by Tawna Fenske
She thrust a shaky finger out to point at the giant pink rabbit, and they all stared at it in silence for a few beats. Luckily, Magoo had finished his business and moved on, so the pink rabbit sat looking debauched but blessedly alone.
Walter raised one eyebrow and turned to Will. “A little late to be making house calls with stuffed animals, son.”
Marley put a hand on her father’s arm and bit her lip. “Don’t blame Will, Dad. He’s just making the delivery for someone else who insisted—well, it’s a long story. Anyway, did you need something?”
Walter gave Will a hard look. A look that said, The delivery guy has no business pawing my daughter.
Will couldn’t say he blamed the guy. He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to Marley. “I should probably get going,” Will said. “Your dad’s right. It’s late.”
“But—”
“Here, son,” Walter said, reaching into his back pocket to retrieve an expensive-looking wallet. “Did Marley tip you already?”
Will cocked his head to one side. “Can’t say she did.”
“This should cover the delivery,” he said, holding the twenty like a switchblade.
Will quirked an eyebrow at Marley, who appeared to have lost her powers of speech. She flushed and gently edged the strap of her dress back into place.
Will glanced back at the twenty, not having much trouble reading between the lines. Daddy dearest was making sure Will knew his place.
No wonder Marley hates rich guys.
“Dad.” Marley put a hand on her father’s arm, urging him to put the money away. “You don’t need to—”
“Thanks, sir,” Will said, reaching out to take the bill. “That’s mighty generous of you. I’ll try not to spend it all in one place.” He stuffed the cash into his pocket. “Marley. It’s been a pleasure. I hope you enjoy your giant pink bunny half as much as Magoo did, though perhaps not in the same way.”
“Will, wait—”
He smiled and shook his head. “Your dad’s right. It’s late, and this probably isn’t a good idea. Good night, Marley.”
He opened the door with some childish, stupid part of him hoping Marley might grab him by the arm and drag him back, ordering her father to leave.
Instead, Will stepped onto the porch and shut the door behind him.
He felt her father’s glare following him all the way to his car.
Chapter 6
The next day, Marley was still flustered from her encounter with Will. She’d always assumed the idea of taking a cold shower was just a romance novel cliché, not something people really did.
But the instant Will’s taillights had disappeared down the driveway, she’d turned to give her father a piece of her mind. Walter had already disappeared into the guest suite, so Marley stalked off to the bathroom feeling hot with anger and lust and frustration that only ebbed when she cranked the water as cold as it would go and stood beneath the spray until her teeth chattered.
Why did he kiss me?
Why did he stop kissing me?
Okay, maybe the last question was dumb. It wasn’t tough to figure that making out with a woman—no matter how lovely—lost some appeal with the woman’s father standing by with his patented you’re-not-good-enough-for-her glare.
Still, Will could have stuck around. Or she could have gone after him. Or maybe—
Stop it, she ordered herself. A rich guy with trust issues who happens to be your supervisor at a company that happens to have strict rules about that sort of thing? Could you possibly pick a worse man?
Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about Will. The way his hands had felt trailing across her bare back. The feel of his breath in her hair. The delicious scrape of stubble on her shoulder.
Her brain was still reeling from that last image as she marched out of her office toward the restroom. As she turned a corner, she slammed straight into a warm wall of khaki beside the bobcat habitat.
“Ooof!” said Marley as Darin Temple caught her by the shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes searching hers for signs of distress or possibly concussion.
“Fine, fine. Sorry… I should learn to watch where I’m going.”
Darin smiled and released her shoulders. “Not a problem. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Marley turned and looked at the bobcat, not sure what to say next. The animal was stretched out on a bed of hay, looking more like an oversized, lazy housecat than a dangerous predator.
“She’s almost twenty,” Darin said. “In the wild, bobcats generally only live to be ten or eleven, but she’s had a nice, long life here in captivity.”
“It still seems a little sad. She couldn’t be released into the wild?”
Darin shook his head. “Some hikers found her wandering in the woods when she was about a year old. She’d been declawed and had some of her teeth removed, so she couldn’t hunt. She was starving when they brought her in, but we were able to nurse her back to health and keep her here at the sanctuary.”
“Why would someone do that?”
Darin shrugged. “People try to keep wild animals as pets. When they get tired of them, they’ll turn them loose without any thought to how the creature might fend for itself after it’s been domesticated.”
“How awful!”
Darin nodded. “It is. That’s one reason we focus so much on education here at the sanctuary. We want to make sure people know the appropriate and inappropriate ways to interact with wildlife.” He smiled at her, his brown eyes warm and friendly. “Congratulations on the event last night. I heard how much we raised.”
Marley beamed. “We’re still waiting for a final tally, but it was a successful fund-raiser.”
“That’s going to go a long way toward supporting our education and outreach programs.”
Marley nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. “I couldn’t have done any of it without you. Seriously, that badger digging fund-raiser was brilliant.”
“I’m glad it worked out,” he said. “It’s always wonderful when we can expose people to native species.”
