Kiss an Angel(94)

Cold rain trickled down his neck and blinded his eyes, wind plastered his slicker to his chest, and all the time he worked, he thought about Daisy. You’d better be in that truck, angel. You’d better be keeping yourself safe. Safe for me.



Daisy huddled in the center of Sinjun’s cage with the tiger curled around her and the rain pommeling them through the bars. Alex hadn’t trusted the safety of the trailer in the storm, and he’d told her to go to the truck until the wind abated. She’d been on her way there when she’d heard Sinjun’s wild roar and known the storm had terrified him.

He’d been left outside, exposed to the elements, while the workers attended to the big top. At first she’d stood in front of the cage, but the lashing of the wind and rain made it hard to stay upright. He grew frantic when she tried to find some shelter beneath the cage, and that left her with no other choice but to climb inside with him.

Now he curled around her like a big old * cat. She felt the vibration of his quiet breathing through her back, and the warmth from his body drove out the chill. As she huddled closer against his fur, she felt nearly as peaceful as she’d been only hours before when she lay in Alex’s arms.



Daisy wasn’t in his truck.

She wasn’t in the trailer.

Alex ran through the lot, frantically searching for her. What had she done this time? Where had she gone? Damn it, this was all his fault! He knew how scatterbrained she could be, and he should have watched her better. The moment the storm broke, he should have carried her to the truck and tied her to the wheel.

He’d always prided himself on having a cool head in a crisis, but now he couldn’t think. The storm had eased soon after they’d gotten the top down, and he’d spent a few minutes making a cursory check for damage. Some flying debris had hit the windshield of one of the trucks, and a concession wagon had overturned. They had some ripped nylon, but they didn’t seem to have suffered any serious harm, so he set out to find her. When he’d reached his truck, however, she hadn’t been there, and that was when his panic had set in.

Why hadn’t he watched her better? She was too fragile for this life, too trusting. God, don’t let anything happen to her.

On the other side of the lot, he saw a flash of light, but one of the semis blocked his view. As he ran toward it, he heard Daisy’s voice and his muscles went weak with relief. He rushed around the front of the semi and thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life than the sight of her holding a flashlight and directing two of the workmen as they loaded Sinjun’s cage into the back of the menagerie truck.

He wanted to shake her for frightening him so badly, but he resisted the urge. It wasn’t her fault that he’d turned into a lily-livered wimp.

As she caught sight of him, her mouth curled in a smile so full of delight that warmth spread all the way to his toes. “You’re safe! I was so worried about you.”

He cleared his throat and took a calming breath. “Need some help?”

“I think we’ve just about got it.” She scrambled into the truck.

Although he wanted nothing so much as to carry her back to the trailer and love her until morning, he understood her well enough by now to know that no amount of bullying on his part would get her out of that truck until she’d made certain all the animals under her charge were safely tucked in for the night. If he let her, she’d probably read them a bedtime story.

She finally emerged and, without a moment’s hesitation, stretched out her arms and threw herself off the top of the ramp into his arms. As he caught her against his chest, he decided this was what he liked the most about her. The way she didn’t hesitate. She’d known he’d catch her, no matter what.

“Did you stay in the truck during the storm?” He planted a rough, desperate kiss in her wet hair.

“Ummm . . . I stayed warm, I’ll tell you that.”

“Good. Let’s get back to the trailer. Both of us could use a hot shower.”

“First I need to—”

“Check on Tater. I’ll come with you.”

“Don’t glower at him this time.”

“I never glower.”

“Last time you glowered. It hurt his feelings.”

“He doesn’t have—”

“He does, too, have feelings.”

“You spoil him.”

“He’s spirited, not spoiled. There’s a big difference.”

He gave her a pointed look. “Believe me, I know all about the difference between spirited and spoiled.”

“Are you implying—”

“It’s a compliment.”

“It doesn’t sound like one.”

He bickered with her all the way to the elephant trailer, but not for one moment did he let go of her hand. And not for one moment could he manage to wipe the smile from his face.





18




During the months of June and July, Quest Brothers Circus reached the heart of its tour, winding its way west through the small towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Sometimes they followed the rivers, large and small: the Allegheny and the Monongahela, the Hocking, Scioto, and Maumee. They played the little towns that the big show had forgotten: coal-mining towns with empty mines, steel towns that had been abandoned by the mills, factory towns where the plants had closed. Big industry might have forgotten the everyday people of Pennsylvania and Ohio, but Quest Brothers remembered, and the show traveled on.