Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

  Paige looked startled. “Are you okay?”

  Was she okay? No, not really. She needed to talk to Griffin. She wanted to be okay. Part of the whole reason she was here in Autre was to get okay. And that guy was holding her back from that.

  “I’ll be okay,” she told Paige. “But I need to go right now.”

  “Will I see you at otter yoga tomorrow?”

  “Oh, yeah, I think I might need some help finding my Zen by tomorrow.”

  Griffin Foster was definitely messing with her chill.

  * * *

  Charlie stepped out of the bar and started to turn east to head to Griffin’s house. It was a little farther than most of the Landry houses, but it was still within walking distance.

  Of course, just then, she heard thunder overhead. It was a low deep rumble which meant she hopefully still had a few minutes before the rain would start.

  But before she had gone more than a few steps, she stopped. She heard a low voice and immediately smiled.

  “Sugar, we gotta get you home. It’s going to start raining, and I need to get some sleep. We can’t have a date tonight.”

  Griffin was still here. Perfect.

  Thank you, Sugar, you little stalker.

  Charlie pivoted in the direction of his voice, and when she stepped around Zeke’s big truck, she saw Griffin with his hands on his hips looking down at his biggest fan.

  Of course, Sugar wasn’t alone. Stan was there too, as was Mike, the duck, and Hermione, the pig.

  Thunder sounded overhead again, and the pig shrieked.

  “See?” Griffin asked Sugar. “You got Hermione out here, and it’s going to storm. You know how she feels about thunder.”

  Charlie found herself curious about how Hermione felt about thunder. She assumed she wasn’t a fan.

  “Need some help?”

  Griffin turned. He didn’t seem surprised to see her. “I made the mistake of stopping to chat with someone. Sugar heard my voice.”

  Charlie nodded as she approached. “Your voice has that effect on me too.”

  He stepped back as she drew near. “You gotta stop that.”

  “Telling you that I’m attracted to you? It’s not exactly a secret, is it?”

  “Putting it out there all the time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it…”

  She smiled. He wanted to tell her how it affected him. Which probably meant that it affected him in a good way. At least in a way that she would consider good.

  Then she frowned. Clearly, he didn’t think it was good.

  “What is your deal?” she asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’ve been avoiding me for the past few days. And tonight, after I told you how I got fired, you couldn’t wait to get away from me. I have to tell you, Dr. Foster, if you have an issue with what I did to Alan’s car, we are going to have a problem.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. Then he said, “If we have a problem, will you stop being so…”

  Charlie planted her hands on her hips when he trailed off. “Oh, you better finish that sentence.”

  He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “I was going to say tempting. But I don’t think you can stop being tempting.”

  She dropped her hands. Again, he’d surprised her with a compliment. Or at least saying something she considered a compliment. “What does that have to do with the way you hightailed it out of the bar a little bit ago?”

  “It has everything to do with why I left the bar.”

  “After I told you about how I got fired? How was that tempting?”

  “Because the more I learn about you, the more I—”

  The next clap of thunder was much louder and sharper. It made Charlie jump and Hermione squeal. It also made the pig take off toward the road.

  “Dammit!” Griffin immediately started after her.

  Charlie watched them, then looked around, feeling discombobulated. That was unusual. Discombobulated was definitely not a usual state for her.

  But she snapped out of it as Sugar took off after Griffin, and then Mike took off after Sugar. The other goat seemed unconcerned with anything but the patch of grass he was munching on. Charlie cast him a glance, decided he was probably staying put, and that Griffin needed her help more. She took off after the pig, the man, the goat, and the duck.

  Griffin caught up with Hermione after just a few steps. Fortunately, his legs were much longer than hers. He scooped her up, no easy feat considering she weighed well over a hundred pounds and was wiggling and clearly terrified.

  Sugar stopped beside him, looking up and bleating her displeasure over another animal getting the attention she wanted.

  Knowing that the duck would follow Sugar, Charlie bent and scooped the goat up.

  Griffin glanced at her, took in the situation, and started for the barn without a word.

  But they’d only gone a few feet when the skies opened up.

  The rain poured down as if someone had dumped a bucket from the clouds, and Charlie was completely soaked by the time they reached the barn door.

  With his arms full of a wriggling pig, Griffin was unable to slide the door open, so Charlie set Sugar down and slipped in around him to shove the heavy wooden door to the side. She stumbled inside with Griffin right behind her.

  She turned and, sure enough, found the goat and duck right behind them.

  “Stan!” Griffin called. He added a whistle.

  The goat across the road looked up, seemed to realize he was getting wet, and started ambling toward the barn.

  It was a really good thing that the road wasn’t very busy this time of night.

  As Stan strolled into the barn, Griffin slid the door shut behind him. The rest of the animals were already inside for the night. He turned and headed for the back of the barn. Sugar, of course, stayed right next to him, and the duck waddled along beside her. When he reached the final stall, he stepped inside with the pig. The next thing Charlie knew, he disappeared behind the wooden slats.

  Unable to help herself, Charlie headed in that direction to see what he was doing.

