Page 27 of 40 and (So Over) Fixing It
“Uh, Dad?”
Caaaaaaaw!The peacock’s shrill cry filled the air, a screeching sound that had Carter jerking back.
Caaaaaaaw! Pop. Pop. Pop. Caaaaaaaw!
He reached for his phone, part of his brain wondering why he was moving so slowly. It wasn’t as if a sudden movement was going to make this crazy—and Carter was pretty sure it was crazy—bird any angrier.
“Let’s just see where Erin is,” he told Thad.
“Uh-huh.”
He pulled up his texts and scrolled to find Erin’s number, keeping the bird in his peripheral vision.
Clicking on Erin’s name distracted Thad from his fascination with the peacock. “Do you have Erin’s phone number?”
Oops. “Uh, yeah. JD gave it to me.” Thad didn’t need to know that he’d had it awhile instead of just getting it this morning.
He shot Erin a quick text.
Carter: What the heck is wrong with this bird?
It took a moment, but then he saw the three bouncing dots as Erin replied.
Erin: Don’t get out of the car! Wait for me.
Well that didn’t sound good. He gave the still-pecking, crying bird another wary look. “Erin says to wait in the car,” he told Thad.
Thad watched carefully as the peacock began a slow circle of the SUV. “Prolly a good idea,” he said.
A minute later the front door of the cottage opened, and Erin stomped out onto the porch. He could hear her boots banging on the wood, and the look on her face— He would’ve laughed if he wasn’t slightly terrified of what the damn bird was gonna do to her, a fear that got stronger when the peacock immediately raised its head and turned toward her. The fear turned to laughter when the bird ran, its feathers still in a full-body spread but wobbling uncontrollably back and forth, body waddling like a duck on steroids, toward its owner. Thad burst out laughing too, clutching his belly as the bird took flight, bypassing the stairs by a couple of feet to get to Erin. And then it put its head down and pushed its body against Erin’s leg, rattling its feathers as if shaking off water.
“What’s it doing?” Thad asked.
“I’m not sure.” The animal almost reminded him of a cat claiming its owner, except it wasn’t rubbing along Erin’s leg. More like trying to knock her over. “We’ll ask Erin when it’s safe to get out.”
They waited while Erin put what looked like some bird seed in a bowl at one end of the porch. When the peacock turned his attention to the food, Erin hurried down the steps toward the SUV.
“Sorry about that,” she said, a bit breathless as she pulled herself into the truck. “Willard is a bit possessive.”
Willard?
It was Thad who asked, echoing Carter’s thoughts.
“Yeah.” She shook her head, her thick ponytail swinging back and forth against her shoulders. “He belongs to my father-in-law, but he’s decided for some reason that he’s in love with me. Peacocks are highly territorial.”
The pieces gradually snapped together in Carter’s mind—Willard, possessive, boyfriend. When they finally made sense, he couldn’t hold back a groan.
“What?” Erin asked, eyeing him.
“JD warned us about Willard.”
Thad piped up. “He didn’t say he was a bird, though.”
No, no he didn’t. Bastard.
In an effort to avoid further discussion—and avoid the sense of Erin’s heat, her scent and energy taking over the small space between them—Carter threw over his shoulder, “Buckle up, bud.” When he glanced back to be sure his son was complying, he noticed a smirk on Erin’s face. He wasn’t about to ask what that was for—he was too sure he already knew.
Wait, had she said Willard belonged to herfather-in-law?
