Unexpected Sparks by Gina Dartt

Author:Gina Dartt [Dartt, Gina L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781602823662
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
Published: 2006-07-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Heading toward the police station after work to drop off her résumé, Nikki took the time to enjoy the fresh layer of snow on the ground, the intense blue of the sky overhead, and the sheer joy of being alive and in love. Kate was constantly in her mind, and a quick glance at her watch told Nikki that her love, along with her best friend, would be at the funeral home now. Nikki had detected some wariness in Susan the night before, but she was undoubtedly worried about her “straight” friend becoming romantically involved with a woman. She couldn’t blame Susan for that. In her shoes, she’d probably be worried as well, and all she could do was hope that Susan would eventually understand how much she truly loved Kate.

In any event, Susan would be heading back to the city later that afternoon, and Nikki began to plan for the evening. The heated kisses and caresses they had shared in the stairwell of Kate’s building the night before did little to compensate for having to spend their night in their separate cold and lonely beds, deprived of each other’s company. They would have to make up for it later.

Striding past Kiwanis Park where ducks crowded about the thawed outlet of an ice-covered pond, Nikki watched as the vigorous creatures waddled about the frozen reeds, searching for food. Though a large sign instructed people not to feed the ducks, well-meaning animal lovers over the years had ignored it and had ended up disrupting the normal migration patterns of the flock. Nikki considered that no duck in his right mind was going to fly thousands of miles overland, dodging buckshot and predators, when he could settle into a nice northern town pond with shelter and all the free food he could eat, plus several other ducks to keep him company.

Now the town was stuck with the animals, having to continue to feed them through the winter or have them starve to death en masse in the park, which would outrage the animal-loving taxpayers, most of whom had caused the problem in the first place. These ducks were doomed never to leave town, Nikki knew, because they had essentially become domesticated. Worst of all, the population never seemed to diminish, the permanent settlers laying eggs every spring to produce a new generation that contained a certain percentage of birds that also refused to migrate south in the winter.

She could easily imagine herself and Kate sitting on a park bench some lazy summer evening, watching those same ducks and the dance of fireflies, and she laughed at herself, already seeing herself growing old with Kate. We haven’t even managed to get through this first week, she reminded herself as she crested the hill and started the incline toward the downtown core. But her niggling doubt didn’t stop her from dreaming, and she scarcely noticed the cold weather as she neared the central part of town.

Nikki had almost reached the police station when a familiar car passed her, and suddenly, she focused on something other than her new relationship.

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