wanted Carla’s life filled with joy—not just her wedding. A fist tightened about his chest. If Thierry hurt her he’d—
Mia moved into his field of vision, making him blink. ‘There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs doing to make a wedding successful.’ She pointed her pen at him. ‘Joy and excitement are all well and good, but I figure my job is to keep a level head.’
A level head? That was exactly what he needed.
‘Don’t you believe someone can be quietly enthusiastic?’ she asked.
‘Of course they can. I’m sorry.’ He grimaced. ‘It’s the bride who’s supposed to go loopy, right? Not her brother.’
One of those rare smiles peeped out, making his heart thump.
‘You’re excited for her.’ Too soon she sobered again. ‘I’m naturally quiet. It doesn’t mean I’m not invested.’
‘Whereas I’m naturally gregarious.’ It was what made him so good at his job. ‘I sometimes forget that not everyone else is.’
‘Do you still want to see the lily pond?’
‘Yes, please.’ He spoke as gravely as she did. ‘My seeing the lily pond is not dependent on you being exuberant.’
He could have sworn that her lips twitched—for the briefest of moments. It sent a rush of something warm and sweet surging through his veins. He was glad he’d had a chance to meet her on his own. Carla had spoken of her often enough to make his ears prick up. It had been a long time since Carla had made a new female friend.
The question he needed to answer now, though—was Carla more than just a job to Mia? He’d give his right arm for Carla to have a girlfriend with whom to plan her wedding. And whatever the two of them dreamed up—schemed up—he’d make happen.
When he glanced back he found Mia staring at a point beyond him. He swung around to see an emu enclosure...and an emu sitting on the ground in the dirt. He glanced back to find her chewing her lip. ‘Is that emu okay?’ They did sit down, right?
She hesitated. ‘Do you mind...?’ She gestured towards the fence.
‘Not at all.’
‘Hey, Charlie—come on, boy!’ Mia rattled the fence and the emu turned to stare, but when he didn’t otherwise move she pulled out her phone. ‘Janis? It’s Mia. Charlie is looking decidedly under the weather. Can you send someone out to check on him?’ Her lips pressed together as she listened to the person at the other end. ‘He’s sitting down and not responding to my calls.’ She listened some more. ‘But—’
She huffed out a breath and he could see her mentally counting to five.
‘Right. If that’s the best you can do.’ She snapped the phone shut and shoved it back into her pocket.
‘You’re worried about him?’
One slim shoulder lifted. ‘Charlie’s been hand-raised. He’s a social bird. Normally he’d be over here, begging for a treat. Everyone who works here is fond of him.’
Dylan glanced across at the emu. ‘You want to go and give him the once over?’
She glanced around, as if to check that no one had overheard him. ‘Would you mind?’
‘Not at all.’
‘It should only take me a moment. I just want to make sure he doesn’t have something caught around his legs. Discarded plastic bags are the bane of our existence—they seem to blow in from everywhere.’
‘I don’t mind at all.’
Besides, he wanted her full attention once Carla arrived. He wanted her focussed on wedding preparations—not worrying about Charlie the Emu.
She moved towards a gate in the fence and unlocked it with a key she fished out from one of the many pockets of her khaki cargo pants.
She glanced back at him apologetically. ‘I have to ask you to remain on this side of the fence. It’s actually against the law for me to take you in with me.’
‘Believe me, I’m happy to stay on this side of the fence, but...’ he glanced across at Charlie ‘...that emu is huge. What if he attacks you?’
He couldn’t in all conscious just stand here and do nothing.
‘He won’t hurt me. I promise.’
‘In that case I promise to stay on this side of the fence.’
Nevertheless, he found his heart pounding a little too hard as she slipped into the enclosure and made her way towards the giant bird. She ran a soothing hand down its neck, not in the least intimidated by its size. He reminded himself that she was trained to deal with these animals, but he didn’t take his eyes from her.
Slipping her arms beneath the bird, she lifted it to its knees, and Dylan could see something wrapped tight around its ankles. The poor bird was completely tangled! He watched in admiration as she deftly unwound it, shoving the remnants into her pocket. The entire time she crooned soothingly to the emu, telling him what a good boy he was and how pretty he was. Charlie leaned into her as much as he could, trusting her completely.
Finally she placed her arms beneath him with a cheery, ‘Up we come, Charlie.’
The emu gave a kind of strangled beep before a stream of something green and vicious-looking shot out of the back of him, splattering all over the front of Mia’s shirt. Only then did the bird struggle fully to its feet and race off towards a water trough. Mia stumbled backwards, a comical look of surprise on her face. She turned towards Dylan, utterly crestfallen and...and covered in bird poop.
Dylan clapped a hand over his mouth to hold back a shout of laughter. Don’t laugh! An awful lot of women he knew would have simply burst into tears. If he laughed and then she cried he’d have to comfort her...and then he’d end up with bird poop all over him too.
Mia didn’t cry. She pushed her shoulders back and squelched back over to the gate in the fence with as much dignity as she could muster. Still, even she had to find it difficult to maintain a sense of dignity when she was covered in bird poop.
She lifted her chin, as if reading that thought in his face. ‘As you can see, Charlie left me a little present for my pains.’
He swallowed, schooling his features. ‘You did a very good deed, Mia.’
‘The thing is, when an emu gets stressed, the stress can result in...’ she glanced down at herself, her nose wrinkling ‘...diarrhoea.’
‘God, I’m so glad those birds can’t fly!’
The heartfelt words shot out of him, and Mia’s lips started to twitch as if the funny side of the situation had finally hit her.
Dylan couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. ‘I’m sorry, Mia. You deserve better, but the look on your face when it happened... It was priceless!’
She grinned, tentatively touching the front of her shirt. ‘That rotten bird!