“As opposed to having people expose themselves to native species?” Marley quipped, envisioning a pervert opening his trench coat in front of the bobcat enclosure. Darin looked confused, and Marley did a mental forehead slap for her own awkwardness. “Sorry, silly exhibitionist humor. Speaking of inappropriate ways to interact with wildlife—”
Darin smiled. “I get it. That’s funny.”
His smile was really quite nice. He had a fair amount of dirt under his fingernails, and his khakis looked soft and well-worn. In a meeting this morning with another wildlife specialist, Marley had asked a few subtle questions about Darin. She’d learned he was thirty-five years old, had a degree in wildlife biology, and had worked at CHSWS for almost seven years. Based on a quick skim through old job postings, Marley had a ballpark idea of his salary range and found it to be gloriously average.
“So, Marley,” he said, jarring her from her thoughts. “I was just about to wash up and grab some lunch. Could I interest you in joining me?”
“I’d love that. Do you eat in the café here, or go off-site somewhere?”
“I brown-bag it most days, but I got up too late this morning to pack anything. I know a nice little lunch spot back in town, if you’d like to try that?”
“That sounds wonderful,” Marley said.
“I can drive, if you don’t mind. Just give me a few minutes to wash up, and then I’ll swing around front and pick you up. I’ll be in a tan pickup truck.”
Tan pickup truck, Marley mused, liking the sound of that. So far, Darin was turning out to be very close to the blue-collar ideal she’d imagined. Educated but not overeducated, handsome but not polished, confident but not cocky, and safely in the mid-zone between broke and rich asshole.
“I’ll see you out there,” Marley said, and hustled back to her office to set her paperwork down. She was touching up her lipstick when Will’s sister, Bethany, walked by.
“Hey, Marley,” she called, halting in the doorway and flashing a grin that looked startlingly like her brother’s. “I was just dropping off one more figurine from Aunt Nancy’s collection. Apparently she forgot this one.”
Bethany reached into her purse and pulled out a large, oblong velvet box. She flipped the top open to reveal an ornately-carved granite phallus. Marley admired the detail, resisting the urge to reach for it.
“It’s… um… lovely.”
“I suppose so, if you like that sort of thing.” Bethany gave her a wicked grin and flipped the box shut, tucking the phallus back in her bag. “April and I really enjoyed meeting you last night. Were you happy with how things went?”
“Definitely. It was a really successful fund-raiser,” Marley said. “I enjoyed meeting you and April, too.”
Bethany smiled wider, and Marley saw a flash of dimple that looked just like Will’s. Bethany stepped closer and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Nothing like a little awkward family dynamic to kick off your first fund-raiser, eh?”
Marley blushed and did her best to shrug. “It didn’t seem that awkward, really.”
Bethany studied her, probably trying to assess whether she was telling the truth or bullshitting a potential donor. It was hard for Marley to know herself sometimes.
“Sincerely,” Marley added. “You and Will and April seem to have a very friendly relationship considering—”
“Considering April left Will to play palm-the-softballs with me?”
“Er—”
“Sorry, that was uncouth.” Bethany shrugged. “It’s an old habit, I guess. Make a dirty joke to diffuse a potentially awkward situation.”
“So that’s where Will gets it?” Marley asked.
Bethany cocked her head thoughtfully. “Actually, I think we both got it from our mother.”
“Interesting. Where’s your mom now?”
“Deschutes Memorial Gardens.”
“Is that the retirement community over by the hospital?”
“Nope,” Bethany said, snatching a paperclip off the corner of Marley’s desk and bending the curves to straighten it. “It’s the cemetery off Highway 97 on the north end of town.”
“Oh.” Marley’s hands felt clammy, and she struggled to come up with something kind to say. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize—”
“It’s okay, Marley. Really, it’s been a long time.”
“Still, I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you.”
Marley grimaced. “Is this the part where one of us is supposed to make a goofy joke to diffuse a potentially awkward situation?”
“I’ll let it slide this time. Aunt Nancy raised Will and me after both our parents died in a car crash. And before you say you’re sorry again, it’s okay. I’ve been a bastard orphan lesbian for a long time. I’m used to it.”
“In that case, congratulations. You’re the most well-adjusted bastard orphan lesbian I’ve ever met.”
Bethany laughed and began to twist the straightened paperclip into a new shape. “I like you. You’re a cool chick.”
“Thanks. You’re a pretty cool chick yourself.”
“We still on for mountain biking next weekend?”
“Totally. I’m looking forward to it.” Marley glanced at her watch and then nodded to the door. “Whoops, I have to run. I’m supposed to meet someone. Do you need a hand getting that… um, figurine… put in the safe?”
“I see Susan over in her office. I’m sure she can help me.” She stepped closer and gave Marley a salacious grin. “So, you have a date?”
“I don’t know if I should call it a date, exactly. I’m going to lunch with Darin Temple, the wildlife guy.”
“Really?”
“What’s wrong?”
Bethany shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. He just doesn’t strike me as your type.”
“I’m afraid to ask what you think my type would be.”
“That’s easy,” Bethany said with a laugh. “My brother.”
