Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

  She swallowed hard. “Me too,” she admitted.

  She could tell from his expression that he understood what that meant. Not only was she happy with how things turned out, but she wanted to stay and keep doing this.

  “I think I’m even glad that I got fired from the National Zoo.”

  And she understood that that meant a lot. He was now glad to be here. And from the look on his face, she thought that might have more than a little to do with her.

  She wasn’t sure what to say exactly, so instead, she went on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him down for a long, sweet kiss.

  When she finally let him go, she said, “And later tonight, at your place, you can practice your lemur lecture on me.”

  “Unless that’s a very strange innuendo, that was not at all what I was thinking about us doing at my place later tonight,” Griffin said.

  “Oh?” Charlie asked. “Because I was thinking that every time you tell me a fact about lemurs that I don’t already know, I’ll take a piece of clothing off.”

  His brows went up. “How much do you know about lemurs?”

  “I have been reading up about them,” she said. “But I was also thinking that every time you tell me something about lemurs that I do already know, you’ll take a piece of clothing off.”

  “Strip lemur lecturing,” Griffin said thoughtfully. “I could get into this.”

  “You’ll maybe even want to start doing more lectures,” she said innocently. She started to step around him. “I’m sure there are some things that I don’t know about sloths, and otters, and alpacas, and ostriches, and porcupines.”

  Griffin turned to follow her to the barn door. “We don’t have any porcupines.”

  “No, but Fiona does. And I don’t know much about them.”

  She reached for the door, but Griffin caught her around the waist, his big hand splayed across her belly as he pressed her back into him. He put his mouth against her neck, sliding his stubbled jaw up and down the sensitive skin, before saying gruffly in her ear, “And of course, you found a way to make me even want to do public lectures now.”

  She gave a happy sigh and leaned into him. “Is that a yes about the porcupine?”

  “Maybe. But I think I’ll have to come up with a different game that you’ll have to play whenever you want to add a new animal to our collection,” Griffin said.

  That sounded like a fabulous idea. “Oh, yes, please tell me more, Dr. Foster.”

  Griffin groaned and let her go. But he was grinning widely as he pulled the door open and ushered her out of the barn.

  “You know I can’t resist you. We’re going to have a freaking elephant, eventually aren’t we?”

  She loved his use of the word ‘we’ and the idea of an ongoing, sexy game between them. She stepped through the door. “Oh, I don’t know. That’s a lot. But… maybe a camel? Or two?”

  He groaned again but then said, “You better keep up with that otter yoga then. I’ve got elephant-sized plans for you.”

  Charlie stumbled slightly at that, and Griffin caught her with a hand under her elbow.

  He gave her a knowing look.

  “I’m just always surprised when you tease,” she said. “It’s so unlike you.”

  He lifted a brow. “I wasn’t teasing.”

  Charlie felt a shiver of pleasure dance through her. It was a combination of desire and pure contentment. She was willing to do anything that made Griffin happy. But playful too?

  Oh yeah, one of these days, she was going to have to let him in on all the things she’d be willing to do to get a kangaroo.

  Chapter 16

  “Did you know that lemurs will lay around in the morning and bask in the sun? It’s even a group activity.”

  Fiona laughed. “Yes, I did know that. In fact, I’ve witnessed it many times.”

  Charlie grinned at her computer screen, where she had Fiona on a video call. They’d started making this a more regular thing over the past two weeks. Charlie had lots of questions about lemurs and sloths, for one thing. She had to study up for the strip lecture series that Griffin had going at his house twice a week.

  Fiona was also very interested in all of the new community activities they had going.

  “And did you know that the word lemur means ‘shadow tail’ in Greek?” Charlie asked.

  Fiona was amused by the facts she was picking up, and so Charlie always shared a couple with her when they started their calls.

  “Actually, that’s not true,” Fiona said with a tiny frown. “I think that’s squirrels. Lemur is Latin for ‘spirits of the night.’”

