CHAPTER 9
Aoife hoped Elliot didn't have any ambitions to be an actor. She'd never heard such a stilted delivery of a line. But hehadunderstood what she was suggesting, and after he'd been gone a few minutes, she moved over to the side, hoping to go unnoticed as she took her radio and called in a request for a golf cart. Her radio crackled as someone said they'd send one over, and Molly appeared at her side like magic.
"I thought you said Elliott was gonna get us a cart."
"It's going to rain," Aoife said in a slight panic. "I wanted to get you and your mam into shelter as fast as possible."
Molly looked at the sky, whichwaspretty thick with heavy grey clouds. "Nah. It never rains when I'm out doing stuff."
"Is that even possible?" Aoife was from Cork, Ireland. She knew that meant she was, perhaps, accustomed to a somewhat unusual amount of rain. At least by the standards of people who lived in places where there was more than a few stray whales between themselves and the far-off western horizon.
Molly shrugged. "Sure, because that's how it is."
Aoife had to wonder if the Collins actually had people who appeared with umbrellas to hold over their heads, but maybe itwas just possible the kid had never been rained on. Maybe she spent very little time outside. Maybe they lived in Arizona. Aoife didn't know. "All the more reason to keep you dry, then."
To her relief, somebody pulled up with a golf cart just then. Not, unfortunately, one of the larger ones. Doug looked at it, looked at the women, and said, "I'll walk," in a tone that seemed both chivalrous and as if he'd wanted to walk in the first place. Since he was the one who'd mentioned that it wasn't really very far, Aoife reckoned it was some of both.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. She wanted to waste some time to make sure Elliott could get back to, and into, the enclosure, but there didn't seem to be much excuse as Hippie Girl scrambled into the passenger side front seat and the Collins climbed into the back.
Graham, who looked much less enthusiastic about the idea, but evenlessdelighted with the idea of squeezing in with the Collins, said, "I'll walk, too," and caught up with Doug, who'd already headed out. Aoife thought about pointing out that they might not really even need to go, but they seemed determined to be where Ms. Collins was, so figured she'd lose the argument.
It really wasn't all that far, and in the golf cart, it was only a few minutes' drive. Molly kept up a monologue that her mother wasn't listening to, and Hippie Girl leaned toward Aoife to murmur, "So why did you send Elliott ahead of us if you were going to call for a golf cart? I saw all that back-and-forthing you did," she said before Aoife could protest that she'd done no such thing.
"I, uh…sorry, I didn't catch your name?" Aoife couldn't think of any other explanation, so hoped distraction would be the ticket out of this conversation.
"Kanvas. With a K."
"Kan—really? Sorry." Aoife winced. "You must get that all the time."
"Literally all the time," Kanvas agreed. "So you and Elliott, is that serious? I mean, I don't think you were sending him off because you didn't want him flirting with me, because the man only has eyes for you, but, you know, I'm willing to hope you wanted a chance to flirt with me yourself. You wereextremelyhot back there."
"Oh. Thank you. Just doing my job. And no, I'm sorry, Elliott and I are…" Strangers, Aoife told herself. She'd met the man this morning. "I'd say it's not exactly defined yet, but it's intense."
"Maaaaan." Kanvas leaned back in her seat. "All the good ones are always taken. So how'd you two meet?"
"Um, on the job," Aoife said cautiously.
"He must be a hell of an animal wrangler," Kanvas said admiringly. "The way he handled those bison earlier, I mean, damn. I mean, not that I saw anything, because that must have been all kinds of, what, illegal?"
"Well, dangerous for most people, at least, but he has an unusual insight into animal behavior," Aoife said, straight-faced, although her attempt at solemnity fell apart into a graceful smile. "And yeah, we’d be in loads of trouble of that got out, so if you don’t mindnottalking about it...well, in that case, the thing we didn’t see reallywasimpressive, wasn't it? So what do you do?"
"Wander around and look at zoos." Kanvas smiled as they pulled up to the lion enclosure. "And look at that. There's the lion!"
Aoife managed to park the golf cartbeforean excited Molly went tumbling out of it. Her mother stayed put, which made Aoife's head want to explode, but she and Kanvas got out to follow Molly, who ran at top speed to the enclosure and mashed herself against the glass.
Elliott, Aoife had to admit, was anincrediblyhandsome lion. She'd noticed that this morning, but had been too busyflipping out over the entire inadequate enclosure/shapeshifting man thing to really appreciate it. Now, however, he was stalking around the space like he owned it, showing off his sleek feline body and tossing his thick, dark mane. When Molly crashed into the enclosure's glass plate walls, his gaze snapped to her and he twisted and leaped all in a single motion, landing a few feet away from the wall.
Molly squealed gleefully. Kanvas, however, clutched for Aoife's hand. "Holy crap. Is that safe? I mean, can it hold him?"
"There's no danger of him escaping," Aoife replied, which wasn't really a direct answer to the question, but was true. Elliott flattened himself, tail lashing, and watched Molly as she ran back and forth giggling.
"I want to pet him! He looks like he needs pets! I bet he'd like to have his tummy rubbed!"
"Absolutely not. And if you start crying I'll—" Aoife took a deep breath. 'Feed you to him' was not a suitable thing to say, even if she wanted to. "I'll have you escorted to the entrance immediately. I'm tired of it, and you're old enough to control yourself."
Molly gaped at her. Aoife held her gaze, unwilling to be terrorized by an ill-mannered tweenager. Elliott rose to pace along the glass, distracting Molly and earning Aoife's unending gratitude.
"How long have you been working here?" Kanvas asked in a hushed voice, like she might disturb the big cat. Elliott actually looked like he was having fun playing with Molly from the other side of the glass, but Aoife appreciated her efforts to not distract him.
