"But Mooooooommmmm!"
"I said now, Molly!"
Molly sulked back to the golf cart while Kanvas and the two businessmen exchanged glances. "We'll walk the rest of the way back, Ms. Collins," Doug said. "We don't want to crowd you."
"I think I'll take the rest of the tour on my own," Kanvas said pleasantly. "Or if you could catch up with me, Aoife? I'll head back around to the pond and meet you there?"
"Give me ten minutes," Aoife promised, and with a pang of guilt, got into the cart, knowing she was leaving Elliott as a lion for the rest of the day.
Molly, realizing Kanvas wasn’t joining them, leaned forward and whispered, “Could I sit in the front with you, Oif—Eefah?”
Pure astonishment made Aoife’s eyebrows lift as the little girl actually made an effort to get her name right, and she found herself smiling at the kid. “Yeah, of course. That’d be fine with me. You looked like you were having a lot of fun playing with the lionsafely.”
Molly scrambled into the front seat, her mother paying no attention at all. “It was a nice lion. I still think it would have liked to have its belly rubbed.”
Aoife sighed. “It might have, chicken. But lions have pretty strict boundaries, and if you break them, they’re really dangerous. I can’t believe they haven’t taught you about boundaries in school.”
“I’m home schooled,” Molly said with a shrug. “I have tutors. I guess they don’t think boundaries are important. None of them stay very long, anyway.”
Aoife bit her lip on the observation that there might be a correlation between Molly’s lack of boundaries and the tutors not staying very long. Instead, a bit of sympathy welling in her, she said, “Do your friends have tutors, too?”
Molly shrugged again. “I don’t have any. All the rest of the kids my age go to school.”
“Oh, man. That sounds rough, chicken. Would you like to go to school?”
“I’m sorry for trying to see the big fluffy buffalos,” Molly mumbled instead of answering directly.
Aoife suspected thatwasan answer, in its way, and felt a little more sorry for the kid. “Tell you what, as long as you remember to never do anything like that again, I’ll forget it ever happened, okay?”
Molly’s eyes went huge. “Really?”
“Really. Promise. Pinky swear.” Aoife offered a pinky, and the tween hooked hers through it.
“I promise I’ll nevereverdo anything like that again,” she said solemnly.
“Then I think you’ll be okay, pet.” Aoife dropped the pair of them off at the gate, watching Ms. Collins storm off with Molly in her wake, and shook her head. Half a day of encountering boundaries, and the kid was starting to straighten up. It was too bad she’d probably never have anybody else tell her no again in her life.
On the other hand, the fact that Molly had apologized at all made a nice cap to the end of the tour, and Aoife went back to her job with a smile.
CHAPTER 10
Elliott wouldn’t have guessed how many visitors the park had over the course of a day. Especially on a day that had gotten all grey and gloomy. But it wasn't actually raining, and for all he knew, that counted as a nice day in Ireland.
It was fun, though. Part of him wanted nothing more than to go be with Aoife and see what was happening. But the truth was that for obvious reasons, he didn't get to spend a lot of time in his lion form, especially in public. Being admired was great, and the lion, which was generally a huge lazy beast, was delighted to pace and prowl and pounce and behave like a great golden goof. There were short breaks where he could laze, although nothing long enough for him to hop out of the enclosure and shift to human form. There kept beingpeoplearound. Not necessarily at his enclosure, but within eyesight, so he was stuck.
Not stuck,his lion said happily.Preening.
That, Elliott had to admit, was absolutely true. So they preened and showed off and enjoyed themselves until the park closed…at which point, all the park employees came over to see the lion on loan. Elliott skulked around, fully aware that a sulky lion was almost as much fun as a playing one, but not quitewilling to actually go into the back of the enclosure to hide. His lion was having too much fun.
Then Aoife arrived, and the lion insisted on showing off. Big stretches, tossing his mane, roaring a few times just for effect. Aoife worked her way around to the edge of the gathered employees so she could watch him better, and leaned on the glass, smiling. Elliott desperately wanted everybody to leave so he could find out how the rest of her day had gone, but no, they were hanging out, chatting, chuckling, and generally not giving a rat's ass that Elliott's fated mate wasright thereand he couldn't talk to her!
A thick man—not fat, really, just solid and the same width from shoulder to hip—went over to Aoife's side and folded his arms across his chest. "I'm going to need that explanation. Everybody was all over the radios all day talking about your friend who rode the bison. I can't even tell you how many safety violations that is, Aoife. Dr. Kelly's asked me to write it off as 'one of those things that happens sometimes,' but it's not. That doesn't happen. The lads at the gate said he was a circus performer. That's mental. So what really happened?"
"Peader." Aoife made a face and glanced into Elliott's enclosure. "I actually only met him today. For all I know, heisa circus performer."
"He jumped on a charging bison from the ground in front of it," this Peader person said with a grimly incredulous note. "That's not a circus performer. That's asuperhero."
"And we're all really lucky nobody was filming it," Aoife said firmly. "Nobody was hurt, and that's what really matters, right? He's certainly not going to do that again."