  Charlie frowned. “You sure?”

  “Completely sure,” Fiona said. “Where did you learn that?”

  “Griffin told me.” After which, she’d had to remove her final piece of clothing—her panties.

  “Griffin told you that?”

  “Yeah, when we were… working on his presentation.”

  Fiona knew that Griffin was doing a weekly presentation during the Lunch with the Lemurs but didn’t, of course, know exactly how Charlie helped him prepare.

  Charlie’s eyes narrowed. Every time Griffin told her a fact about lemurs she didn’t know, she had to remove clothing. Would he have lied to get her panties off?

  But she knew instantly the answer to that was yes, definitely.

  They’d both been down to their underwear in their game of strip lecture preparation, and as soon as she’d been completely naked, he’d put her up on the dining room table and made her very happy to be completely naked.

  The game truly was a win-win, but she couldn’t believe that he’d cheated.

  Oh, tonight she was getting him back. And it would be just as fun being the winner as it was when she was the loser.

  “So the Lunch with Lemurs is going well?” Fiona asked.

  Charlie focused on her new friend again. “Yes, and so is Sloth Storytime.” She grinned. “I’m not sure the kids heard every word of the story because they were pretty fascinated by the sloth, who was also listening, but we had a really good turnout, and all the moms seemed thrilled.” Charlie laughed. “Of course, that might’ve been in part because Fletcher was the one reading the story. He has an interesting fan club. Everyone from four-year-olds to about forty-four-year-olds.” She shook her head. “Scratch that. I’m pretty sure the one grandma who brought her grandkids is at least seventy-four, and she was pretty enamored with him too.”

  Fiona laughed. “I cannot imagine a person not being enamored with Fletcher.”

  Charlie nodded. “Yeah, he’s pretty cute with those kids. Growing up, I never would have believed that he would become a teacher, but he is really awesome.”

  “And very hot,” Fiona said.

  Charlie rolled her eyes. She had been hearing how “hot” her cousins were since she’d been about thirteen. She, of course, didn’t see them that way, and it was often strange to hear her friends talking about them.

  “I thought it was Zeke you thought was hot,” Charlie said.

  “Oh, Zeke is very hot. He clearly likes to push buttons. And Zander,” Fiona added. “He’s very sexy. Of course, part of that is the uniform, but I really love his don’t-get-all-worked-up attitude too.”

  Charlie shook her head. “That would get old, trust me. For someone like you who is such a go-getter, I can’t imagine that you and Zander would have much in common.”

  “He’s a cop. He was a detective for a few years. I think he’s got more underneath than shows,” Fiona said. “I think he enjoys Autre just being sweeter and more slow-paced than what he used to do.”

  Charlie leaned in and rested her forearms on the desk. “Are you defending my cousin to me?”

  “I am. The guys are great.”

  “I don’t disagree. I love them very much.”

  “And next time, you should completely record Fletcher reading the story with the sloth and put it up on YouTube.”

  “Won’t it defeat the purpose of hav
ing people come if it’s up online?” Charlie asked.

  “Oh, just put a couple of them up there. Mostly for me so I can watch Fletcher be sweet with little kids.”

  Charlie laughed. “I can just send you the video straight to your phone.”

  “Oh, trust me, if moms see that online, you’ll definitely get more business out of it.”

  “You go for the bad boy turned good guy?” Charlie asked Fiona.

  “Actually, I think I go for the big, grumpy nerd type.”

  “Aha, you did feel a little spark with Knox, didn’t you?”

  “I cannot get the picture of that guy in a necktie out of my head,” she admitted. “And if he wears glasses, even better.”

  Charlie knew for a fact that Knox did wear glasses sometimes. And she could definitely see that attraction. She wasn’t related to Knox. The guy was big and muscular, and she wouldn’t at all be surprised if there were some tattoos underneath his linen shirt sleeves. She loved that he wore his hair long in spite of being a serious city employee. Knox hadn’t grown up in Autre. He’d moved here in high school, just in time to run around, party, and get into trouble with Fletcher, Zeke, and Zander.

