “But lose the shirt, darlin’. I think it would be so much more interestin’ if you looked like you were workin’ really hard.”

“And nothing says a man is working hard than when he shows off his naked chest,” Carol announced.

Clarissa glanced back at Carol. “I find that to be true, Constance.” She took the steps from the porch to the gravel drive one at a time, and by the time her expensive black shoes hit the ground, Daniel was at her side.

Carol and Pamela looked on as the pair walked around the side of the house and toward the back of the facility.

“I hope those heels get stuck in a big old pile of mud,” Carol muttered beside Pamela.

“I can’t believe the fate of my rehab center rests on the shoulders of a half-naked bartender,” Pamela mused as she felt the weight of the world descend upon her.

“Well, those shoulders can definitely handle the burden.” Carol shook her head. “I’ve seen monkeys in heat more subtle than that woman. Now there’s a troubled marriage.”

Pamela stared at her. “What makes you say that?”

Carol pointed at Clarissa. “If she’s on the prowl, so is Bob. A woman never goes after another man unless the man she’s got isn’t man enough, if you know what I mean,” Carol expounded with a wink.

Pamela drew her blond brows together. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Pamela turned and watched as Daniel lifted Clarissa over a large puddle on the ground.

The woman’s squeals of joy could have been heard all the way to New Orleans.

“God, I hope I never become that desperate,” Carol commented with a sigh.

“I don’t care how desperate she is,” Pamela said with a frown. “If I knew it would help, I would pay Daniel to sleep with that stupid woman. I will do anything to keep this place going.”

“Maybe you could get a two-for-one discount. He could do Clarissa and then you.”

Pamela snapped her head around and glared at Carol. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You two seemed real cozy earlier this morning around the side of the house.” She shrugged. “All I’m sayin’ is, maybe you and the gigolo should get to know each other. You know, horizontally.”

Pamela rolled her eyes. “Carol, all you think about is sex!”

“Yeah, maybe. But at least I’m thinking about it.” She nodded her head slightly toward Pamela. “Are you?”

*  *  *  *

It was well into the afternoon when Clarissa’s bright red Mercedes pulled out of Pamela’s gravel drive and headed back to the city. Soon after she saw Clarissa’s tail lights turn on to the main road at the entrance to her property, she heard the hammer start up again on her roof. Pamela stood outside on her porch and fought back the urge to go running to Daniel and ask what happened between him and the insufferable woman. She decided instead to go inside her house and feed her collection of baby gray squirrels. But as she shut the front door to her home, the images of Clarissa and her high-heeled shoes walking off with Daniel to take pictures of her animals, in her facility, irked her. Maybe she should have insisted on tagging along, but the idea of spending any more time than necessary with her ex-husband’s wife made her stomach almost heave in revulsion.

After she had settled on the floor and began to feed one of the baby squirrels, a knock came from her front door.

“It’s open,” she shouted.

The door flew open and Daniel rushed in. Shirtless and out of breath, he hurried toward her with something cupped in his hands.

“I found this when I was up on your roof, by the chimney, sealing up some leaks. It fell into my hands when I moved some of the loose tiles away,” he said as he leaned over to her and opened his hands to reveal a tiny creature with bright brown fur.

Pamela put the baby she had been feeding back in its container and analyzed the speck of life cradled in the man’s long hands. She tenderly lifted the creature out of his hands and carefully inspected it.

“It’s a flying squirrel,” Pamela announced. “Don’t get many of those unless they are trapped up in people’s attics.” She smiled up at Daniel.

“Is it hurt or something? It didn’t move too much when I brought it down the ladder.” He paused and a worried look crossed his face. “Do you think I could have injured it?” he questioned.

She felt a sudden tug at her heart as she caught sight of the man’s pained expression. “No, I’m sure you didn’t injure it,
”
she reassured him. “Let’s find out exactly what is wrong.”

Pamela pulled at each of the animal’s spindly little legs and ran her fingers over its soft, silky fur. Finally she extended its feather-like tail and pressed gently on its head.

“Nothing appears to be broken. There are no cuts or blood anywhere on the fur,” she told him as she turned the creature over in her hand. “Might be sick,” she added.

“Can you help it?” Daniel asked, looking more like a little boy than a grown man.

