Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(30)

“I did. Those are my apps.”

Jen’s jaw dropped. “These are huge! As big as Angry Birds! You must have made millions!”

He tilted his head towards her and didn’t say a word.

Jen could see her reflection in the phone, the ambient sunlight making it look more like a mirror now that the screen had gone dim again. She pulsed her head slightly a few times, her eyes still wide. Are you hearing this? her reflection said.

When her surprise had worn down a bit she said, “Your parents must be very proud of you.”

Coleton looked at her again, his eyes narrowed a little. In suspicion? “You would think so, wouldn’t you?”

“They aren’t?”

“Oh, I suppose my mom is. But I don’t think she really understands it. My dad’s not. He thinks it’s silly what I’m doing. That there’s no purpose to it. No honor.”

Jen gaped. No honor? Did he really just say no honor? She restrained herself from looking into her phone again.

“What does your dad do?”

This time when he looked at her, his eyes were definitely suspicious. “He’s retired,” he said brusquely.

I better lay off the family questions for a bit, Jen thought. “My dad’s dead,” She blurted out, trying to take the focus off her questions.

Coleton’s eyes softened immediately. “Oh Jen, I’m sorry.”

She dropped her eyes, not needing to pretend. “Yeah, thanks. I didn’t really know him very well, but it still hurts.”

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

She looked at him questioningly. He smiled sadly. “Rumi again.”

“What does it mean?”

“To me, it means that the places we’ve been hurt the deepest offer us our greatest chances to understand humility and compassion. And to be close to God, if you believe in him.” He sounded tired, worn-out.

Jen shook her head slightly. He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

“You’re so … deep. How old are you?”

“28.”

“You’re only two years older than me. How are you so …” she hunted for a word. “Self-aware?”

He took her hand. “I’ve been through some horrible things in my past. And I guess I’ve been searching for ways to justify them or be OK with them for a long time.”

She curled her fingers around his, feeling genuinely concerned for him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah, no sob stories on the second date. Are you done eating? I want to show you something.” He pulled his hand away and finished his food in two bites. Jen ate her Pb&M quickly, her curiosity piqued.



***



20 minutes later, after they’d changed into dry clothes, Coleton pulled her by the hand to a non-descript building butting up to the local aquarium. She pulled back for a second, looking at the front of the aquarium longingly. She hadn’t been since she was a child, but she used to love coming here with her mom.

She let Coleton pull her inside where an empty reception counter greeted them. Coleton weaved them around it to a door in the back. Jen wrinkled her nose. “What is this, a veterinarian’s office?” She smelled animals. And fish?

“Kind of. You’ll see.”

He pushed in the next door and called out a name. “Kyle? Are you here?” Jen looked around with interest at the animal cages stacked on top of each other. They were all empty.

A voice drifted to them from behind another door. “Back here Coleton.”

They crossed the room, the smell of fish coming even stronger, and Coleton pushed open the door. Jen immediately forgot all about the smell. “Oh my goodness they are so adorable!” she cried, and dropped to her knees in front of the man who must be Kyle.

He was cross-legged on the floor with a sea lion pup, about the size of a Jack Russell Terrier on his lap, and his back up against a large kennel filled with 20 or so more of the sea lion pups. He was bottle-feeding the one on his lap from an over-sized bottle. The pup snuggled into him and looked at him adoringly with wet black eyes that took up most of its face. Behind him, the rest of the pups climbed all over each other and nipped at his clothing, pulling it through the holes in the chain link. A few made a low stuttering bark, and when they saw Jen they swarmed towards her as much as they could, barking excitedly.


“Jen, this is Kyle. He’s in charge of wildlife rescue in town and he’s been overrun by sea lion pups for the last week. I told him I’d help him feed them today.”

“Hi Kyle,” Jen smiled and reached out to touch the pup on his lap. She pulled her hand back, indecisive. “Is it OK if I pet him?”

“Her. And yes. Rhetta, say hello to Jen.”

Rhetta only had eyes for Kyle though. Jen pet her gently on the back and thought she felt soft and silky, like the soft fur of a puppy’s ear.

“Bottles of slop are on the counter. Only the littlest ones need to be bottle fed. The rest will eat out of a bowl. Grab a bottle and grab a baby.” Kyle nodded to a smaller kennel that held much smaller sea lion pups than the ones behind him. “There’s nothing to it.”

Jen stood up enthusiastically and got her bottle, then made her way to the little kennel. When she opened it, the 6 pups inside rushed her on their awkward fins, yipping and honking excitedly. Jen fell backwards, laughing. One of them got its mouth on her bottle and she pulled it to her, not sure what to do about the others. Coleton picked them off one by one and put them back in the kennel. Then he grabbed his own bottle and settled in to feed the smallest pup.