  “I thought you had a boyfriend,” Charlie said to Fiona. Of course, she also had a boyfriend and still noticed how sexy Knox was.

  At least she assumed that’s what she should call Griffin. They saw each other every day and every night, and spent a lot of time talking, laughing, planning, and being naked. They’d even played with some silk ties and a blindfold. Griffin definitely got into bossing her around and in the bedroom she was completely fine with it.

  The animal park was growing, and her family was excited about the increased revenue. She was equally excited about the lemurs and the sloth and the idea of adding additional animals. She loved hanging out with her family and being at Ellie’s every night for dinner, and becoming friends with her cousins’ new wives and girlfriends.

  But, if she was completely honest, she was still in Autre because of Griffin. Without Dr. Foster here, she wouldn’t have stopped sending out resumes to marketing firms and companies three weeks ago.

  “Yeah, I do have a boyfriend,” Fiona said. “But I’ve also got two eyes. And I’m not going to not appreciate hot bayou boys when given the chance.”

  “Tell me about your boyfriend,” Charlie said.

  “Oh, he’s —”

  She was cut off by the front door of the clinic banging open. Startled, Charlie shot up out of her chair. Griffin was stomping across the tiles of the waiting area. He had something brown and furry cradled in his arms.

  “Oh my God, Griffin! What happened?” Charlie asked.

  “It’s Snickers.”

  Charlie felt her stomach knot. It was one of Gus and Gertie’s pups. Now was definitely not the time to reflect on how cute it was that they were all named after candy bars. “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure yet. He’s really sick.” Griffin continued down the hall toward one of the examination rooms without even pausing.

  “Charlie, go with him.”

  Charlie looked at the computer screen, having forgotten Fiona was there. “Yeah, okay.”

  She really didn’t want to go with him. This was just like the day with the dog who had been hit. Only worse. This was one of the otters. An animal she knew. An animal Griffin knew well and loved.

  She was fine when they were doing procedures that she knew were going to turn out well. Giving shots, even spaying and neutering. Even the first day with Brownie, she’d trusted Griffin’s confidence that everything was going to be all right.

  Griffin’s face when he came in the front door just now did not look like he thought things were going to be all right.

  “Charlie!” Fiona repeated. “Go. Call me later.”

  Charlie nodded. “Okay.” She reached out and disconnected the call.

  Then she headed for the examination room. She had to be stronger than she’d been with the dog. This was going to happen sometimes, even with the animals they personally loved. Snickers needed her. Griffin needed her. She could do this. Whether she liked it or not.

  But she really didn’t like it.

  She took a deep breath and stepped into the room. Griffin had already covered his clothes with one of the paper gowns he used when the work might get messy.

  Charlie swallowed hard and looked at the animal on the exam table.

  It looked dead. Her heart squeezed hard, and she had to force another deep breath.

  “What can I do?” she asked.

  “We need to figure out what’s going on,” Griffin said shortly. “He hasn’t been eating for about a day and has been lethargic. We need to run some tests. Figure out if it’s a virus or what actually is going on.”

  Charlie nodded. “Okay, just tell me what to do.”

  They worked for the next couple of hours. Charlie could hear the phone ringing but ignored it. At one point, she’d run to lock the clinic door and turn the closed sign out.

  They’d run blood tests. They’d done a scan. Now Griffin was doing an exploratory procedure.

  “Dammit,” he muttered. He was frowning.

  Charlie was assisting by handing him tools and helping position the otter. She’d like to think that she was also helping him just by being there, but she doubted that was true. She had no idea what was going on and couldn’t get past her intense fear that this wasn’t going to turn out well.

  But she reined her thoughts in every time they started to go down the path of, what will we do if the otter dies?

