They were greeted by one of the zookeepers who quickly put them to work. “Talk to as many people as you can. Be charming, tell them how much we do for the animals, and then mention all the things we’d like to do with their donation. Go, go!” They were shooed away before they could ask any questions.
The girls stuck together, hoping teamwork would help get them through the evening. The large, open foyer had been transformed into a sparkling wonderland. Alongside all the jungle leaves dotted around the place were large umbrellas meant to create a feeling of being outside and in some exotic animal sanctuary. Hannah couldn’t believe how different it looked to the boring old brown foyer it normally was.
The guests added more color again. Ball gowns in pinks, blues, greens, yellows, and everything in between swished around the room as a band played at the far end. Everyone looked so elegant.
Hannah couldn’t help but feel awkward in her dress. Coco had bought it at a charity shop and then taken it in to fit her. She felt like the ugliest one there compared to all the sophisticated guests.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself why she was there. It wasn’t supposed to be about having the fanciest dress or knowing how to waltz. The ball was about raising money to care for animals, and that was what she decided to focus on.
There had to be a hundred people there, at least. It was far more than Hannah was expecting to see. But more people meant more donations so it could only be a good thing. Seeing so many people wanting to help the animals was truly a wonderful thing, it lifted her mood and gave her the confidence to get started.
Alicia and Hannah approached an older couple who looked friendly enough. They struck up a conversation about the weather before Hannah was tapped on the shoulder by a zookeeper.
“I need you to run an errand,” she said. “Take this to Phoebe in the admin building and then come back. Don’t be too long, we need all hands on deck here.” She handed her an envelope.
Despite the fact she was supposed to hurry, Hannah found herself wandering slowly through the zoo. It was actually a bit creepy in the dark. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, an unidentified animal growled, and leaves rustled everywhere. And they were only the noises she could identify. There were plenty of others that only teased her and she couldn’t quite place.
The sound of a wing flying low was enough to make Hannah move faster. Either all the animals were out of their cages, or there were other animals hanging around the zoo. She expected the bat or bird or dragon to swoop over her at any time.
The administration building was at the far end of the park, hidden away so all the guests wouldn’t have to see the ugly sight of the white concrete structure.
Despite all the horrible scenarios playing out in her head, Hannah made it there safely and handed the envelope to Phoebe as instructed. She left after her mission was complete.
She took the same route back, praying the winged creature had moved on. The entire zoo looked completely different in the darkness. Shadows splayed everywhere making creepy shapes in any crevice they could find. It made all Hannah’s senses stand at attention.
Halfway back, the foyer looked like a glowing bulb in the distance. She focused her eyes on it and tried to block out all the noises along the way.
However, from behind a tree, something jumped out at her. Something big.
CHAPTER 9
Hannah screamed at the top of her lungs as she stepped backwards away from the shape. Her mind went into panic mode as she tried to work out an escape route. There was no fight or flight, there was only run as far away as possible.
“Han, it’s just me.” She recognized the voice but her brain wasn’t exactly functioning on all cylinders. She blinked a couple of times to focus.
Harry stepped out of the shadows. She sighed with relief, her hand covering her chest as she tried to slow down her heartbeat. “What are you doing? I thought you were a leopard or something. You scared me half to death.”
He placed a comforting hand on her back. He was wearing a black suit with a grey tie, he even had his hair smoothed back. He had gone to a lot of effort to look good for the night. Hannah tried not to notice. “I’m so sorry, I thought it would be funny. I didn’t think you’d be that scared.”
Anger was starting to build. “It’s dark out here! What did you think I’d do? Laugh?”
“Hey, I’m sorry. Really.” They stood there staring at each other for a moment. As she calmed down, Hannah could see the funny side of things, perhaps it would be something she could laugh about in the future. However, today was not that day.
“You’re lucky I didn’t punch you,” Hannah finally said. “I was about two seconds from attacking.”
Harry rolled his eyes, he knew her too well. At least, he thought he did. “Right. And it would have hurt too. Pfft, no it wouldn’t. You punch like a girl.”
“You don’t know that. A lot has changed in three years.”
He was suddenly serious, all joking gone. “I’m sure it has. Come on, I’ll walk you back.” He held out his elbow for her to take. She reluctantly slid her arm through his. “You look beautiful tonight, by the way.”
“Thank you,” she muttered. She was still harboring a little too much anger to say anything else. They walked in silence back to the ball.
While on her errand, Hannah had missed the speeches and formalities of the night. She was kind of glad about that, at least she didn’t have to pretend to be interested.
The ball started to wind down after a few hours as most of the guests left over the evening. There were more interns and zookeepers than actual guests.
Hannah felt a gentle hand on the small of her back. She spun around to see Harry grinning at her. No matter how much he had grown up or matured over the past three years, his smile had never changed. She remembered how that grin had caused her to fall in love once.
“Considering we are excused from our duties, would you like to dance?” He asked, holding out his hand for her to take.
