Wild Ice (20 page)

What had Lauren said? Oh yeah. “Sometimes you’ve got to be spontaneous,
ya know?” So that’s what he decided to be. Spontaneous.

With his muscles stretched and ready
, JD took off jogging down the trail. Mel trotted beside him, panting loudly despite his big doggie grin.

T
here was a plethora of wildlife on his property and not just birds either. There were pheasants, jackrabbits, deer, lizards and dragonflies the size of helicopters. The area was teeming with so much wildlife that it was truly spectacular, even to an amateur like him. Jack rabbits hopped from the trail, disappearing into their hiding places in the brush. In the distance, an egret flew low and graceful over the mudflats. A hawk soared overhead, riding the air currents. JD wasn’t sure of the exact species but knew Lauren would be able to identify it along with its hunting behavior, habitat and migration, no doubt.

Compared to the treadmill, i
t felt good to run outside and really stretch his legs. JD was glad he could finally appreciate the nature around him. There was an entire new world just steps from his back door that he’d only given a passing scowl at in the past. He decided to take Lauren—or rather, her Aunt Cora’s—advice and start living in the moment.

Just when
JD left the clearing and increased his stride, he heard something up ahead in the trees. It wasn’t the usual racket the birds made. It sounded like…was someone crying? JD sprinted ahead and went off the trail to find Lauren sobbing in the brush. Right away, he recognized it as the area where the weaver’s nest was.

Lauren
looked up and was startled to see JD standing there. His athletic appearance caused her breath to catch. He looked out of place. He didn’t belong out here in the wetlands. He belonged…on a hockey rink.

When she saw his muscle tee and nylon shorts
, she put two and two together. He must have been out for a jog and heard her.

Mel sniffed at her hands but she couldn’t look away from JD’s face. Tears had blurred her eyes and she focused
on his mouth. He was saying something to her.

“What happened?” he asked, winded. He wasn’t out of breath from the jog, but because when he saw Lauren distressed all the air whooshed from his lungs and a sinking feeling teetered in his gut. Instinct had him pulling her close. If he thought she might pull away he would have been wrong.

She put her arms around him and sobbed into his shirt. “They’re gone,” she choked out
, clinging tightly to his chest. “They’re all gone.”

“Wh
at? What’s gone?” he asked into her hair.

“The
weaver chicks.”

He looked over her head at the empty nest.
The way it dangled from the tree invited speculation. None of it good. He knew the baby birds were symbolic to her and how much she cared about them. He had to admit he was a little choked up to find they were gone, too. He looked away from the nest and breathed in the sweet smell of her hair. “Maybe they flew away.”

“They were still too young
to leave the nest.” She pulled away far enough to show him the feathers littering the ground. “There was a fight. A hawk most likely. They didn’t stand a chance.”

He pulled her close again and laid his chin on the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry, Lauren.”

Her body shook with sobs and he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

“Why did it have to be the weavers?” she cried.

“If
it wasn’t them, it would’ve been another birds’ nest.”

“I know,” she said, her voice sounding small and childlike.

“It’s the circle of life,” he said lamely. The words sounded so much better in his head. Out loud they just sounded cliché and insensitive.

JD wanted to fix everything for her. To make that look of despair vanish from her face.
To bring the baby chicks back and tuck them safe and sound into their nest. But he couldn’t. All he could do was hold her and offer clichés for comfort.

She sniffed and looked up at him, still encircled in his arms.
Devastation etched her face. Her green eyes were bloodshot and swollen and he wiped a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. Her lips were inches from his. So close…

JD’s
heart and mind were at war with each other. He hadn’t held another woman since Darla, but the softness of Lauren’s skin and the curve of her warm body made it impossible to resist.

It probably wasn’t the most romantic moment—far from it—but there was something about the way she stood there devastated
and looking at him that gave him the urge to kiss her. Before he could talk himself out of it, he cupped her face, tilted her chin up, leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. When she responded to the kiss and moved her lips against his, JD relaxed. He could taste the saltiness of her tears, but that didn’t dampen his growing need for her.

The kiss was so tender that
for a moment Lauren forgot about what happened to the weaver chicks. They would have another brood and the species would live on. Anything seemed possible after a kiss like that.

Just when he feared reaching the point of no return, JD
pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” he said softly.

Instead of saying “me, too”,
Lauren twined her arms around his neck and kissed him again. Just when she was about to deepen the kiss, a thrashing sound from a nearby bush interrupted them.

“Dammit, Mel
, stop snoopin’ around.” JD pulled away from Lauren to scold the dog, but Mel wasn’t the cause of the noise. He was lying by their feet with his ears pricked up, focused on the sound coming from the bushes.

“It’s
Clyde!” Lauren gasped.

Lauren
left the comfort of JD’s embrace and went to the bush. The male weaver’s wing was caught on some loose wire that was hanging from the fence that separated JD’s property from the refuge. The bird was exhausted from his frantic struggle. Ever so carefully, Lauren bent back the wire and the bird fluttered free.

Bonnie
must have escaped or… Well, Lauren chose to believe the female escaped the scuffle and was waiting for Clyde to meet up with her somewhere.

JD stood back and watched Lauren. There was love in his eyes. Something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. She was incredibly gentl
e and kind and holding her had felt right. And look at how she was saving that little bird’s life! She was setting it free, releasing it, and giving it its freedom back.

