Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

A oife hoped Elliot didn't have any ambitions to be an actor. She'd never heard such a stilted delivery of a line. But he had understood what she was suggesting, and after he'd been gone a few minutes, she moved over to the side, hoping to go unnoticed as she took her radio and called in a request for a golf cart. Her radio crackled as someone said they'd send one over, and Molly appeared at her side like magic.

"I thought you said Elliott was gonna get us a cart."

"It's going to rain," Aoife said in a slight panic. "I wanted to get you and your mam into shelter as fast as possible."

Molly looked at the sky, which was pretty thick with heavy grey clouds. "Nah. It never rains when I'm out doing stuff."

"Is that even possible?" Aoife was from Cork, Ireland. She knew that meant she was, perhaps, accustomed to a somewhat unusual amount of rain. At least by the standards of people who lived in places where there was more than a few stray whales between themselves and the far-off western horizon.

Molly shrugged. "Sure, because that's how it is."

Aoife had to wonder if the Collins actually had people who appeared with umbrellas to hold over their heads, but maybe it was just possible the kid had never been rained on. Maybe she spent very little time outside. Maybe they lived in Arizona. Aoife didn't know. "All the more reason to keep you dry, then."

To her relief, somebody pulled up with a golf cart just then. Not, unfortunately, one of the larger ones. Doug looked at it, looked at the women, and said, "I'll walk," in a tone that seemed both chivalrous and as if he'd wanted to walk in the first place. Since he was the one who'd mentioned that it wasn't really very far, Aoife reckoned it was some of both.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. She wanted to waste some time to make sure Elliott could get back to, and into, the enclosure, but there didn't seem to be much excuse as Hippie Girl scrambled into the passenger side front seat and the Collins climbed into the back.

Graham, who looked much less enthusiastic about the idea, but even less delighted with the idea of squeezing in with the Collins, said, "I'll walk, too," and caught up with Doug, who'd already headed out. Aoife thought about pointing out that they might not really even need to go, but they seemed determined to be where Ms. Collins was, so figured she'd lose the argument.

It really wasn't all that far, and in the golf cart, it was only a few minutes' drive. Molly kept up a monologue that her mother wasn't listening to, and Hippie Girl leaned toward Aoife to murmur, "So why did you send Elliott ahead of us if you were going to call for a golf cart? I saw all that back-and-forthing you did," she said before Aoife could protest that she'd done no such thing.

"I, uh…sorry, I didn't catch your name?" Aoife couldn't think of any other explanation, so hoped distraction would be the ticket out of this conversation.

"Kanvas. With a K."

"Kan—really? Sorry." Aoife winced. "You must get that all the time."

"Literally all the time," Kanvas agreed. "So you and Elliott, is that serious? I mean, I don't think you were sending him off because you didn't want him flirting with me, because the man only has eyes for you, but, you know, I'm willing to hope you wanted a chance to flirt with me yourself. You were extremely hot back there."

"Oh. Thank you. Just doing my job. And no, I'm sorry, Elliott and I are…" Strangers, Aoife told herself. She'd met the man this morning. "I'd say it's not exactly defined yet, but it's intense."

"Maaaaan." Kanvas leaned back in her seat. "All the good ones are always taken. So how'd you two meet?"

"Um, on the job," Aoife said cautiously.

"He must be a hell of an animal wrangler," Kanvas said admiringly. "The way he handled those bison earlier, I mean, damn. I mean, not that I saw anything, because that must have been all kinds of, what, illegal?"

"Well, dangerous for most people, at least, but he has an unusual insight into animal behavior," Aoife said, straight-faced, although her attempt at solemnity fell apart into a graceful smile. "And yeah, we'd be in loads of trouble of that got out, so if you don't mind not talking about it...well, in that case, the thing we didn't see really was impressive, wasn't it? So what do you do?"

"Wander around and look at zoos." Kanvas smiled as they pulled up to the lion enclosure. "And look at that. There's the lion!"

Aoife managed to park the golf cart before an excited Molly went tumbling out of it. Her mother stayed put, which made Aoife's head want to explode, but she and Kanvas got out to follow Molly, who ran at top speed to the enclosure and mashed herself against the glass.

Elliott, Aoife had to admit, was an incredibly handsome lion. She'd noticed that this morning, but had been too busy flipping out over the entire inadequate enclosure/shapeshifting man thing to really appreciate it. Now, however, he was stalking around the space like he owned it, showing off his sleek feline body and tossing his thick, dark mane. When Molly crashed into the enclosure's glass plate walls, his gaze snapped to her and he twisted and leaped all in a single motion, landing a few feet away from the wall.

Molly squealed gleefully. Kanvas, however, clutched for Aoife's hand. "Holy crap. Is that safe? I mean, can it hold him?"

"There's no danger of him escaping," Aoife replied, which wasn't really a direct answer to the question, but was true. Elliott flattened himself, tail lashing, and watched Molly as she ran back and forth giggling.

"I want to pet him! He looks like he needs pets! I bet he'd like to have his tummy rubbed!"

"Absolutely not. And if you start crying I'll—" Aoife took a deep breath. 'Feed you to him' was not a suitable thing to say, even if she wanted to. "I'll have you escorted to the entrance immediately. I'm tired of it, and you're old enough to control yourself."