Hannah looked between his eyes and his hand. She wasn’t sure if she did want to dance with him, it could lead her down a path she didn’t want to travel. Yet another part of her scalded herself, it was just a dance. Nothing more and nothing less.
“Sure,” she finally replied, placing her hand in his. He led her to the dancing area and pulled her close. She let herself fall into his lead, moving like a marionette without needing to think.
She realized Harry was looking down at her, the smile not leaving his face. She worried she had something in her teeth or if she was doing something wrong. “What?”
“I was just remembering the last time we danced. It was a while ago.”
Hannah blushed as she remembered it. They were outside his school’s dance. Inside had been stuffy and crowded so they were having their own little dance party outside under the moonlight. The music was softer out there, allowing them to talk while they danced.
It had been a really fun night. Hannah was nervous going to a dance at Harry’s school because he went to an elite private school. She worried she wouldn’t fit in amongst the rich kids.
But Harry had been perfect. He introduced her to all his friends, he made conversation so she didn’t have to, and they did a lot of dancing. So much so that the blisters had lasted for more than a week from her new high heels.
The night had ended with a lot of kissing. Coco caught them on the porch when they didn’t go inside straight away. It had taken weeks for Hannah to live the embarrassment down. Being caught making out by her mom was not a proud moment in her life.
Two weeks later they had broken up, making it their last dance. Neither knew it at the time, but Hannah had a sinking feeling that something was changing between them. She just had hoped they would have some more time to figure it out.
She was pulled back to the present as she realized Harry was waiting for her to say something. “Yeah, except our last dance wasn’t as fancy as this one. Ball gowns, who would have thought?”
; “The dress suits you.”
“And you look pretty good in a suit too.” Instantly, Hannah wished she hadn’t said those words. They slipped out before she could stop them.
Harry raised his eyebrows in question. “Have you been checking me out?”
She swatted at his shoulder. “No, I just-”
“It’s okay, I know I’m pretty hot. How could you not check me out?” He was teasing, she knew that for sure. It was the Harry she used to know.
“You started it. You must have been checking me out first,” Hannah pointed out haughtily. “Something about someone living in a glass house, shouldn’t throw stones?”
Harry started laughing. “Okay, okay, I concede. I may have been checking you out first. You’ve changed in the last few years.”
“Three years is a long time. Is that a bad thing?”
“No, it’s definitely good. All changes look good.”
She wasn’t sure if he was flirting with her, but it certainly felt that way. As he spun her around, she noticed a group of female interns shooting daggers her way. They were probably all wishing they were the ones in Harry’s arms. It gave Hannah some more confidence. She had something they wanted, even if it was only a dance. Perhaps they wouldn’t all ignore her in the lunchroom anymore.
“For the record,” she started. “All changes look good on you too.”
“Can I confess something?”
“Sure.” She couldn’t wait to hear this.
Harry pursed his lips before he spoke, making it seem like he was worried about what was about to be said. “I’ve been kind of worried about talking to you all week.”
“Why?” Hannah asked. She couldn’t think of one thing she had done to him to be scared of her. After all, it wasn’t like she bit. All the animals did, but not her. He should be more afraid of them.
“I don’t know, I guess I was worried you’d changed too much. I’ve thought about you a lot since we broke up and I didn’t like to think I didn’t know you anymore.”
She tried to process the words and understand what he was trying to say. Did he still want to know her? Was that it? Boys needed to come with a translation manual.
Instead of replying in the same cryptic code, she decided to say what was on her mind and hoped it was what he meant. “I missed you too.”
“Seeing you here this summer, it’s almost like we get to have a second chance,” Harry continued, smiling hopefully.
“I’m sure you’ve moved on from us.”
“Nope. Have you?”
“I’m not with anyone, if that’s what you mean?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” he confirmed.
Just as Hannah was about to reply, Harry received a tap on his shoulder. When they looked around, Logan was standing there.
And damn did he look good.
CHAPTER 10
Dressed in a tuxedo, complete with tails and top hat, Logan was a few inches taller than Harry. They both stared at him expectantly.
“Harry, I need you to walk Mrs. Hatfield to her car,” he said. “She’s the one in monkey-vomit green.”
Harry let Hannah out of his embrace as he reluctantly left. Logan slipped into his place, holding her in a dancer’s pose. “Allow me, I don’t want you to miss out on finishing your dance.”
Hannah smiled gratefully, still speechless about the whole thing. She melted into his arms as they started to dance around the nearly-empty dance floor.
“We raised a lot of money tonight,” Logan started.
It was difficult paying attention to both him and her feet, but Hannah tried. If she let herself relax, the feet didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. “I’m sure the zoo will put the money to good use,” she replied, needing to look right up to meet his eyes.
Logan’s grin was making his whole face come alive. “They’ll probably blow it all on toys for the monkeys or something. But they’ll have fun doing it.”