The
disheveled and disoriented bird flew away, his flight pattern zigzagged. After a few frantic beats of its wings, he was on his way back into the wild.

Lauren
looked up at JD, her eyes still wet with tears. “He’s going to be all right,” she said confidently.

JD smiled and ho
ped she was right.

* * *

Lauren had some nervous energy to burn from JD’s scorching kiss. She
bought the kind of hummingbird feeder that had suction cups on it so she could stick it to JD’s kitchen window. She didn’t buy a hanging feeder because the window was high up and if there wasn’t already a nail above the frame, she wouldn’t be able to reach to hammer one in. The type with suction cups would be quicker to install and she wanted it to be a surprise.

She refused to be disheartened by the
weavers’ demise. Even though the species was likely to become endangered in the near future, their numbers would rise with conservation.

She mixed up
a batch of hummingbird nectar, carefully poured it into the new feeder and followed the path that led to the manor. After attaching the suction cups to the window and placing the feeder on top, she walked back home.

About halfway
down the path, she turned around and waited. Within minutes, a rufous hummingbird buzzed around the window and scoped out the new feeder before landing on the perch to take a sip.

Lauren smiled and went
back to the cottage.

* * *

That night
JD lay in bed and thought about the kiss he’d shared with Lauren. It didn’t feel wrong and he didn’t feel guilty about it. At first it had felt like a betrayal to Darla, but now… Now things were different. It was as if Darla was looking down on him and shooing him forward. “Go!” she urged. “Live your life!” And he was beginning to do just that.

Things were
definitely starting to change. The ache in his chest had even started to fade. He woke up in the mornings with new purpose and actually looked forward to the day ahead instead of dreading it and wishing it would be over with already. He was even able to sleep upstairs in his bed instead of in the recliner without being blindsided by memories.

When he did think about Darla it didn’t cause him to unravel like before.
It was getting easier to think about her and that scared him, but at the same time it was also somewhat of a relief. Just because it didn’t hurt as much to think about her didn’t mean he loved her any less. She’d never be completely gone. She’d live on in his heart and through her sister’s continuing charity work.

In the
morning, when he poured his morning coffee, something red outside the kitchen window caught JD’s eye. He looked out the window over the sink and saw a hummingbird feeder stuck to the glass with suction cups. That certainly hadn’t been there yesterday, he thought to himself.

A hummingbird landed on the perch and
drank from the feeder. JD froze, careful not to scare the little guy away and watched it drink. Its feathers were green and shiny in the morning sunlight and JD marveled at its tiny size. Then, as fast as it had landed, the hummingbird flew away.

A few seconds later, another
hummingbird darted toward the feeder, hovered and finally took a sip of nectar before flying off. Man, it was a quick little thing. Its little wings must beat a million miles a minute.

Apparently the first bird didn’t like sharing because he swooped in to chase away the second one. The way they darted back and forth made it
look like they were doing a mid-air tango. Their fierce hums sounded like dueling lightsabers. Emerald green feathers and ruby red throats shimmered in the sun.

One after another, the
hummingbirds took turns drinking, some sharing and others stingier. Some sat with their chest puffed out and some craned their slender necks to get a better look at him through the window.

JD took a sip of coffee and smiled. The birds were so delicate that
it felt like he’d been given a gift to be able to watch them up close like this. He slowed down his breathing and was careful not to move a muscle. Luckily the window was high up or else Mel’s helicopter of a tail would’ve scared the little birds away in a heartbeat.

JD lost track of time as he stood and watched the
birds. He started to relax and let his shoulders drop. The slight movement caught the little bird’s attention and it craned and swiveled its neck sideways, looking like a miniature swan and peered at him with its beady shiny black eye to get a better look. Then it did a typewriter move on the perch so it could reach the other opening.

JD froze again and the bird
, deeming he wasn’t a threat, continued sipping from the feeder. The hummingbird’s slivery tongue caused the nectar inside the feeder to ripple. It flew up from the perch, darted to and fro and then zoomed off like a maniac on a Segway.

JD
set his empty coffee cup in the sink and smiled to himself.

Lauren had done this.

* * *

Lauren looked down at the piece of paper with JD’s phone number on it. Before she could change her mind, she dialed the number and held her breath as it rang.

“Hello?”
he answered.

“Hi JD,
this is Lauren.”

“Is everything okay?”

Panic rose in his voice and she laughed to reassure him. “Yes. Everything is fine.”

“That’s good.” He sounded genuinely relieved.
“What’s up?”

“I
just called to see if you’d like to go on a picnic.” She laughed nervously at herself. “Now that I say it out loud it sounds kind of corny.”

“No, it sounds like a great idea.”

His voice was warm and she didn’t feel silly anymore. “Meet me in the clearing at say….eleven? I’ll bring the food.”

“Sounds good.
I’ll be there.”

Lauren hung up and went to work making preparations. She
packed a simple lunch of sandwiches, some potato chips and store-bought cookies. Someone more sophisticated probably would have packed brie and wine and fancy buttery crackers, but Martha Stewart she was not.

She’d tried her hand at baking
, but after the incident with the cobbler and a subsequent incident with peanut butter cookies, Lauren abandoned her efforts altogether for fear of burning down the cottage. She’d been restless after their kiss and didn’t know what else to do with herself. Baking cookies had seemed like the perfect distraction. It would have been nice to bring them over to JD to erase the bad taste the cobbler left, but oh, well. Living in the moment wasn’t without its disadvantages.