Free Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) by J.A. Marlow

spilling while
coughing seized her.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN

    THE COUGHS KEPT coming as Rachel reached up to find out what
hit her. Whatever the thing might be, it was still there, making
her head feel heavy. She knew her face must be bright red from the
coughing spasms. She became even more glad for the dim light in the
park.
    "Hold on. Don't panic." Ignacio took the glass
from her and set both next to the picnic basket.
    "I'm not panicking. I just don't like sudden
surprises," Rachel said, sputtering out another cough to clear her
throat.
    He rose to his knees, and soon she could feel
his hands in her hair. She started to ask what it was, expecting a
bat or one of the nocturnal birds of the park. Then she heard a
chirp and a soft thrumming.
    "It's really tangled in here. I'll have to
take out some of the pins," Ignacio said.
    She put her hand down. She couldn't believe
it. "Let me guess. A Mandian flying squirrel?"
    Ignacio's hands paused. "How did you
guess?"
    Her heart sunk lower. Why now? "One white ear
and the other with a small notch in it under the feather
tufts?"
    Ignacio settled on his legs, one hand still in
her hair. "How did you know that?"
    Rachel reached up to the little fur-ball
shaking itself silly with its thrumming to pet the furry back. "May
I introduce Pookie?"
    The squirrel started thrumming even louder,
nestling down even further into what had once been an elegant
hairstyle. Its nimble hands rubbed against her skull as it snuggled
ever deeper into her hair.
    Ignacio stared at her with wide eyes. "Pookie?
Who would name the poor thing Pookie?"
    "The name wasn't supposed to stick!" She
reached up with both hands to try and pry Pookie out, but it
grabbed onto her hair even more. What a day for him to appear.
"Usually I wear a pony tail when I visit and it's not too hard to
get him out."
    Finally she gave up, and Pookie went back to
his happy thrumming. Great, what was she supposed to do now? Go the
rest of the evening with a Mandian flying squirrel cuddled up on
her head?
    An odd muffled noise had her turning to
Ignacio, only to find him trying to smother laughter, and failing
miserably. "Remind me to never let you name any of my
newts."
    "Oh, you're a real help." Then she started
laughing, as well. It was too ridiculous not to. "If you'd told me
we were coming here, I could have warned you."
    "Let me guess, another rescue?" He
asked.
    "Of a sort. He was getting transported back to
his home world to be released and caught a virus. I'm one of the
volunteers who nursed him through. But, with the illness, he
couldn't go back home. He might carry it to the native population."
She reached up to give him another scratch. "So, his permanent home
is here in the refuge."
    "Were you the one who gave the
name?"
    "No, one of the other volunteers!" She said
quickly. Then grinned. "I wanted to name him 'Sunny.'"
    "Not much more imaginative than Pookie." He
warded off her threat to throw a roll at him. "Okay, enough
laughing. How do we get him out?"
    Rachel reached over to pick up her glass.
"We'll wait a few minutes. Sometimes he gets bored and will leave
on his own. It's feeding time anyway."
    Only, Pookie was quite happy where he'd
landed. It made it hard to hold a conversation with Pookie
thrumming away along with the occasional chirping
commentary.
    Ignacio didn't refill her glass when she
finally finished it. He took it and put it in the basket. "I'm
sorry, but I can't talk about newt reintroduction issues while the
guy is staring at me with those satisfied eyes making those noises.
I keep getting the feeling I should close a bedroom
door."
    Rachel laughed. "It's nothing like that.
Pookie thinks I'm one of his moms coming to visit."
    "Either way, Pookie needs to go play with his
kind and eat. How do we get him out of your hair without shaving
you." Ignacio said, clipping closed the flap of the basket. "I
should be giving you those looks, not him."
    She almost collapsed into laughter again.
Ignacio