  She found him sitting on the floor with Hermione half on the hay beside him and half in his lap. He was gathering more hay around the animal into a little nest and talking to her soothingly.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re fine. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

  Heat bloomed in Charlie’s stomach. She wasn’t scared of storms, but she very much wanted to be held in Griffin Foster’s lap and told that everything was going to be okay. About anything. Or just held in his lap and petted the way he was stroking Hermione’s head and back.

  Sugar knelt next to him on the side opposite Hermione, and the duck settled in next to her.

  “You can come in too.”

  Charlie looked at Griffin.

  He was sitting on the floor of a barn stall with a pig in his lap. His hair was wet, his T-shirt was plastered to his body, and his skin was shiny with the rain. And he looked delicious, competent, calming, and yes, tempting.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “You think Sugar and Hermione will share?”

  Griffin looked down at the pig, then the goat. “If you don’t want to be in my lap.”

  “Oh, I very much want to be in your lap, Dr. Foster.”

  Heat flared in his eyes. He shook his head and seemed to decide not to comment on that directly. “I can’t move Hermione until Sylvester gets here.”

  Charlie thought she knew everyone who worked for Boys of the Bayou. “Sylvester?”

  “Her cat.”

  That was Griffin’s full answer. Charlie tipped her head. “What do you mean, her cat? The pig has a cat?”

  “Well, I suppose Sylvester is maybe more of a friend than a pet. But he’s her comfort animal.”

  Griffin chuckled at what had to be the you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look Charlie was giving him.

  “Sylvester wandered into the barn one night as a kitten. The next morning we fo
und him curled up next to Hermione. He was pretty sick, and we weren’t sure he was going to make it, but Hermione got very upset when we tried to take him out of her pen. So I did an exam and gave him some medicine and food and water right here in her stall. He bounced back and is perfectly healthy now, and they still are best friends. He sleeps in here with her every night, and we’ve noticed that when he is here with her on stormy nights, she’s much calmer than she was before.”

  Charlie looked at the pig, who was being petted like a lapdog by the handsome vet. She was jealous of having that big hand running up and down the pig’s body. “Why is she scared of storms?”

  “We’re not really sure why, but storms and particularly thunder make her anxious. Tori brought her here from Iowa. I guess she’s always been this way.”

  Wow. Charlie shook her head. She was good at a lot of things. She knew a lot of things. There were very few situations that really threw her for a loop. But all of this animal stuff was definitely new territory.

  She’d always considered herself an animal lover, but they hadn’t had pets growing up. She and her sisters had wanted a dog, but their parents had said it wouldn’t be fair to the animal since they were all so busy and gone a lot.

  Her dose of dogs and cats had come—as had all really special things in her life—from her trips to the bayou. And now that animals, and definitely nothing as normal as cats and dogs, were part of her daily life here in Autre, she found herself fascinated.

  The story about Hermione and Sylvester also reminded her of what Lisa had just told her and Paige about Morgan.

  “Just now, a mom came over to tell Paige that being at otter yoga had helped her daughter open up for the first time since her grandfather died.”

  Griffin simply nodded.

  “I mean, of course, I know about comfort animals. I’ve heard stories about dogs that can tell when their owner is going to have a diabetic episode or seizure. I know there are cats in nursing homes that comfort patients as they pass away. But I’ve never really thought about it beyond, ‘wow, that’s really nice,’ But it’s a real thing, huh?”

  “It’s definitely a real thing.” Griffin looked down at Hermione and patted her side. “Animals won’t judge you. Animals are loving, and loyal, and trusting. Even when the human they’re loving and trusting doesn’t deserve it. There’s nothing quite as humbling as having another living being depend on you and fully trust you to take care of them.” Griffin lifted his head to look at Charlie. “I find people who understand and love animals to be more understanding and loving of humans as well.”

  That made sense, of course. Being able to be empathetic toward any other living thing could clearly extend to all living things.

  “You seem much more loving toward animals than toward humans,” Charlie couldn’t help but point out.

  “Animals deserve it more,” he said without hesitation. “They’re easier. They don’t have agendas, they’re not selfish, and they don’t say one thing and do another. Animals have simple needs that are easy to understand and meet.”

  Charlie studied him. “You know, if you want me to quit talking about being attracted to you and putting it ‘out there,’ you need to stop being so attractive.”

  He gave a soft chuckle, and Charlie felt her body warm. It wasn’t exactly desire. At least not in the sexual sense. But it was pleasure at having made him laugh and a desire to make it happen again.

  “I’ve just been drenched by rain, and I’m sitting on the floor of a barn with a pig in my lap,” Griffin said. “How’s this attractive?”

  “I don’t totally understand it either.”

  Chapter 11

  That wasn’t true. Charlie completely understood what was attractive about Griffin Foster.

  “Okay, I lied. It’s how upfront you are about how you feel about things. It’s how passionate and caring you are. And it’s how you know who you are and what you want.”

  He didn’t answer for several seconds.

