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your eyes,” Barbara told him.

      “Those bags probably have bags,” Seth muttered.

      “Rough day yesterday?”

      “No worse than usual. At least not until last night. Then things got complicated.” He laid out the entire scenario, from Emma’s knock on his front door until he left her with her black-and-white invaders.

      “Here ya go, sweet thing.” Velma set the plate with sausage, hash browns, eggs and grits on the table, then added a large glass of orange juice.

      “If I ate like that, I’d be even fatter than I am,” Barbara said. “Here I’ve got one country ham biscuit. Life is not fair.”

      “You are not fat,” Seth said. “Just not skeletal.”

      “Way I work, I should be—skeletal, that is.”

      Seth cut into his eggs. “So, what should I do?”

      “About what? The woman or the skunks?”

      “Take your pick. I doubt the woman will stick around for long, but if she does, what should I do about the rules on skunks?”

      Barbara got up, went behind the counter and brought back the coffee carafe. She refilled both their cups, then returned the carafe to the hot plate. “Okay. I’m going to give you a bit of motherly advice.” She scowled at him. “I am a mother, you know, even if mine are both semigrown. This, however, is advice from my mother. When Patrick hit the terrible twos, John and I had just taken over my practice and were trying to keep from throttling him. Seemed he was into something every minute. River otters are said to have two states—asleep or in trouble. I swear that kid has river otter genes instead of human. Anyway, one day when I was absolutely at my wit’s end, and my mother was visiting, she said, ‘Barbara, dear, do not see so much.’”

      “What if he’s hanging off a precipice by his fingernails?” Seth asked.

      “That, of course, you do see. But if it’s nondangerous stuff that you don’t know how to handle, simply don’t see it. In most instances, the problem resolves itself without you or the kid going to jail for first-degree murder. If this Emma is doing something that’s against the rules—rules you say you don’t believe are appropriate in the first place—is she doing it under your nose? Can you see or hear those skunks from inside your house or your car?”

      “No, but I know they’re there.”

      “Can you see them?”

      “Of course not. But I need to check on her, make sure she’s managing.”

      “Can you see the skunks from her living room?”

      “They’re in the pantry.”

      “Stay out of the pantry.”

      “I’m sworn to uphold the regulations.”

      “You are sworn to protect wildlife.” Barbara reached across the table and laid her hand on his. “If you get caught, I had nothing to do with this.”

      “Oh, thanks, I appreciate that.”

      “We need to get those babies up and weaned as quickly and quietly as possible. Return them to the wild far enough away so they can’t show up back on this woman’s doorstep, and in the meantime, you forget they exist.”

      “I can’t do that.”

      “The alternative is to come down on her like a ton of bricks, take those babies away from her and abandon them to the coyotes and the foxes before they even have their scent glands functioning. Can you do that?”

      “No, but—”

      “I’ll stop by her place on my way back to the clinic to introduce myself. I’m the only vet in her neighborhood, and she’s a new neighbor. Does she have any pets?”

      He shook his head. “Not as far as I know.”

      “Okay, then I’ll do the neighborly thing. I’ll help her with those babies. First of all, rabies shots all around. It’s early, but not dangerously early to give them the shot. You go on to work and put it all out of your mind.” She shoved her plate away. “I’ll go check on Skunk Lady. Velma, honey, fix me a couple of sausage biscuits and a small orange juice to go, please.” She turned to Seth. “Vets bearing gifts. Good ploy. You pay for breakfast.”

      As he watched her van drive out of the parking lot, Seth thought, The skunks are one thing, but no way can I put Emma French out of my mind. I’m already stuck with her. Heck, I may be stuck with her for the rest of my life. I can’t get her out of my head. I don’t even know whether that’s good or bad.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      THE HOVEL—EMMA’S new nickname for her house—had a good hot water heater and plenty of water pressure from her well, so as soon as she’d finished the eight o’clock feeding, she was able to stay under the shower until she turned pruney. She washed her hair, threw on clean clothes and actually put on some makeup. Once the babies were settled, she picked up her purse and started for the front door, only to see someone looming outside the glass.

      The babies! That man had set the cops on her! She’d never felt like a fugitive before. Should she try to hide them? Would they search?

      “Hey!” called a female voice. “I’m Barbara Carew, the local veterinarian. Seth sent me to give you a hand.”

      Emma didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she let it out in an explosive gasp. She opened the door to her visitor.

      The vet stood only about five feet three, wore bright blue scrubs with a beige hoodie cardigan and had the widest, bluest eyes Emma had ever seen outside of a contact lens store. She swept past Emma and handed her a paper sack in passing.

      “Here. Breakfast. Figured you hadn’t had time to eat or go out for anything. Where are they?”

      “Uh—the pantry. Are you supposed to know about them?”

      “Too late now. Sit.” She pointed to one of the bar stools at the breakfast counter between the kitchen and living room. “Eat. You get any sleep? Food is an excellent alternative to sleep. Trust me. I know.”

      Too stunned to disobey, and suddenly ravenously hungry, Emma sat, opened the sack and inhaled. Then she began to devour.

      Barbara swept past her, opened the door to the pantry, cooed, “Oooooh,” and fell to her knees beside the skunks’ nest. “The precious!”

      “We have to save them,” Emma said around a large bite.

      Barbara picked up Peony, who whimpered before she curled into a ball against Barbara’s chest. “Honey, you have convinced the toughest, by-the-book, hardnosed ranger in the state of Tennessee to break the rules for you and your babies. It’s up to us to protect him from the dire results of his actions. I don’t know what kind of hold you’ve got on him, but unless it’s blackmail material, it has to be pure sex appeal.”

      “I don’t...”

      “He’s my dearest friend. You be good to him, I’ll love you like a sister. You hurt him, honey, and you’re toast.”

      * * *

      SETH SPENT THE morning in his office. For a job that concerned itself with the great outdoors, much of his time was spent staring at a computer screen filling out paperwork. Today he wasn’t paying nearly enough attention to it. Emma French’s face kept intruding. Didn’t matter what program he was officially accessing. He picked up his desk phone a dozen times to call her and see how the babies were doing. Each time he put the phone back in its cradle without dialing. He’d stop by on his way home to see if he could give her a hand moving some of those boxes. He didn’t even have to look at the skunks or mention that they were there.

      Just

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