Marley fought to keep her expression flat, not sure if she wanted to do a giddy dance or roll her eyes. “Will? I don’t really think—”
“Oh, please. Good relationships aren’t about thinking. They’re about making each other feel good. And no, I’m not just talking about—”
“Playing hide-the-salami?” Marley quipped.
“Exactly.” Bethany grinned and set the reshaped paperclip on the corner of the desk. “See you later, Marley.”
“You too.”
Marley hoisted her purse up on her shoulder and glanced at the paperclip on her desk. Bethany had bent it into the shape of a heart.
Marley hustled out the door, putting a little extra kick in her step in case Darin had been waiting awhile. She walked out the front door of the wildlife sanctuary just as a tan truck pulled up in front of the building. Darin reached over from inside the cab to pop her door open.
“Hey there,” he said. “Sorry, it’s a bit of a jump up here when you’re wearing a skirt.”
“Not a problem,” she said, hoisting herself up. She deliberately avoided making a wisecrack about flashing her lady bits at the paparazzi, then patted herself on the back for her own restraint. She pulled her door closed and smiled at Darin as she buckled her seat belt.
“Thanks for inviting me to lunch. I’ve been wondering where the good restaurants are nearby.”
“This is a good restaurant, but I won’t claim it’s fancy.”
“I don’t need fancy.”
“Then this’ll be perfect. It’s a barbecue joint, so I hope you aren’t a vegetarian. If you are, they’ve got plenty of good salads and a veggie burger that’s nice and spicy.”
“I love barbecue,” Marley said. “The spicier the better. The only thing I can’t do is dairy. I’m lactose intolerant.”
“We’ll skip the cheese fries then.”
Darin smiled as he steered the pickup out of the parking lot and onto the highway. “Hopefully we’ll beat the lunch rush. The baby back ribs are outstanding, in case you’re not sure what to order.”
They made idle small talk as Darin drove the short distance to the restaurant. When they arrived, Darin parked the truck and scrambled around to open Marley’s door and offered a hand down. Marley studied her hand, waiting for signs of tingling or electric currents, but there was only the pleasant sensation of someone else’s flesh touching hers.
Pleasant, she mused. That’s not so bad.
They strolled inside together, and Marley tried to relax into the idea that they were on a date. Well, not a date, exactly, but maybe a prelude to a date. She smiled as Darin pulled her chair out for her before scooting around to the other side and dropping onto the bench seat. He smiled at her and offered a paper menu stained with barbecue sauce. Marley took it and began to peruse, her mouth watering as she read.
“You said the baby back ribs are good?”
“The best.”
“How about the fried okra appetizer?”
“I’ve never had it, but I’m sure it’s great. Don’t forget to save room for dessert.”
Marley looked up as a cheerful blond waitress scampered over with a notepad. Darin ordered a pulled pork sandwich and a garden salad, while Marley opted for okra and ribs. The waitress hustled away to place the order before hurrying back with two frosty glasses of iced tea with lemon wedges anchored on the side. Marley tugged the wrapper off her straw and stuck it in her drink as she inhaled the heady scent of smoked meat and tangy sauce. Beside them, a giggling couple took turns feeding each other bites of potatoes au gratin. In the far corner, a trio of young men in cycling jerseys and bike shorts argued over the bill
.
Marley took a sip of iced tea and smiled at Darin. “So you enjoy working at the wildlife sanctuary?”
“Very much. I’ve been there just over seven years, and I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”
“Seems like a great place.”
“It is,” he agreed as he rolled up the sleeves of his khaki shirt and spread a napkin on his lap. “So what made you leave your job in Portland to come here?”
Marley shrugged and took a sip of her iced tea. “It was time for a change. I got tired of the city scene, and all the formality that comes with doing donor relations in a setting like that. Bend just seems more—”
“Laid-back?”
“Exactly.” Marley smiled, hopeful she was giving Darin the right impression. Her style was laid-back and casual, no frills at all. No need for fancy dining or big paychecks or—
“So, Marley.” Darin cleared his throat. “What sort of wedding do you want?”
Marley choked on her tea. Darin didn’t wait for her to stop sputtering before he spoke again. “I know this might be premature, but I like you, and I think you like me, and if there’s a chance this could turn into something, I just think we should know up-front whether our marital ideals are compatible.”
Marley wiped her mouth with her napkin and stared at him. “Darin, we just met.”
Darin took a sip of his drink before setting it back on the table and reaching for her hand. “Do you have your own house, or would you be comfortable moving into mine?”
“Um—”
“What about kids? I don’t really like them, but I’d consider having one or two if—”
“Darin,” Marley said, staring down at their interlaced fingers. “I haven’t even gotten my appetizer yet.”
“Mmm, yes, well, that’s another thing. Do you generally prefer to order separate appetizers when you dine out with a significant other, or do you prefer to order things that can be split? It’s not a cost savings issue so much as a matter of whether you’re okay with sharing and—”
“Darin!”
“What?”
Marley pulled her hand back and gripped the edge of the table, resisting the urge to grab him by the shirt collar and give him a shake. “I wasn’t even sure this was a date, and you’re already naming our future children?”