  Charlie took the opportunity to join him in the stall. She really wanted to know more about this guy. This seemed like as good as a time as any to dig a little. He clearly wasn’t going anywhere for a while—at least until Sylvester showed up.

  She pulled the door open to the stall and stepped inside. She looked around for a moment, wondering where she should actually sit. She chose a spot across from him so she could look at him.

  Charlie leaned back against the side of the stall the way Griffin was and stretched her legs out, crossed her ankles, and folded her hands in her lap. Her feet didn’t quite reach his boots.

  They weren’t touching at all, but inside the barn, alone, with the rain pounding on the roof, it felt intimate.

  “We have that in common,” he finally said after she was settled.

  “We do?”

  “You know who you are and what you want.”

  She nodded.

  Well, she was pretty sure she knew what she wanted. She knew her ultimate goals. She was just having trouble formulating a plan to get to them. “We both also say what we mean.”

  “I guess that means I’m supposed to appreciate it when you comment on being attracted to me?”

  “Exactly.” She grinned at him.

  He didn’t respond to that.

  After a few quiet seconds, she asked, “Have you always wanted to be a vet?”

  He shook his head. “No. That’s not how I started out, anyway. I grew up in love with animals. My parents were huge animal lovers. We had all kinds of pets.”

  Griffin rested his head against the wall behind him, and his hand stroked rhythmically over Hermione’s back again. The pig seemed completely relaxed now, and Charlie couldn’t blame her.

  “I went to college, studied biology, figured I’d become a park ranger or a game warden. But in my second biology class, I met Kamali. He was from Zimbabwe and was heading to Zambia for the summer to work on a wildlife preserve.”

  “You went along?”

  “I did and ended up staying for a year.”

  “Wow.”

  He nodded. “The elephants were the first to win me over, but I also just fell in love with the whole idea of wildlife conservation and keeping the animals protected in their own environment. I had planned to stay there indefinitely.”

  “What happened?”

  “My parents were killed in a car accident, and my little brother needed someone at home.”

  Charlie gave a little gasp. Okay, she hadn’t expected an answer like that. “Oh, Griffin.”

  Griffin was looking down at the animals now. “He was only sixteen, and I was twenty-one, so I was able to become his legal guardian. He could have gone to live with our grandparents, but I couldn’t just stay that far away, knowing that his whole world had been turned upside down.”

  Charlie stared at him. She had been fascinated by his rough exterior from the beginning, but she never guessed what was behind it. He’d given up his dream to take care of his brother. That was… okay, sexy. But it was also so in character. Which struck her as an odd realization. Did she know him well enough to think that?

  But yeah, it definitely fit.

  She swallowed hard and resisted the urge to crawl over and hug him. And maybe push Hermione out of the way so she could curl up in his lap. “I’m really sorry about your parents.”

  He gave a short nod. “Thanks. It’s been nine years, so it’s a little better now.”

  “You have just one brother?”

  “Yeah, Donovan is actually a wildlife rehabilitation expert.” He said it with a noticeable touch of pride.

  “What does that mean?”

  “He helps rehabilitate sick or injured wildlife and return them to their natural environment whenever possible. His expertise is big cats, cougars, and bobcats, for instance. But he works with wolves and bears and eagles and just about anything. Right now, he’s in North Carolina, but he travels extensively.”

  She smiled. It was clear that Griffin loved his brother. “That’s pre
tty great that you share that passion for animals.”

  He lifted a shoulder. “It’s nice to have anything in common. Things were pretty rocky when I first came back after Mom and Dad died.” He looked up and met her eyes. “I tried my best to be there for him, but he got into partying heavily. A lot of drinking. He’s a recovered alcoholic.”

  Charlie could tell Donovan’s hard times had hurt Griffin too. He was loving and sweet under all of that gruff exterior. And she’d never wanted another man the way she wanted Griffin.

  “So you ended up in vet school when you came back?”

  He nodded. “Eventually. I finished my bio degree while Donovan finished high school. Then after he graduated from high school and was doing well in counseling, I decided I could take the time. I went to vet school while he went to college. He double-majored in biology and ecology.”

  “And then you went to a zoo so you could work with elephants and lions and zebras like in Zambia?”

  “I worked in a regular old veterinary clinic for about a year. A friend from school called me about a job at the zoo in Omaha, but I initially turned it down. I didn’t like the idea of animals in captivity. They should be wild. But she kept after me. She convinced me that I would be in a position to help protect them from any mistreatment and could help ensure that being in captivity was safe and healthy for them. And, of course, that I could be a part of protecting vulnerable animal species. Sometimes captivity is the best place to keep them and certainly the best place to try growing populations that are in danger.”

  Charlie nodded. “And there’s something to be said for having a place where people can learn about animals and observe them and even interact at times, isn’t there? That’s the best way to get people interested in protecting species and doing what they can for conservation, isn’t it?”

  “Sounds like a pretty good marketing brochure.”

  Charlie frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

  He shrugged. “My brother says similar things. That you have to educate people before they’ll care, and they have to care before they’ll put their time and effort and money into things.”

  “He’s right.”