  It would devastate the Landrys, Tori and Kennedy in particular. On a more superficial note, it would not be good publicity for the park. Of course, in the back of her mind, she knew that they would have to deal with sick animals and animals that passed away, but having it front and center made her realize that not only was it emotionally hard on the family, but they would have to deal with a public message around it as well.

  Where she would not allow her thoughts to go, even for a moment, was to Griffin.

  He was the primary caregiver to these animals and closer to them than anyone. Tori might’ve been closer to some of the barnyard animals, but Griffin had a special place in his heart for the otters.

  She couldn’t even allow herself to think about how this would affect him.

  “Fuck,” Griffin held up a pair of tweezers.

  From the end protruded a bloody object that looked like a tiny stick.

  “What is that?” Charlie asked

  “A fucking toothpick.” Griffin’s tone was angry. “He swallowed it.”

  “Why would he eat a toothpick?”

  “He wouldn’t unless it was stuck in something he did want to eat.”

  Charlie frowned. “How would a toothpick get into the otter food?”

  “Someone tossed it or dropped it in his pen. It might’ve had food on it or have been attached to something else he ate. It looks like it’s just about half of one. I need to make sure the other half isn’t inside somewhere.”

  He tossed the bloodied toothpick into the basin next to him and bent over the otter again.

  Charlie felt a little lightheaded. A human had obviously tossed the toothpick—intentionally or accidentally—into the otter enclosure.

  “Is the toothpick poison to him or something?” she asked.

  “No. There’s a chance it would just pass through. But this one punctured his intestine and is causing leakage into the rest of his body. That’s a serious infectious condition situation. I need to see if there’s more toothpick in here, repair the perforation, and then we’ll have to treat him for the infection.”

  He said all of this while carefully exploring and not sparing Charlie even a glance.

  “Will he be okay?” she asked softly.

  “I’ve no idea.

  The otter might not be okay. The otter might die from a toothpick.

  It might have just been a careless act, but negligence was just as dangerous to the animals. Maybe more s
o in some ways. If people didn’t realize what could happen, they could do it again. There could be other toothpicks in the otter enclosure or in other animal pens.

  Charlie felt her throat tighten. With fear.

  Next time it could be a lemur. Which was not only special to Griffin but was an endangered animal.

  Charlie felt her heart pounding hard in her chest.

  People had been feeding the otters and the lemurs and the sloth and all of the barnyard animals over the past few weeks. Because of her. As part of the stupid activities she’d come up with to drum up business and increase their bottom line. She’d pushed for all of this. She was the one who had pressed Griffin into agreeing to more human interaction with the animals. Even before she’d known his past encounters with human beings who hadn’t properly respected the animals they were interacting with, she’d known that he was against the idea in general. Now that she knew what he had been through before, she realized that he was not only right, but she’d been very wrong.

  “I’m not seeing any other pieces of the toothpick,” Griffin said after a few minutes of tense silence. “I’m going to repair the perforation.”

  Charlie worked on breathing and not crying as she assisted. The only conversation was him giving terse instructions. Which was fine. She had no idea what to say to him. She needed to apologize, of course, but she didn’t think this was the time. And she wasn’t sure she could get the words out without breaking into tears.

  Griffin finished the procedure and gave the animal a huge dose of antibiotics. Then they settled Snickers in one of the cages.

  Finally, after what seemed like a day, Griffin was cleaned up, and he took the first big breath Charlie seen him take.

  He turned to her. “Are you okay?”

  That was all it took to make the tears start running. He was asking if she was okay?

  “We had fruit kebabs,” she blurted out.

  He frowned. “What?”

  She nodded, tears tracking down her cheeks. “We had fruit kebabs during Sloth Storytime. We also had them for Lunch with the Lemurs. They were two or three pieces of fruit on a toothpick for the kids. They were told to pull the fruit off to hand it to the animals. But they easily could have dropped one.”