12. The Wilds

12

THE WILDS

YOUNG, WILD just a little giraffe trying to eat your hair because you’re so close to those leaves,” he says, pointing to my leaves. They’re on top of the seat and apparently, my hair was too close to them.

I laugh loudly and Manny flashes me a big smile.

“Come on, Cara, you’ll miss your tower if you don’t feed them now.”

“Eeek!” I squeal, grabbing the rest of the leaves and feeding the smallest giraffe. I grab my phone and pose to snap a picture of this moment to post later in my stories.

“I’m out of leaves,” I hear a little voice whine. I turn to find Lila, the only little girl in our group, who I was geeking over animals with earlier. She has the saddest frown I’ve seen in a while. I hear her mom telling her they’re also out of leaves and it breaks my heart to see her so sad. I grab the leaves I have left and walk toward her, trying to avoid the hungry giraffes.

“Here, I’m all done feeding them, you can have mine,” I offer and immediately her face lights up.

“Thank you so much,” she says.

“You didn’t have to do that. You already entertained her enough at the beginning of the safari,” her mom adds.

“It’s not a big deal, really. She can have them,” I insist and walk back to my seat.

“That was very kind, Cara,” Manny says with an emotion in his eyes I can’t pinpoint. Like he wasn’t expecting me to do something like that.

“Are you surprised I’m nice to children, Manuel?” I ask.

“No, not even one bit,” he quips, smiling softly at me and maybe I misread that situation because he looks at me with what seems like pride. “Do you want my leaves?”

“Nope, you can feed the giraffes. Look how cute they are,” I add, pointing at the one currently trying to reach Manny’s leaves.

“Here,” he says, handing me what he has left. “You looked so happy feeding them, just do it. I’m good here.”

I grab the leaves, jump off the seat and feed the softest giraffe ever. She sticks her long dark tongue out, and in one quick lick, she takes them all from me. We’re only five days into this trip and I feel like it’s Christmas. I still can’t believe it’s actually happening. Every time I talked to Cole about doing this with me it was excuses after excuses. Just go to a regular zoo, Cara. Aren’t you too old for safaris? That’s too long to be on the road. Don’t you have better things to do, Cara? It was never yes with Cole. ‘Because I want to’ was never a good enough reason. And it’s so damn refreshing to actually get what I want without having to beg. Sometimes without even having to ask because Manny’s taking the time to watch, and to notice.

We leave the giraffes and finish the safari before heading back to the visitor’s center. We laugh and smile at every experience from birds to rhinos and everything in between. We’re stepping out of the tram and Manny offers me his hand to help me down.

“You guys are so cute. I hope you have many years to come together. You should put a ring on it,” one of the ladies from the tour says, walking past us and leaving me speechless.

“I should put a ring on it, huh?” Manny asks, smiling and wiggling his eyebrows, taking away the awkwardness of the moment.

“Oh, be quiet. Let’s go, we have places to be,” I say, pushing him slightly with my hand and turning on my heels to head back to the van. I don’t want to talk about the jitters I got when he said that. It’s probably just me crushing over the fact that he’s making my dreams come true with this trip.

We’re leaving tomorrow for our next stop so I want us to take advantage of our day in this area. The Wilds was everything I wanted and more and I wouldn’t be here if Manny hadn’t come on this trip. At least, not this summer.

“Hey,” I say softly, stepping into the van after he opened the door for me.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. This was a dream,” I add.

“Siempre, lindura, siempre.? 1 ”

Manny walks around and settles into the driver's seat with ease. I’m sure he can feel the leather warm against his skin just as I did a second ago. As he turns the ignition, a low rumble fills the air, mingling with the faint scent of wildflowers and gasoline.

“Can I take you somewhere?” he asks, a hint of warmth in his voice, his eyes sparkling with a blend of mischief and happiness. He points the AC vents toward himself, feeling the cool breeze that brushes against his face, a momentary escape from how hot today was. His fingers move slowly over the buttons on the dash as he hits play and waits for me to answer.

“Ooh, you have more of your own stops planned now?” I ask, taking my shoes off and rolling the window down to put my feet on the sill.

“Something like that,” he teases, winking at me before putting directions in his phone and leading us out of the parking lot.

1 ? Always, Cuteness, always.