Molly gaped at her. Aoife held her gaze, unwilling to be terrorized by an ill-mannered tweenager. Elliott rose to pace along the glass, distracting Molly and earning Aoife's unending gratitude.

"How long have you been working here?" Kanvas asked in a hushed voice, like she might disturb the big cat. Elliott actually looked like he was having fun playing with Molly from the other side of the glass, but Aoife appreciated her efforts to not distract him.

"Almost four years. I do tours and other kinds of education and community outreach. I love it," Aoife admitted, watching Elliott pounce and roll and stalk Molly. "Like, just on a personal level, it's a great place to work. They're really dedicated to conservation efforts, and the people who work here really want to be here. I just wish it wasn't so…" She sighed. "I don't know. Scary."

"Scary like sometimes kids climb into the bison enclosure?"

"Hah! No, honestly, except for Elliott getting close to them to make sure they didn't get close to her , I wasn't that scared for that. I know it might sound unbelievable, but they really don't want to engage. And the babies haven't been born yet for the season, so they're not hyper-vigilant. Mostly that was fine, really. No, it's more the financial side of things. There's really never enough money."

"So you're not paid well?"

Aoife laughed. "We're paid okay. I mean, yeah, I'd love to be paid more , but who wouldn't? I think even Ms. Collins back there would like to be paid more, and she's clearly got more money than sense. But no, it's more for the actual running of the facilities. Dr. Kelly can do a lot with not much money, but there are always more animals than we can care for coming in from other locations. This was a rehabilitation centre when it originally opened, and grew beyond that, but we still do a lot of that in the background. And we could do more, obviously, if we had more money. It's always a balancing act. You know?"

"You sound passionate about it."

"Ah, g'wan with ye. I am so, but I probably sound a little high-strung, too. Or, I don't know. I have to be professional on these tours, like. I can't go off on a rant like I just did." She laughed, casting an embarrassed glance at Kanvas. "In fact, I shouldn't have even done it with you, but you asked, and I'm not in lecturer mode right now."

"What are you supposed to do?"

"Eh. I'm supposed to say all the right things when I'm talking to guests, especially potential investors. I'm supposed to run the numbers and look knowledgeable and be polite and not too intense while being enthusiastic, and…I guess sometimes I just want to say, look, we're doing good work here, we're doing our best to try to conserve species that are endangered, but it's expensive and we need money and shouldn't have to justify that to you, you should understand it without me trying to convince you of it. "

"Yeah. I get that. Is that lion actually playing with her?" Kanvas was watching Elliott, who was now pretty clearly copying things that Molly did: she pounced; he pounced. She stretched high; he stretched high. She actually lay down and rolled over on the pathway, and so did he, waggling his huge paws in the air.

"It's apparently a very smart lion," Aoife said, somewhere between amused and horrified. "I don't know much about its history. It may have come from a circus."

"I guess we're still probably not allowed to pet it."

Aoife laughed, startled. "No. No, I get the temptation, but no."

Although she could pet that lion. Aoife was suddenly quite sure of it. She bet Elliott would like having that big thick mane scrubbed by good strong human fingers, and that he'd lean into it like a house cat, except a hundred times heavier. She laughed again. "He'd knock you over, wouldn't he? If you tried rubbing his ears?"

Kanvas laughed, too. "Like a cat," she agreed. "Leaaaaaannnnnn."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. It would be fun," she admitted. "Assuming he didn't decide to bite your hand off instead. That was quite a story you told."

"My friend did have a lioness stick her head in the safari vehicle's window," Kanvas said. "I just may have gotten a bit creative with what happened next."

"What actually happened?"

"They rolled the window up very slowly and gently until she took her head out, and then everybody laughed hysterically and went back to camp to change their pants."

"Hah! I bet!"

Graham and Doug finally caught up with them. Graham was sweating; Doug looked like he'd been out for a pleasant walk. They both slowed, though, as they approached Elliott's enclosure. "Holy shit, that's one big motherjammer, isn't it?" Doug asked. "I knew African lions were big, but I didn't know they were that big."

"He's an unusual specimen," Aoife said blandly. Elliott had mentioned shifter wolves, in particular, as being bigger than their regular counterparts, so she figured that was the explanation for his size, because Doug was right: Elliott was a flippin' massive lion.

"Is it safe in there?" Graham asked worriedly. "It looks like it could just hop out."

"It's safe," Aoife assured them.

Elliott cast her a mischievous look. Aoife's heart leaped into her throat. She knew he wouldn't jump out of the enclosure, but the idea that he was even thinking about it just turned her knees to water. Her distress must have been apparent, because the huge lion dropped his head and lay down looking genuinely apologetic, blinking big dark brown eyes at Aoife.

"I think he likes you," Kanvas said with amusement.

"He probably thinks I look like a fun-sized snack," Aoife said dryly. "I'm not very big. All right, have we had enough lion-gazing? Are we moving on now?"

Cindy Collins, whom Aoife had almost forgotten about, gave a petulant sigh from the golf cart. "I suppose you may drive us back to the entrance. Molly and I clearly aren't welcome here. Really, that cat is clearly as tame as a mouse. My daughter should be allowed to pet it."

"Ms. Collins," Aoife said, "your daughter's entire torso would fit in his mouth. Let's not push our luck, shall we?"

The CEO's jaw tightened with angry offense. "The entrance, please. Molly? Molly!"

"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 lion safely ."

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 that was an 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 never ever do 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.