Page 5 of Perfect Imperfections

“Charlotte Green.”

“Well, Charlotte Green, would you like to come with me so we can check you out and make sure you’re okay?”

Tiny hands clutched Ellie’s wet shirt, digging in with a fierceness that wrapped around her heart. Charlotte nuzzled her face into Ellie’s chest, refusing to move from the safety of her lap. Emotions clogged her throat. She’d never been good with people. She was crap with them, to be honest. Her anxiety and compulsions either got on their nerves or freaked them out. Which was why she preferred animals. If it wasn’t for Cam forcing her to be social every now and then, she might never leave the house other than for work.

Charlotte clutching her as if she never wanted to let Ellie go was foreign to her. She didn’t understand the small child’s fierce attachment. It could be because Ellie saved her or because she held the draw of a promised elephant encounter. Whatever the reason, Ellie found herself suddenly very smitten and protective of the girl.

“Somebody’s got a fan,” Cam chuckled.

The feeling was mutual. The kid was quickly easing her way into Ellie’s heart. She was so small and precious. How could she not? “Can you do the exam while she sits in my lap?”

She wanted Charlotte to get the medical care to make sure she was all right, but she didn’t want the little girl more stressed than necessary. Poor thing had a tough enough day as it was.

Jayla glanced at her partner, who nodded with a shrug. “We can do most of it right here. Is that okay with you, Charlotte?”

The tiny head bobbed up and down, her grip easing on Ellie’s shirt.

“I’m going to use this light to check your eyes, okay?”

Charlotte nodded. “That’s an otoscope,” the girl announced proudly.

Her eyebrows rose. Someone was certainly smart. She shared a shocked look with Jayla.

“That’s right, Charlotte. Now, can you follow my finger with just your eyes?”

Charlotte sat like a perfect angel in her lap as the EMTs ran through their list of checks. Halfway through the examination, some commotion beyond the enclosure caught her eye. Tammy, the Zoo’s general manager, had arrived along with a few other department heads. She watched as Tammy identified the teacher—or more likely knew who Mrs. James was thanks to a radio call from Cam—and pulled the harried woman aside to talk.

“Crap, I mean dang,” Cam corrected with a quick glance at Charlotte. “We’re going to have to fill out so much paperwork for this.”

“Am I going to be in trouble for falling in the water?”

Ellie glared at her friend, who winced at the softly uttered question. Pasting on what she hoped was a comforting smile, she glanced down at the sweet child in her lap. “No, sweetie. You did nothing wrong. Though those boys will have to face the consequences of what they did. It’s not nice to push.”

“One time I pushed Molly when she wouldn’t share the trucks and Daddy grounded me from TV for a whole day!”

Hopefully, the boys would get a more severe punishment than loss of television privileges. Today’s incident could have been so much worse. If it hadn’t happened during penguin feeding time, no one would have been out here. Sure, the zoo staff around was always around, but no one would have been in the enclosure, near the pool. Charlotte could have drowned before anyone had time to jump in and—

No!

She had to stop thinking like that. It didn’t happen that way.

“Ma’am, are you okay?”

Jay glanced at her neck, where she could feel her pulse racing a mile a minute. His gloved hands reached out to grab her wrist, checking her heart rate.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re sure?” Worried eyes called her bluff.

“Yes.” Just your run-of-the-mill anxiety caused by the ever-present daily battle she fought with her OCD. No biggie. She took a few deep breaths, reminding herself everything was fine now, and no one had died. The pounding in her chest slowed, heart rate returning to normal even as her anxiety stuck around. She knew from experience it would be there for a while. “I’m good.”

He glanced over at her once more with doubt but nodded. “Okay, we should really give you an exam too, since you were in the water as well.”

Wasn’t the first time she’d jumped in there. She didn’t do it often, but once Bingo had cramped up mid-swim and she jumped in to save the poor old guy. Turned out he’d been fine, and she’d just freaked out a little. Luckily, it had happened after closing time, so no one had borne witness to her ridiculousness.

“Okay, guys, let’s set up over here. I want to get the rescue team in the shot.”

Her head snapped up at the deep, professional sounding voice calling out orders. She groaned in unison with Cam as she glanced across the pool to see News Channel 4’s special reporter and crew setting up their equipment.

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