The silence in the air lingered between them, making Hannah uncomfortable. Sometimes when she was with Logan she felt like nothing more than a little school kid. At other times, like when they were dancing or talking about inconsequential things, it felt like more. Like there might be a lot more to Logan than what he would have people believe.
She suddenly miscalculated her move and planted her heel on Logan’s foot. He winced but didn’t say anything as she stepped off it again.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“For what?” He asked innocently, even though he had to have felt the stabbing through his shoe.
She let it go before her face turned completely scarlet. “Nothing. You dance really well.” She cursed herself for making her compliment sound so lame. She really did think he was a great dancer, he moved so effortlessly around the floor. He had to have taken lessons sometime.
Logan dipped her backwards in a sweeping gesture, almost making her breathless with the effort. Or perhaps it was the way it made her heart beat faster that was affecting her, Hannah wasn’t sure.
Logan was laughing when he pulled her back to him. “My grandma used to make me dance with her. I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid. I guess all those hours paid off.”
“Wasn’t it weird, dancing with your grandma and all?”
He instantly became serious. “Completely weird. She always smelt like candy and hairspray. Not a good combination.”
Hannah couldn’t stop herself from laughing, the visual was too much to contain. The thought of a little Logan dancing with his weird old grandma around her house was just too funny.
Logan tried to keep all the humor from his face, but his sparkling eyes betrayed him. “It was quite traumatic. Thank you for finding it so amusing. I’ll tell my therapist all about it.”
“I’m sorry,” Hannah managed to choke out as she desperately tried to regain her composure. So much for being a lady at the ball. “I’m sure the nightmares are very disturbing for you.”
“That’s better. Some sympathy never goes astray.” He pulled her closer to his chest so they could no longer see each other as they were so near.
Hannah finally felt herself relax and gave her body away to his guidance. Logan knew how to lead his dancing partner so all she had to do was surrender and her feet gladly moved elegantly underneath her. She felt like a princess being swept around in circles and swaying to the music.
“You’re a really good dancer, too, you know,” Logan whispered. Hannah wasn’t entirely sure she had heard correctly. Her and dancing didn’t exactly go together normally. Her moves were reserved for the privacy of her own home – normally with Billy watching her like she might be in need of some urgent medical assistance.
“I’m not dancing,” Hannah countered. “I’m just following what you’re doing.”
“That’s what dancing is.”
“Then you deserve the credit, not me.” She lifted her head back just in time to see him smiling down at her. In that tiny little moment that was probably only half a second long, she felt something stir. It was like the butterflies in her stomach were just waking up and were threatening to come alive again to buzz around and give her all kinds of weak-knee feelings.
In the next moment, it was gone. Embarrassed and so thankful he couldn’t read her mind, she rested her head back on his chest and continued dancing. She could get through it without making a complete fool of herself, she just had to make sure she didn’t look at him again. That’s all.
When the song ended, Hannah was ready to leave. She already had a plan to find Alicia and go home now their work was officially done for the night.
But she never got a chance. Logan pulled her into the next dance easily, grasping her hand and placing the other of his arms around her waist. They were lost to the music again.
Halfway through their third dance together, Harry rushed into the room. His face was flushed from running as he heaved in for more air. Everyone stopped to look at him expectantly.
“The… penguins… something… happened,” he pant
ed out. Logan and Hannah exchanged a worried look. Whatever happened, it couldn’t have been good for him to hurry like that.
CHAPTER 11
“We need to split up into groups of four,” Logan ordered, instantly taking charge. “Everyone take a different corner of the park and hurry. We need to find it.”
It had all happened so quickly, Hannah’s mind was spinning. The moment Harry explained one of the penguins was missing from their enclosure, the entire foyer of people went into action. They took a missing animal very seriously there, for obvious reasons. They not only had to keep the animals safe from humans, but the other animals too. A penguin would look very tasty to a lion.
Considering Hannah was still standing with Harry, they decided to join the group taking the west wing of the zoo. All eight of them hurried off to their area to start the search.
“What were you doing with the penguins?” Hannah asked as they hurried along. She had to hold her dress up off the floor to stop herself tripping over it. The dress, combined with her high heels, was not making her journey easy.
“Mrs. Hatfield wanted to see them before she went home,” Harry explained, still trying to get his breath back. “She begged me to take her to them. Her husband used to call her his little penguin pie.”
Hannah grimaced at the nickname. It wasn’t so much the name itself, but the thought of the eighty year old woman snuggling up with her husband as he whispered sweet nothings into her ear. The second terrifying visual for the night.
“Surely the penguin couldn’t have gotten far,” Hannah commented. Considering there were miles of fences in the zoo, she figured the animal had limited options for his escape.
“Haven’t you seen all the movies with penguins in them? They are pretty crafty,” Harry replied.
She nudged him with her elbow. “You realize those are animated films, right? They weren’t exactly documentaries.”
Harry grinned slyly. “Yeah, but it’s fun to imagine them that way anyway. All the animals definitely have their own personalities. Have you noticed that?”
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