Pamela gazed over at his bare chest and felt her stomach do a few nervous flips. She immediately turned her eyes back to the flying squirrel. “I can start a round of antibiotics and get some good nutrition into her,” she informed him.

“Her?” Daniel asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Her,” Pamela confirmed. “She’s definitely not a him.”

Daniel grinned. “I guess she found me irresistible, too.”

Pamela just shook her head and got up from the floor. She went to the kitchen cabinet where she kept her medicines.

Daniel followed behind her. He watched as she opened the cabinet and then gave a long whistle.

“Woman, you got a lot of drugs there,” he declared, taking in the row upon row of medicine bottles piled high in the cabinet.

“Always stay well stocked on antibiotics, wormers, creams, and lotions for skin irritations and burns. In the next cabinet I have my IV equipment, needles, syringes, different sized nursing nipples, suture sets, splints, plaster of Paris for casts, and my tubing supplies.”

“Tubing supplies?”

“I tube baby opossums instead of feeding them through a syringe. I stick a tube down their throats and pump the food gently into their stomachs. They do better that way.”

Daniel went to the next cabinet and opened it. He looked over shelf upon shelf of the medical and nursing supplies. “What about going to a vet?” he asked, glancing back at her.

“Vets are expensive and most don’t have any experience working with wildlife. If I need x-rays or surgery, I can take the animal to LSU Veterinary School. They work with all the permitted rehabbers in the state.”

“Where did you learn about all this stuff?”

She took out a bottle from her cabinet and reached in front of him for a syringe. “You learn some from other rehabbers but most of it is self-taught through books or the Internet. Being an EMT helped tremendously. My medical background gives me a leg up on other rehabbers who are not as well versed in medical emergency protocols.”

She pulled out a small scale, put it on the counter, and gently placed the animal in the weighing dish. She read the weight, picked up the animal, and handed it to Daniel.

“Hold her while I draw up her medicine.”

“Why did you weigh her?” he asked.

“In order to find out the proper dose of medicine to give her
—
all medicine is given by weight, for people and for animals.”

He shook his head while Pamela withdrew a small amount of pink medicine from a bottle. “I never realized there was so much to rehabbing wildlife. You’re really running a hospital and a nursery for animals here, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” she answered as she took the flying squirrel out of his hands and fed it the contents of the syringe. “Most people think that the pictures on television of people cleaning birds from the BP oil spill depict what rehabbers do. But only rehabbers know what is involved in keeping these animals going.”

“Maybe someone should tell people what you do,” Daniel suggested in a deep voice.

Pamela found herself becoming acutely aware of the close proximity of his half-naked body. She quickly redirected her attention back to the animal in her hands. “Many people don’t care about what we do. I have been called an animal hoarder, anti-naturist, animal abuser…oh, all kinds of things from all kinds of people. What I, and other rehabbers, do doesn’t save the world, cure cancer, or make for an interesting mini-series. Our attention-deficit-driven society does not care when you save a life; they are only interested when you destroy one.”

Daniel leaned in closer to her. “Well, I care. I care very much.”

Pamela stepped back from him. “Yes, I saw just how much you cared with Clarissa today.”

Daniel chuckled. “I thought you wanted me to take her around your place and get some pictures for the paper. I had no idea my services involved leasing myself out to entertain lonely and bored housewives.”

Pamela turned away from him and walked over to her hallway closet. She pulled out a plastic container with some clean felt strips inside of it. After she had placed the little flying squirrel on top of the felt strips, she snapped the container lid closed.

Pamela kept her eyes on the container in her hands. “Clarissa is a supporter of this facility and she was obviously impressed with you, though for the life of me I can’t figure out why. Besides that, she requested you take her around and she wanted you, not me, in the pictures.” Pamela then walked over to the kitchen table and placed the flying squirrel’s container on top of it.

“You’re angry,” Daniel surmised, grinning. “You’re pissed because that silly woman wanted me in the pictures and not you.”

She spun around and faced him. “Well, it is my facility!”

“Then you should have said something!” he shouted, sounding more than a little perturbed.

“I couldn’t say anything to her. I have to kiss her ass so she keeps letting her husband give me money!”

Daniel placed his hand on his hip as he considered her comment. “Why does Clarissa have to let her husband give you money? Why can’t she just give you the money?”